Building Brand Awareness in the Digital Age

Digital branding campaigns have become essential tools in the effort to capitalize on consumer buying behavior. The technology once used for simple banner advertisements and pay-per-click calls to action has improved and morphed into online consumer tracking systems designed to collect data for the purpose of understanding consumers well enough to create a campaign so effective no target will be missed. This means knowing consumers' purchasing habits, demographics, likes and dislikes, and much more.

The dawning of the digital age is ideal for business owners. Just following these tips for making the most of your digital branding campaigns:

1. Create a Targeted Branded Content Campaign. Once you've decided who your target market is it will become easier to create the relevant content necessary to grow your brand effectively and efficiently. This kind of campaign can be tricky because while you want to get your content seen, it is also important to share content from other related sources. This widens your reach and highlights your diversity by showing that you can spread awareness to your brand without being threatened by content coming from other brands. That being said, the majority of content should be focused on your brand and its growth. Click here for a list of 20 awesome branded content marketing hubs.

2. Retargeting. What is retargeting? To put it simply, it’s a cookie-based technology used to anonymously keep track of your audiences' web activity. It uses a javascript code to "drop" a browser cookie when a new person visits your site. These "cookied" visitors will then receive ads from your retargeting provider. The brilliance of it is the ads are only being sent to people who have already visited your site, which means they've already shown interest in related products and/or services.

3. Tailoring Creative Sales Strategies. Having a sales strategy in place is crucial. It can save a significant amount of time and money in the long run if prepared correctly. A creative sales strategy should meet certain criteria for optimum effectiveness. You must understand the needs of your target market, make it about them not you and, most importantly, get to the point; don't spend too much time talking about yourself. If you've already attracted the attention of consumers you must use that opportunity to say what you can DO, not who you are.

4. Create Content Suitable for Virality. Creating viral content isn't as simple as it seems. There is no instruction manual or magical viral recipe, but there are two very important elements you should be sure to include in order to increase your chances of going viral. First, your content should be exciting. Viral content stirs emotion. Excitement, happiness, anger, sadness – it doesn’t matter as long as it makes people feel something passionately. Secondly, it must be extremely easy to share. Your viewers should be able to spread your amazing content with a simple click of a mouse, and Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are invaluable platforms for this.