For new businesses, getting your brand out there can be challenging — especially if some of your competitors are dominating the market. How do you start to show off your business to the digital world?
The truth is: there are many ways to get your brand out there and some of them are even free! Once you’ve got a cracking website, great product or service and your target audience defined, it’s time to start promoting yourself online. If you want your business to get exposure, you need to dedicate time to it — and make use of these five key marketing techniques to get the desired exposure.
1. Guest posting is not dead
There have been various articles recently suggesting that the art of guest posting is dead. Jon Morrow from Smartblogger highlights the key point that is important to writing guest posts that will always make it a valuable marketing strategy. It’s all about writing quality content.
Guest blogging is valuable when you’re providing content for readers which is well-written and useful. People will remember your name and your brand, which is important; you become an expert in your field. Guest posting is one of the best things for new businesses because it’s totally free. It can take time, but there are some great online tools which can help you to write the best content.
2. Write amazing content
“Content is king” is a term used by many digital marketers, but the point of content goes a little further than just quantity.
Creating content which people enjoy and find useful is likely to be the most shared. It’s true. If you pick a topic that is up to date and something that people genuinely find interesting, then content will win. Research from Buzzsumo indicates that Facebook is where most people share articles. The topics vary dramatically, but using data and strong opinion pieces tend to do well.
As well as writing for guest posts, writing and publishing content on your own website is a way to create share-worthy and valuable articles. It leads users to your website and makes them aware of your brand. They may not ready to use your services just yet, but it’s an excellent way to introduce people to your website and brand, preparing them to become customers.
3. Twitter requests can lead to national features
Twitter has over 320 million active users each month. The social network channel is used for a variety of reasons: sharing articles, following celebrities and promoting content are just a few. But, for new businesses, Twitter holds a key to getting featured in some large publications.
There are two hashtags you need to remember: #journorequest and #prrequest. This is where journalists, companies and bloggers ask for people to feature in their publications and websites. National publications such as the Telegraph often ask for comments from experts. Send them a quick message and they might want to hear more from you. This is 100% free and all it takes is checking the hashtags on Twitter.
4. Working with bloggers
Influencers, bloggers, whatever you want to call them; they are the market that all brands are itching to work with at the moment. It’s no surprise why. One of the biggest UK mummy bloggers has over 35,000 followers on Twitter and, at its peak, has 80,000 monthly page views.
While this is certainly the upper echelons of blogging, there are bloggers in all sectors and of varying statuses. Working with the more popular bloggers and influencers can — and often does — cost a lot of money. But, even with a small budget, there are some great blogs out there to work with. For a small fee, you can get a feature on their website and discuss a topic you’re an expert in. Include a relevant and useful link back to your website for people to get more information on your brand.
5. Organise product giveaways
If the business is e-commerce focused, giving away your products for review is a great way to get people experiencing and talking about your brand. Plus, bloggers love to review products, as it holds plenty of value for them in terms of traffic and interest for their own brand.
Blogs and bloggers with large followings, strong metrics and a dedicated fan-based are ideal for getting your brand out there. Some will also be interested to do giveaways and competitions, which have the ability to generate a lot of interest.
Any special occasion or holiday in the UK is a great time to start sending our your products. Gift guides are a huge draw for lifestyle bloggers. Any event which warrants gifts is the time to start sending out your product. Christmas, understandably, is a particularly popular time for gift guides and you’ll find bloggers on Twitter now asking for products to feature around the festive period.
Find the appropriate bloggers who are writing gift guides for your target audience and send them your product to review. It’s a smart way to boost sales during one of the most popular seasons.
By Helen Anglin, content marketing expert at Exposure Ninja
PrivSec Conferences will bring together leading speakers and experts from privacy and security to deliver compelling content via solo presentations, panel discussions, debates, roundtables and workshops.
For more information on upcoming events, visit the website.
comments powered by Disqus