Small-business digital marketing, and specifically display advertising, is about more than just generating immediate clicks. Marketers now have the opportunity to develop campaigns to specifically brand services and products.
Digital branding campaigns are becoming increasingly effective as the ability to track and understand users’ browsing behavior continues to advance.
The following are five ways for marketers to leverage the digital realm for branding.
1. Company Branding: Refocus Your Logo to Better Reflect Your Business
Before you start targeting your ideal audience, you need to make sure you have a definite business image to present to them, which can be largely based on your brand logo. As you may already know, the cost of a professional logo design can be quite expensive, and this is where a free logo maker comes to the rescue. Using a free logo maker gives you a chance to experiment with different styles of graphics and content to come up with the most effective and iconic brand logo possible.
Agencies will charge you thousands of dollars for this service, and oftentimes the results are not exactly what you want, and yet you’ve spent a fortune already and don’t want to throw that money away by starting over again with your own ideas. But small business is all about being small and personal, about feeling that what you offer can make a difference in people’s lives — so your brand logo has got to be just right.
2. Audience Targeting: Segment Your Branding Efforts to Those Who Fall Within Your Target Market
For direct-response campaigns, the objective is often to reach the ideal audience. In targeting these users, marketers intend to drive immediate website visits and sales. Audience targeting can also be used to increase brand recognition. By capturing the attention of a brand’s identified target market, rather than just people who have demonstrated intent to purchase, marketers can increase brand awareness with a larger, qualified audience.
Audience targeting can be employed to suit several branding objectives. Digital marketers can expand their reach by serving ads to new audiences, or they may also reinforce branding initiatives within their currently defined target segments.
3. Search Retargeting: Establish Brand Recall Among People Already Searching for a Specific Product or Service
This enables your brand to reach those who are already seeking out a certain product or service. This can be achieved in a couple of different ways: Marketers may target interest-based keywords to connect with their target via relevant interests, or they may target trait-based keywords to emphasize unique traits of their brand.
4. Retargeting: Boost Efforts Among Those Who Already Possess Preliminary Brand Awareness to Drive Further Consideration
There are many forms of this; you can retarget those who’ve previously visited your site, opened an email, or as I just described, searched for your product. Regardless of the format of a person’s prior engagement, retargeting is powerful in that you may convert someone with little or limited exposure to your brand into someone with far stronger interest by continuing to deliver meaningful impressions and drive further consideration.
5. Creative Optimization: Tailor Your Creative to Match Your Branding Objectives
Beyond reaching the right people, strong branding requires the right messaging. Creating long-lasting recall and brand recognition might not be achieved with similar strategies that typically drive immediate sales. The key to creating the right impact is serving relevant messaging and ideas that resonate. Leveraging the robust media options available to you and conducting A/B testing can help create long-term brand awareness that goes beyond immediate click-thrus.
The task of measuring long-term customer loyalty and other positive effects of a branding campaign may seem trickier than the reliable CTR. However, to shy away from branding objectives in lieu of traditional direct-response campaigns is to shy away from an increasingly lucrative opportunity.
Digital brand building is no easy feat, but these five keys make up a strong launching point to help you craft your brand strategy and grow your brand’s digital presence.
