One of the toughest challenges in starting any business is gaining brand awareness amongst the general consumer population. How do you get people to connect with you online? If you want something from consumers, you must provide some incentive first.
E-mail communication remains one of the best ways to keep in touch with your consumer base. Building an e-mail list not only keeps customers informed about new products and services, but also solidifies customer loyalty. To build an e-mail list, you must offer some incentive for your customers to sign up, as no one wants to sign up for just a newsletter these days. Offering a discount on a product or service for first time customers, or offering helpful tips, information or white sheets can serve as an incentive for users to sign up to your list. By continuing to stay top of mind in their inbox, a small business can gain greater marketing potential overtime.
Social Media
Creating incentive-driven social media strategies can also increase a small business’ digital presence. Discounts for fans or followers, or a spot in a raffle giveaway are great incentives to drive social media following because potential customers have something to gain by taking interest in your business. If the business already has a strong e-mail list, it’s easy to advertise these trade-offs with your target audience.
On that note, advertising the fact that the brand is active on social media never hurts. Printing business cards with social media icons and creating readily-accessible social media buttons on web pages and e-mail campaigns are just a couple of examples to boost online presence. This makes it very easy for customers since they don’t have to physically find your online profiles themselves.
Referrals
As a new brand, it’s hard to steadily gain new fans so think of ways to gain referrals instead. Reward current customers for referring your products or services to a friend or family member. People are much more willing to take the word of someone they know rather than a new brand that is trying to sell something. A more intimate approach to customer acquisition can also create stronger customer loyalty.
Loyalty
Lastly, it’s always important to understand the importance of both growing and maintaining a brand’s social following. It may be easy to gain followers, but keeping them can be harder. Think of reasons why customers would want to keep their connection with your brand online. Do they want exclusive deals and discounts or easy access to information? It’s helpful to constantly keep the interests of your target audience in mind, and of course, always make sure that the content across your social platforms is different, and specifically catered to what that platform is best known for. No one will want to follow your brand on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram if you’re sharing the same content across all three platforms!
