Insights

How To Build Brand Awareness Online

Author - armstrong-admin
12.03.2021

Your b2b business wants to launch a new brand online and you want all your prospective customers  to know about it.

Unfortunately, B2B marketing is not the same as B2C even if the boundaries between the two have blurred in recent years. B2B businesses need to work that much harder to reach a niche audience which requires a more targeted approach. Targeting too broadly can waste budget and sometimes end in failure to achieve marketing objectives.  

The good news is there are plenty of online channels to help businesses reach those niche audiences. Linkedin, for example, offers huge potential for B2B businesses to reach decision makers in virtually all industry sectors and there is also Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and so on to consider.

The downside of all this is greater choice of digital marketing channels has created a paradox for businesses.

Most B2B industrial companies don’t have the resources to be on every marketing channel out there. So a strategic approach is required that makes the best use of the marketing budget.

Figuring out what this strategu is can be overwhelming So the easy thing to do is to start by breaking everything down… 

Identify your target audience

Identifying a target audience sounds like a simple thing to do but you would be surprised how often this crucial foundation is overlooked. If you’re not sure of your target audience, this can lead to a lot of wasted time and money.

If for example, you own a construction supplies company, your target market may be a mix of architects & planners, building contractors and so on. You can then begin to research the best channels to reach these people. Identifying the target audience makes this process that much easier.

Set objectives

The objective with any digital brand awareness campaign will be to maximise return on investment and increase relevant website traffic. To achieve this objective you will need to set benchmarks and put tracking in place at all stages to ensure the performance of marketing campaigns are being tracked.

As we have established, few businesses spread their marketing activity across every channel due to the resources required to run effective campaigns. Most will focus most of the effort on finding the 3 or 4 channels that work best. This will often comprise short to medium-term investment in Google Adwords and social media marketing and advertising. Longer-term investment in SEO is another crucial element to ensure organic search visibility for the brand.

Whichever channel is used, a brand awareness campaign is by its nature geared towards reaching a target audience wherever they spend their time. It is focused on gaining as wide an audience as possible with metrics such as traffic to the website, keyword visibility and further down the funnel,  leads and conversion actions providing the measures of its success.

Find The Best Online Marketing Channel For Your Business

Once you have decided on your target audience, set benchmarks and how you will measure performance, you will need to select the online marketing channel that best suits your campaign. So let’s have a brief look at the options:  

Google Ads

Google ads provide several ad formats capable of increasing brand awareness and reaching your target audience where they are most likely to be browsing online.

The main categories of Google Ads Are:

• Text ads
• Video ads
• Dynamic search ads
• Call-only ads
• Product shopping ads
• Showcase shopping ads
• App promotion ads
  

For a B2B brand awareness campaign, Dynamic search ads can be useful and extend the reach of adverts. Ads can be set to appear on websites that display native adverts including email account pages, news websites, Youtube and so on. This ad type can also be targeted according to the keywords used in the campaign.

Different formats can also be used with video or striking images and photography incorporated which can achieve increased engagement in combination with enticing headlines.

Social Media Marketing and Advertising

Alongside Google Search results, the sites offering the biggest potential audiences are the main social media channels. Linkedin viewed as the most important channel for B2B marketers because it provides an opportunity to reach a highly targeted audience of people working in specific industries at all levels from employees to senior managers and business owners.

Other social media channels also provide the opportunity to target by particular target demographics but lack the ability to drill down to audiences working in particular industry sectors and their roles within those businesses.

Alongside Linkedin, online  marketing channels can include a mix of those highlighted below. All social media channels provide the opportunity to promote products and services with visual stories and video which tend to bring more engagement.

Content Marketing

Content marketing via social media and press releases can help promote news, case studies and research. Stories and targeted articles will inspire customers on an emotional level and, if done successfully, this will increase brand awareness and generate leads.

To be successful, content marketing should include a mix of content and articles written on subjects that resonate with the target audience. Content can be distributed on press release websites such as PR Web to reach a global audience as in this example below:

To create content that resonates to a wide audience it has to be engaging. Content should be newsworthy or offer interesting industry perspectives rather than simply promote news.

Campaign Measurement

To be considered a good return on investment, every campaign needs ongoing analysis of performance to ensure marketing resources are allocated effectively. Performance in campaigns is measured using a wide variety of metrics.

Success can be measured in terms of conversions actions such as website traffic. These actions can then be set on free platforms such as Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager so performance can be monitored accurately.

The reports generated can then be used as a guide for improvement over time as targeting is refined to get the best out of your marketing budget.