Portraying a brand passion to your audience

Engaging with your target audience is one of, if not the most important thing that firms must try to do, especially if they are just starting up. Besides providing a great product or service, getting to know your customers is a huge priority. Just think, you can have the greatest product in the world but if your target audience doesn’t know about it then you aren’t going to be successful.

There are a number of different ways to engage with customers. For instance, you can head out into the community to meet local people to spread your message through word-of-mouth, or engage with consumers through email marketing or social media strategies. You could also distribute promotional items in your stores as a gift with purchase or as part of a direct mail campaign.

Head out into the community and get to know your local demographic

Building and maintaining solid relationships with your community should be a hugely important part of any marketing efforts, particularly if you work for a start-up. This way you can interact and share valuable information face-to-face with people that could be important customers in the future.

Remember that your brand is your reputation, so ensure you maintain it by meeting new and current customers to keep them up to date with new product developments and new service offerings. Above all, when talking to local people, be proud of what makes your company unique and the services it provides, this will rub off on those that you meet which could in turn result in referrals around the local (and potentially wider) community.

Keep things consistent

If you are trying to portray your strong brand message to customers, it is important that you are consistent. It can take a lot of time, energy and commitment to build a strong brand, however, this can easily be tarnished by an inappropriate post, picture or conversation you have with customers. Always try to be mindful of what you post online as well as offline communications such as direct mail campaigns, newspaper adverts and word of mouth marketing in your local community.

Sometimes companies promise much but deliver very little and this can be extremely frustrating for key customers and is one sure-fire way to ensure they don’t come back. If you offer customer ‘guarantees’ such as a price match promise – then you need to be confident you can back it up.

Promotional gifts can help raise brand awareness

You don’t have to have a multi-million pound marketing budget to communicate strong brand values to your target audience. Promotional gifts are a relatively cost-effective way to raise brand awareness without spending fortunes on a series of newspaper ads or TV ads.

These gifts could come in all sorts of forms, from flashdrives and bags to personalised mugs or pens – all of which can be found at 4imprint. For example, you could offer all customers who spend more than £20 in-store a free cotton shopping bag for their purchases.

Printed with your logo, brand message and contact details, the recipient will have a lasting reminder of your brand every time they reuse the bag. What’s more, the recipients’ friends, family and any passersby could also be exposed to your brand every time the recipient reuses their bag!

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