There are dozens of different marketing channels available to eCommerce merchants who want to drive traffic and sales, but what if you are specifically looking for ways to improve brand awareness instead?
Here I will highlight 3 advertising avenues you absolutely need to pay attention to if your top priority is strengthening your brand image online.
What is Brand Awareness?
Brand awareness refers to the degree to which a target audience is familiar with and recognizes your brand. It is a measure of how well-known a brand is among its potential customers or clients.
Brand awareness is an important consideration for businesses because it can directly influence consumer behavior and ultimately impact sales and revenue.
Building and maintaining brand awareness requires consistent marketing efforts in the right channels or platforms, along with the other elements that go into running a successful eCommerce business such as customer service and great products.
Where ordinary marketing efforts tend to have a relatively broad scope, brand-focused marketing is more about engaging with customers and building up the image of the brand itself.
Working on Your Brand: Some Observations
Even more so than generating traffic and sales, brand awareness might be one of the most difficult marketing goals to tackle.
The reason for this is two-fold.
First, as simple as it sounds on the surface, distinguishing yourself from your competitors can be tricky.
Brands within the same niche often sport similar logos, they may have similar value propositions, and oftentimes carry the very same products.
The second issue is the time and energy it takes to relate to and connect with your target audience.
Many forms of marketing require very little nuance. Brand awareness, on the other hand, is all about finding ways to stand out.
You need to work in very specific advertising avenues and have a well-defined strategy if you want to grow your brand.
Below I’ll highlight 3 marketing channels that I see being three musts if brand growth is your primary focus. There are certainly other options as well, but these few stand out as being some of the most effective based on what I’ve seen.
Advertising Channels That Are Perfect For Growing Your Brand
Not every marketing channel is perfectly suited for brand growth.
While some are effective at reinforcing a strong brand, they aren’t always the best at building a brand.
The best advertising avenues for brand growth focus on authority (brand positioning), engagement, trust-building, and intimacy or exclusivity.
eCommerce SEO
While organic traffic is probably the number 1 reason why any store owner would want to invest in eCommerce SEO services, there are some other benefits to look at. Namely, brand awareness.
The reason why search engine optimization is such a strong brand play is because if done right, it positions you as an expert an authority within your niche.
With enough budget, anyone can pay to be at the top of the SERPs through a Google Ads campaign. Not so with the organic rankings.
Brands that appear on page one are there for a reason. Their pages are optimized for relevant search queries and in Google’s eyes, they are an authority.
eCommerce SEO allows store owners to show users (and Google) that they are trustworthy experts that can be relied upon.
This in turn builds brand equity.
By writing high-quality informative blog articles that are also SEO optimized, an eCommerce brand can position themselves as a resource for shoppers.
When users see certain websites or brands ranking at the top of the organic results, that speaks volumes. It’s essentially a modern day stamp of approval that the website is legitimate and that there is a good chance that if you click the link, you will find what you are looking for.
Some users won’t even click on ads out of principle: they rather go with the best organic results because they view them as being far more trustworthy.
If you want to build your brand online, SEO is an essential advertising channel.
TikTok Advertising
As far as effective marketing channels go, you can’t afford to ignore TikTok, at least in certain niches.
Even casual users enjoy relatively easy follower-growth on the platform, to say nothing of brands with a coordinated marketing strategy.
What is it about TikTok that makes it a worthwhile advertising channel for brand growth, however?
Where TikTok shines is in the depth of engagement that it offers, as well as the large amount of active users, which is better than just about anywhere else online at the moment.
Here are some of the specific reasons why TikTok is such a powerful brand play:
- Highly Targeted Advertising: TikTok offers advanced targeting options for advertisers, which can help you reach your desired audience more effectively. You can target users based on their age, gender, interests, location, and other factors, which means your ads are more likely to be seen by the people who are most likely to be interested in your brand.
- Large and Engaged User Base: TikTok has a massive user base, with over 1 billion active users worldwide, which makes it a great platform to reach a large audience. The users on TikTok are also highly engaged and spend a lot of time on the platform, which means there is a greater chance of your brand’s message being seen and shared.
- Creative and Interactive Ad Formats: TikTok offers a range of creative and interactive ad formats, including in-feed videos, branded lenses, and sponsored hashtag challenges, which can help your brand stand out and engage with users in a fun and memorable way.
- Encourages Transparency: Most of the content on TikTok is not polished, to say the least. As a platform, it allows anyone, including eCommerce merchants, to “let their hair down” so to speak. Brands can easily show off the day to day operations of the business, which engenders trust with potential shoppers.
TikTok is also still new, at least from an eCommerce perspective. Many brands are on TikTok, but they aren’t active and they don’t have much of a strategy going.
All it takes are thoughtful TikTok advertising services and some engaging content, and you have just what you need to grow your brand online.
Email Marketing
Another solid avenue for brand growth is email marketing.
Building an email list and serving regular emails is still one of the single most effective ways for store owners to connect with their customers.
While email marketing doesn’t always resonate in every niche, it is well suited for most eCommerce businesses.
The reason for this being, fostering a sense of brand loyalty and creating a channel for “exclusive” content.
Everyone likes to feel special, but especially shoppers. Whether it’s a small deal, a freebie, or even a simple “thank you for shopping with us,” can mean a great deal.
By sending regular emails to your list, you ensure that you remain top of mind, while also keeping active shoppers engaged.
Since so many emails that we get tend to have a sales focus, you can come across as being very genuine simply by sending out emails with more of an informational focus.
Sharing industry news, upcoming events you are holding, or just keeping your shoppers in the loop about your business. It goes a long way in eCommerce.
Since email marketing is predicated on users that have already interacted with your business in some way, the primary aim here is to turn customers into fans.
This is a powerful way to spark brand growth, because fostering your current shopper-base pays off big in the long run.
Brand loyalty is somewhat of a fickle thing these days, because we are inundated with advertising.
New brands pop up everyday. How do you stay relevant?
Sending emails directly to user inboxes is certainly one way to directly connect with them, which in turn builds brand loyalty.
Not exactly sure how to manage your list? This might be one area where email marketing services could make a big difference, especially if brand growth is your primary concern.
Build Your Brand With Help From the Experts
Taking your eCommerce business from just another online store to being a household name is no easy feat.
It requires a combination of using the right marketing avenues in tandem with an effective strategy that is aligned with your niche and particular goals.
The tips listed above are a great start, but if you really want to take your brand to the next level, you might want to consider a professional brand strategy crafted by digital marketing experts.
There’s no magic recipe for brand greatness, of course.
However, we do know a thing or two about how to scale eCommerce businesses using custom-built marketing campaigns.
If brand growth is your goal, consider jumping on the phone with one of our specialists at 888-982-8269. We will be able to map out a strategy that works for you.