When it comes to the world of marketing and techniques that can be used to improve your brand image, there are so many things you need to consider. First of all, there are some methods that are absolute musts (such as social media marketing, SEO and email marketing). As for other techniques, they may depend on your industry or the specific set of circumstances that your company has found itself in. With this in mind, here are five uncommon methods of improving your brand image that, more or less, work universally.
Personal branding
While a lot of people may assume that bringing out yourself too much is a bad business practice, this is not necessarily so. While you might have worked in the same industry for decades, your company has virtually no footprint in your niche. Therefore, personal branding allows your own portfolio to improve the reputation of your company. In other words, by portraying yourself as an expert or niche authority, you will improve your company’s brand image and make your business appear more reliable and trustworthy.
Support a cause
In a situation where you want to use your corporate and personal values to promote your business, it might be better if you were to do so indirectly. For instance, saying that your company is eco-friendly is hardly convincing. After all, in the age of free communication, anyone can say anything. On the other hand, if you were to support an eco-friendly cause, throw an awareness-oriented event or even embrace a green business practice into your corporate structure, it would be something completely different. Apart from being less pushy, it also presents you as modest and honest – two traits that brand loyalty is built upon.
Promotional materials
While going with promotional materials isn’t exactly unorthodox or out-of-the-box, you need to keep in mind that in 2018, a lot of people assume that traditional marketing is dead or dying. Luckily for you, they couldn’t be more wrong. Therefore, you might get a shot at creating an outstanding marketing campaign by using promotional t-shirts, hats and custom umbrellas with your company’s logo. Some people even go as far as distributing customized USB drives, however, for a small business, this might not give a great ROI.
Go with video
Another thing you need to keep in mind is that about 90 percent of all information we receive comes through visual means, therefore, it might be a good idea for you to go with video marketing. You see, there are about 8 billion daily views on Facebook, while YouTube is considered to be the second largest search engine out there (right after Google). Nonetheless, if you are to advertise on these platforms, you need to learn their differences. For instance, the preferred Facebook videos are those that are about 1.5 minutes long, while on YouTube, going for 8 to 10 minutes of content is completely acceptable.
Promote your brand on Instagram
Those who are in the world of e-commerce might benefit greatly from advertising on Instagram. Namely, the structure of this social network is simply perfect for showcasing your products. However, you first have to master the mechanics behind Instagram marketing in order to fully benefit from it. First, you need to make sure your images are high quality. Second, your hashtags need to be spot on (here, they are practically your keywords). Finally, your caption needs to be as descriptive as possible.
At the end of the day, there are so many ways for you to improve your brand image; yet, your marketing budget might not be able to endure too many different projects at once. With this in mind, it is your job to find those techniques that give the highest ROI and pursue them the best you can. Fortunately, working on your personal brand is something that a lot of people do regardless of their aspiration to start a business later on. Also, as you can see, sometimes, going backward can bring much better results than you’d expect.