While every business is looking for ways to build a loyal following and increase their users, sign-ups and subscribers, not every business will be successful. The challenge lies in engaging your target audience and converting them into paying customers quickly. All without spending too much on your marketing and branding strategies.
Luckily, your company’s budget has little to do with its ability to out-compete your rivals and secure your fair share of the market you operate in. What you really need is your brand to stand out from the crowd. A unique and creative marketing and branding approach can help you achieve exactly that.
Thinking outside the box will bring you bigger and better results than even the largest branding budget ever could. This approach is sometimes known as ‘growth hacking’. It’s an excellent way to promote your brand both through marketing and across all of your business’s core channels.
Here are 7 brilliant branding ideas that will blow your competition straight out of the water!
- Turn Products into Memorable Challenges
One pervasive issue with viral marketing tactics is that they can leave your target audience struggling to ascertain exactly what your business has to offer. Even if you create a viral campaign or video that gets shared far and wide, people still may not recognize your brand if your video didn’t succinctly explain your product or encourage your viewers to buy it.
You can combat this issue by making your products the highlight and the focal point of any viral campaign you choose to run. For example, if you sell website design courses, you could challenge your target audience to learn how to brand your websites as a New Year’s resolution. As you already offer the solution to this challenge, it may just become a widespread success that associates your brand name intrinsically with the challenge itself.
Make this strategy work by identifying the exact needs your products solve and turning these needs into challenges for others to solve. They’ll automatically think of your business when they do so.
- Get Featured in Popular Publications
If you want a hefty upswing in web traffic and interest in your brand, get it featured in a renowned publication like BuzzFeed or Lifehacker. Doing so will bring about a significant increase in website visitors and attract new users and customers that will assist your company’s growth.
You can build relationships with major publications by engaging with their editors, regularly sharing their content, and keeping your own branding strategy authentic rather than overly promotional. As you build these connections, some publications may be willing to share your news of new features or products with their own followers.
- Convert Your Competitors’ Customers
One of the easiest ways to identify target customers that will love your product is to find those that are already using your competitors’ products. Once you do so, you can easily target individuals who are using a similar product to yours but not getting the results they need through a stealth email campaign, with giveaways, or attractive discounts. All’s fair in love, war, and marketing.
- Offer Prizes for Excellent User-Generated Content
If you want to simplify your branding and marketing strategies as much as possible, why not let your loyal followers do the work for you?
Run a contest offering prizes, discounts or freebies for people who produce the best user-generated content featuring your brand. They’ll immediately attract the attention of your target audience, who may be more likely to take the advice of a customer than they would a brand.
- Post a Viral Flashmob Video
Have you ever thought about creating a Flashmob video to promote your brand? It may seem like an eccentric idea, but it’s worked for many startups and larger companies in the past. Rope in your team to create an energetic and vibrant video that you can share across your brand’s social media platforms and you’ll easily capture the attention of younger Millennial and Gen-Z audiences.
Remember to feature your brand name and your cornerstone products in the video so that viewers are certain about what your business offers!
- Give Away Branded Printables
This may seem too simple to be effective, but branded printables like stickers can actually assist you in creating a huge, active user base. Especially if you give your printables away for free and ask people to place them where others can see them in public.
Founder of community website Reddit Alexis Ohanian spent a mere $500 on branded stickers when he first launched the site. This was his only investment in marketing. He trekked across the USA placing his stickers in visible places and handing them out to strangers. Today, Reddit is one of the largest and most well-known community social media platforms in the world.
Print out branded stickers, flyers and merchandise and gift them to your customers. You’ll soon discover this is a cost-effective and easy way to exponentially increase your brand recognition.
- Use Your Products in Aid of Social Causes
Younger generations of customers are becoming increasingly conscious of social causes and businesses that focus on giving back. You can use this trend to your advantage to truly connect with your target groups. Using your products for social causes allows your customers to interact with your product in a way that serves a greater purpose.
A great example of this is beer brewer Ambev, who allowed their Brazilian customers to scan their beer cans in exchange for free train rides. The campaign reduced litter and pollution, gave people access to transportation, and encouraged them to use public transport more often to reduce their personal carbon footprints. Better still, the campaign was immediately noticed by news outlets and brought Ambev plenty of valuable recognition and praise.
Get Ready To Stand Out
There are so many different branding methods and strategies available to modern businesses that are cost-effective, unique, and highly memorable. As a young business, you should become your products’ most active user. It’s up to you to share content that engages your target audience to learn about your products.
If you need to attract more web visitors and paying customers, offer incentives in the form of contests, prizes, and free branded merchandise. Aim to get your brand and products publicized by major publications, and share social media-worthy videos to boost your chances of going viral online!
Businesses accross the world have consulted DesignBro to build their brand with logo, website, packaging design and much more.
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Besides having grown up in the design Industry, Christiaan has advised some of the world’s largest companies on their branding & packaging designs. Has been the resident judge for design awards, and has spoken at numerous global design & marketing events. Christiaan founded the London office of the award-winning Cartils agency, and has founded the DesignBro.com platform.
