It seems that establishing a brand online these days is somewhat of an uphill battle. Everyone is looking to launch their new campaign and become a new sensation. While online campaigns are very difficult to maneuver, there are things you need to think about that could make the whole process a bit easier.
Establish your goals
The most important aspect of any business endeavor is the planning process. When it comes to any kind of investment, and advertising is an investment, establish clear goals. What is it that you are trying to achieve by investing your time and money in a certain area? The same goes for digital advertising, you need to set clear goals about what you want to get in return. Obviously, you would want a substantial ROI, but that is not the only thing you may want to gain. Are you trying to attract a bigger audience, are you targeting a specific group, or do you simply want to establish your brand online?
Owned, earned and paid media
Part of the planning process is deciding on what type of medial your company will use for their campaign. There are three types of media – owned, earned, and paid media. Owned media is everything the company owns, like websites, blogs, publications, etc. The advantage is that your company has control over this content, and the content is free. However, if you want to attract new customers, you likely will need the two other types of media. Earned and paid media are the types your new customers will most likely first come in contact with. Earned media is off-charge, but your company is not its creator. Some examples are customer reviews and guest blogging. Paid media is not free, but in return, you have complete control over it, since you are paying for it. This includes search engine advertising (ads that increase the company’s ranking on Google) or display advertising (banners that are shown on various websites). The latter is the media your new potential customers will most likely come into contact with, but it is a good idea for a company to have all three types.
Inform your audience
Just stopping at creating brand awareness is never enough. Especially if you are looking to increase the number of your customers in a short time. The next step is to inform your audiences about the advertised services. This includes redesigning the display of your advertisements so that they not only act as simple attention-grabbers but also act as informative content. You should always consider hiring expert content strategy planners, since they will be able to assess the needs of your company and do most of the heavy lifting for you. At this level, owned media will be much more effective at disseminating information to your new customers, so make sure that your website is user-friendly.
Create awareness
Now comes the time to discuss an important aspect of planning a campaign, and that is understanding what your audience will respond to. If you are a new company, obviously you first have to work on establishing yourself online, and in the minds of the public. This stage is called creating awareness, and it is not only useful for new brands, but also for companies that are launching new offerings. You can do this by using media coverage, like bloggers and influencers, but you also might resort to paid media, depending on your target audience. You need to do enough research to be aware of what online platforms your target audiences use, and what kind of information will they respond to, and build your campaign accordingly.
Create a Call-To-Action
Of course, the next action is to create a call-to-action and create new purchases. To achieve this, you have to engage with consumers that are already considering buying services from your company, and that entails that you have done your dissemination and awareness creation properly. As interested consumers may already have all the information they need, your goal is to enable them to make a purchase. Owned media also plays an important role here. This means that a user-friendly site is paramount, but you also want to create posts and links that make direct purchases much quicker and easier.
Think outside of the box
From the sea of online ads and campaigns, it is sometimes really difficult to stand out. You need to find ways to attract your audience with ads that will resonate with them, and this can be achieved through different creative strategies. Implement all kinds of media into your campaign, and think outside the box. Informative videos should be kept short and to the point, and most audiences respond well to light, humorous and catchy content, especially when such content is unexpected from a brand. Once you attract new customers, you need to focus on retaining them, and even converting them to brand advocates, and this is more easily done if your online content is entertaining.
The key elements of any online campaign are planning, engaging media, and understanding your audience. There are professionals you can hire to help you, but these elements are based on your knowledge about your customers and your brand. To make your campaign successful, you have to sit and do your research, so that you can steer it in the right direction.
