3 Quick Ways to Create Brand Awareness without Overstepping Your Budget

Coming up with creative ideas and strategies for branding is not the sole challenge for many small businesses and startups. The issue comes with what they can do with limited marketing funds they have in the budget. Branding is expensive, and it often takes quite a bit of time before any measurable returns are seen.

Of course, branding is still necessary to build customer bases and familiarity in the market. Failure to establish a recognizable brand or creating a confusing message through poor marketing methods can actually do more harm that merely going over the marketing budget.

According to a Demand Metric report, creating an inconsistent brand message can cause major damage to the credibility and reputation of the business; resulting in lower conversion rates, slower sales cycles, and an increased cost for customer acquisition down the road.

The good news is that a limited budget is actually not a limitation at all. There are many low-cost yet high-impact ways to increase branding awareness that businesses of all shapes and sizes should take advantage of. Let’s discuss some of the good ones.

Invest in Guerilla Marketing

Getting your business’s name out there doesn’t always require elaborate marketing campaigns that cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. Guerilla marketing is a non-traditional approach to advertising that creates buzz through creative, outside-the-box tactics.

The great thing about this kind of marketing is that it really has no limits beyond your team’s imagination. It can be something as simple as handing out branded merchandise like logo stickers or t-shirts at an event. Or, it can be as complex and buzzworthy as hosting a pop-up shop.

What makes this concept interesting is the psychological effect it has on consumers. Seeing a brand’s logo over and over again through guerilla marketing stunts such as branded merchandise or artwork creates unconscious familiarity. It also successfully creates a bond between the brand and the person by giving online companies a “face” in the real world.

The best part? You don’t need to spend half your yearly budget to plan and run a well-thought out guerilla campaign that puts big agencies to shame.

Be Strategic with Hashtags

Social media marketing is an obvious way to gain brand awareness at a very low cost. However, targeted ads are not the only way to go. Creating a branded hashtag or chiming in on a trending one can get your brand some online buzz in an instant.

Just adding a single hashtag to a tweet can double the engagement it receives and can increase the number of retweets by 55%. Hashtags also have a similar effect on Facebook and Instagram posts, which can include boosting likes and interactions.

The key is to stay on top of hashtag research and know exactly when to act.

Weighing in on trending hashtags is a great way to garner from free advertising space, but, be VERY cautious in the way you do it. Brands have accidentally created a PR nightmare by failing to understand the seriousness of various hashtags; like DiGiorno’s less than tasteful tweet that mentioned #WhyIStayed, which was actually on the topic of domestic abuse.

Creating you own branded hashtag is excellent for engagement – one of the most famous hashtags ever was the ALS Foundation’s #IceBucketChallenge.

The best policy for hashtag use is to look at the types of interactions and the people involved with the ones you are researching. Find out what is trending and which ones are driving the most traffic. If you create a specific branded tag, be sure to closely monitor its growth and build engagement by responding when followers use it, too.

Entertain Customers While You Educate Them

Entertaining your customers is another way to create a positive brand image. Buzzfeed is an excellent example of a brand that creates entertaining content. Their article topics vary a lot, but each piece connects with various segments of their audience. The site features everything from pop culture, to world events, to funny animal videos with a smattering of branded advertising sprinkled in.

By appealing to virtually every kind of consumer, Buzzfeed successfully branded their blog as an entertainment resource that is both reliable and compelling.

No matter what the topic is in your brand’s content, it should provide your audience with something that stays with them. Branding is about creating a memory or association, so creating some sort of experience is necessary.

This is often done by incorporating personalization strategies like content recommendations, customized shopping suggestions, or unique discount codes for opt-ins. A little personalization goes a long way with customers – an Infosys study found nearly 70% of consumers reported that it had a positive effect on their view of a brand and likelihood of purchase.

By focusing on one or more of these areas through your marketing content, your brand can do a lot to create a name for itself. Of course, whichever route your team decides to go, always be sure that the content is consistent with your brand’s voice and message.

Over to You

Building a big name brand does not necessarily have to require a big name budget. By using your team’s creative juices, along with some consumer research and social data, your business can increase familiarity, trust, and loyalty with customers without breaking the bank.