When you cut yourself, do you look for a Band-aid or a plastic bandage? How about when you need to blow your nose, do you ask for a Kleenex or a tissue? What about when you are having lunch at a fast-food restaurant, do you order a Coke or a cola?
These labels are proprietary eponyms, and they are the climax of brand awareness. The brands are so well-known that they have taken over the generic names for parallel products in your own language. For a product or brand to become a proprietary eponym is the peak of brand awareness. (sorry, Pepsi).
Although you may achieve this with your business, that does not mean you cannot do more for your brand awareness. You just need the right techniques for boosting your brand.
Though there may not be a quick fix for making your product a household name, the following are 10 brand-boosting strategies to assist with launching or continuing your efforts. You may not be as popular as Frito-Lay, but it can not hurt to try, right?
Along with these techniques, I found this post on the best PR Tools and Software that is a great resource.
The following is the ten leading pieces of advice for boosting your brand.
1. Referral Programs
Who does not like perks? Users will happily spread the word about your service or product when they know they will get an added perk. Dropbox, for example, is a brilliant referral program that can growth hack any business.
Dropbox offers current users an extra 500 MB of storage space for each referral they make up to 16 GB. Before Dropbox became so popular, this referral program helped generate loads of word-of-mouth advertising, which is why it is so successful today. The strategy contributed to a massive number of registers and saving the company billions in advertising dollars.
2. Impressive Guest Content
Great content is everything to a website. One way to help get your brand established on the web is to provide gorgeous looking, extra valuable content to share as a guest on other blogs. Despite what others may tell you, guest posting is a robust method to have your name known in your industry.
However, cheesy content will not cut it—you will need to guest posting high-quality stuff, or you will do more damage than good. By creating valuable, memorable content, you will make a lasting impression when you readers share you with their audience.
3. Infographics
Infographics are a colorful and smart strategy to share interesting marketing stats and data. These content dynamos often get shared near and far, making them a fantastic tool for building brands and thought leadership.
A really good infographic can gather thousands of social likes and shares while bringing in thousands of valuable links as well.
4. Freemium with Credit
There are tons of online products that will let a user choose a free version (freemium) which includes a credit line or watermark. It will also allow users to upgrade to a paid version which will permit the user to replace the mark with their logo or remove it altogether.
Even though users will choose the free version, they are still promoting the brand to other users. That leaves the door open for many new users to go for the paid version.
Offering a freemium product means getting your brand in front of more viewers, which will build your brand by pulling in paying customers.
5. Local Partnerships
Another excellent brand building technique is to get associated with local partnerships. That is incredibly vital for local-oriented companies. However, it can also be applied for other companies as well.
Partnering with local companies to hold joint intro festivals and seminars are very lucrative for all parties. You can donate to local charity events and sponsor local sporting events and teams. Having your brand plastered all over events and festivals can do massive things for your brand.
6. Car Wraps
Who does not stop to look at a car completely wrapped with excellent graphics? The tried-and-true strategy for building your brand is a having a car wrap. A car wrap is a customized graphic design that most often covers an entire car (except windows).
They attract a massive amount of attention, and it is a fabulous way to guarantee wherever you go, people will become familiar with your brand. Wrap your personal or company vehicle and see what happens.
7. Freebies
No matter what it is, everybody loves free giveaways! All you must do is plaster your brand name on Frisbees, pens, koozies, basically, anything and give it away at local events.
8. Social Media Contests
Hold a social media contest where users send a video or photo and let others vote for their favorite contestant. Those who take part will share the link with family and friend to gain votes. In return, you are building your brand awareness as a result.
9. Social Focus
With social networks growing by leaps and bounds, trying to cover social media marketing on each one is a fool’s errand. If your company best avenue is on a specific network, do not be afraid to place most of your energy into just a few.
For example, if you have a lot of photos on your site, Pinterest and Instagram may be your best bet. Twitter may be the way to go for B2B businesses.
Understand where your target audience hangs out and place your focus on those networks. You will not want to abandon other social media sites entirely, however, save your best efforts for what you know works.
Not certain about your main network? Dig around into analytics to find where your heavy hitting referral traffic is coming from the most.
10. LinkedIn Publishing
As mentioned above, guest posting is a fantastic avenue for getting your brand name out across the web. Recently, LinkedIn began allowing users to publish to post on their website via a publishing tool. If your post garnishes enough attention, it could end up on the LinkedIn home stream for numerous users.
As a bonus, a post attached to your own LinkedIn account helps launch you as a thought leader. You also can establish your company post and blog there—just be sure to promote and share your post once they get published.
With these techniques for boosting your brand, you will be a leading brand in no time. Keep in mind that even Pepsi did not become a super-star brand overnight. Consistency and determination are what you put your brand out to the world.
Matt Ramage is founder of Emarketed a web marketing agency located in Los Angeles. He loves coffee, good design, and helping businesses improve their look and getting found on the Internet.
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