Nobody ever said this branding thing was gonna be easy, back when you were first starting out and everyone including your own mother thought your online dreams would never take off.
Now you’ve moved forward, pushed to get your brand off the ground and are looking for ways to effectively market it to people with even bigger and deeper pockets, right?
Really, there’s no complicated formula for how to successfully push your brand out onto the cloud-happy patrons of the interwebs. It’s pretty easy actually; albeit each and every tip below will involve a lot of your time (our most precious commodity) when first starting out.
1. Cover related products and services on main product pages.
Say I arrive on your site after searching “oil filter for XYZ model car” into Google. I need the filter for sure, but there are a couple of other things that might come in really handy for the job — if someone does their job and reminds me:
- A guide to picking the right filter for their car.
- An oil filter wrench.
Not to mention the super-easy upsells in this category, such as:
- Motor oil (crazy thing here, but you actually need to change the oil when you change the filter!)
- An oil drain pan.
- Oil resistant rags for easy clean up.
- Oil solvent for cleaning around the dirty oil filter housing.
- Hand cleaner made for removing oil and grease.
Sure, these might seem like simple low-dollar little products, but imagine making an extra couple of extra bucks from every customer. If you don’t offer them the opportunity, you’re hemorrhaging sales left and right!
2. Include links to free how-to’s on your main product pages.
It doesn’t matter if you’re marketing physical products or service packages, always offer free information on topics that might relate to a visitor’s browsing interests. Include relevant links to really good information to build trust with the reader, even if it takes them offsite.
Say your site sells pet toys and pet care products like shampoo, hair trimmers, nail clippers, etc. Why be like the other 99% of your competition out there and only offer up items for sale? You want to keep them on your site (ie., engaged) for as long as possible. Especially the ones who’re on the fence about making a purchase. Warm them up to the sale by offering tips on what kind of toys are safe for the little furball, how to wash and groom them, tips for keeping them pest free, etc. This kind of freebie-giving marketing is very social friendly and will really help keep those brand engagement gears moving wonderfully.
3. Offer unique content via a company blog.
Mark Cuban has time to post on his own blog and he runs more companies than any single human could count on all their fingers and toes combined! Have a blog and offer unique insights, industry leading content, fresh relatable news stories, video tutorials, takeaways from industry events, talk about your philanthropic goals for the company, etc. A blog is purely an engagement method in this case, though you should always inobtrusively link to relevant products you can offer when an opportunity presents itself.
Avoid recommending a product in every blog post and further limit the amount of recommendations to just one or two when you do.
4. Seek out those who can help get more exposure than you.
This is where karma can really help you. Do nice things for other and they’ll surely return the favor at some point. Offer to do guest posts on related privately-owned blogs, seek out guest posting opportunities on Mashable, NYT, HuffPost, and other heavyweight publications, find vlogs and podcasts you can guest on. Do these things and you’ll receive many, many referrals in return for your efforts. Imagine getting a link to your site from HuffPost, with over 200 million uniques monthly and an average on-page time per visitor of over 4 minutes, or a plug from dog-loving celebrity vlogger, Jenna Marbles, for your revolutionary new battery-powered Doggie Doodie Dispenser to her near 16-million subscribers!
In addition, reach out to vloggers and podcast owners who have audiences that can benefit your product and don’t forget: you gotta give something to get something in return most times! Be prepared to offer them free content of some sort and expect to reciprocate the favor at some point.
5. Use social to build real links to your brand’s site.
Social links all receive a no-follow value from Google and the other social networks. However, if you leverage your social followers by offering useful and/or entertaining content to them, they’ll reward you with valuable links on forums, websites, and via email and text recommendations to their friends. Use the 80/20 rule and only offer a sale 2 times out of 10. The rest of your shares should make your follower feel thankful and share-happy for the content you’ve given them.
6. Get out of cyberspace.
Get out and go to events that matter to your customer base. Visit dog shows if you’re in petcare, seek out car shows and races if you’re in automotive parts, find an event to protest something you’re looking to raise money for non-profit projects, etc. Get out there and sell your brand by showing people who you are as a person and answering any questions they might have about your company.
If you have an objectionable personality, this may be some of the worst advice you’ve ever been given!
7. Provide great customer service/support.
This one’s simple: provide either terrible or great service and you’ll probably be a part of your own little social media frenzy — that’s a fact. Check out this Google Search and you’ll see that bad service makes it super easy to brand your company, just not the way any intelligent business would want! Always provide top-level support. Always. You’ll get way less engagement this way than you would when angering your customers, but the good press has a way of adding up and building positive momentum provided there aren’t too many negatively-impacting hiccups.
Any tips you’d like to share about online consumer engagement? Leave em in the comments, thanks!
