Brand awareness is crucial all-year-round, but particularly when the country has gone into lockdown. It’s like a saving grace that will keep you afloat.
But, how and where you get people talking about your brand is the real problem. You don’t want to get stuck in a routine of firing PPC ads here, there and everywhere without capturing the real essence of your brand.
It’s about making brand awareness and PPC work together so that you can drive more sales after the crisis has passed.
Here’s how.
There’s still time to get customers on-side
People are still making purchases during lockdown. If you’ve been on social media, it might seem like people are buying even more.
This is for one of two reasons:
- People are ordering online because their friends are. Word-of-mouth says Amazon’s delivery is still fast, so it must be true.
- Worldwide retail brands like Pretty Little Thing are everywhere you look, growing their brand awareness more than ever before.
Now, both of these are positives.
Amazon’s online presence is already so huge that word-of-mouth is strong enough to boost their sales. If you’re like them, you’re in a pretty good position.
For PLT, hosting social media giveaways and using email marketing are two powerful ways to keep customers onboard. They’re tools that have helped to build their following, create excitement around their products, and boost their sales like never before.
Using the same platforms to drive traffic to their blog? Even better.
However, it’s rare that you will see any Pretty Little Thing ads.
If you search for ‘women’s fashion clothing’ online, their brand is nowhere to be seen. They’re missing out on a huge market that might not be as active on social media as they are – but still want the type of products they offer.
In fact, even in 2014, Google found that search ads can lift awareness by an average of 6.6 percentage points.
4 actionable tips to help you overcome the pandemic
These 4 tips will help you take advantage of both brand awareness and PPC, allowing you to keep existing customers and drive new ones – even during this difficult time.
1. Be seen
This can be split into two parts:
- Being active on social media platforms
- Creating bold, keyword-driven PPC ads
To push your organic social media profile, you need to ensure you’re active and consistent at all times. This will help to build and strengthen relationships with customers, reassuring them you are easy to reach.
But, posting regular content is also essential.
This can be anything from addressing the relaxed guidelines, showcasing your products, or highlighting new and upcoming offers. You can even tweet non-branded content to engage with your audience, using tools such as Twitter’s Audience Insights to learn about who is following you.
In terms of PPC, the adverts you’re writing need to create a buzz around your brand. Use Google’s Keyword Planner to uncover data about your keywords before using them, making sure to use one’s that you regularly use to describe your brand.
As always, make sure your headlines are eye-catching, captivating and bold, using these 5 simple steps to ensure you’re doing it right.
2. Take action
As we saw at the start of the pandemic, supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s announced their plans to keep customers safe in-store. This was brought to light on social media, as well as emailed out to their customers.
For cases like these, it’s important to recognise whether PPC will be effective or not.
If your brand has an important, emotion-felt announcement to make, it makes much more sense to highlight it on social media than it does to include it in a PPC ad. Plus, people aren’t going to search for an announcement you haven’t made yet.
However, you can use PPC to capitalise from brand awareness. This will allow you to emphasise what you have already created a foundation for on social media, making it stick in your customer’s minds with more memorable, concise pieces of information.
It’s about doing what you can to make a difference, and using the right tools to create the biggest impact.
3. Understand priorities
If you want to build awareness, you need to start with trust. Luckily, there are several ways brand awareness and PPC ads help you to do this.
Here are three of them:
- Use the right social platforms to communicate with your customers, relate to their situation and provide suitable content
- Soften the tone of your PPC ads and make sure you incorporate the same style of writing as your socials
- Be open and honest – your customers know you need to make sales, so pulling the wool over their eyes could turn them away completely
With these in mind, remember not to lose sight of your final goal. – Read more
