Businesses are increasingly relying on digital media to promote their brand be it through a website, using social media, email marketing, SEO or other means.

This guide sets out the components needed to set up a good digital foundation to increase awareness and to promote your brand.

Before you undertake this exercise, ensure that your brand is as fully developed as it can be. If you haven’t done so, our How to build a brand” Business Guide will take you through a step-by-step process in building a brand.

To further help you, Acumenology has produced a series of Business Guides on a range of relevant topics. You can find these at: www.acumenology.co.uk/business-guides

Your website is the most likely to be the most important marketing tool you have for brand building.

Itis likely that the majority of your marketing activities will drive traffic back to your website.

It is where your consumers will learn more about your business and take action when they are ready. Thus, not only does the user experience have to be exceptional, but your messaging should tell your brand story.

Besides a professional and beautifully designed interface, your content has to be compelling, relevant and concise, and you need to ensure you have all the right elements in place from your brand building exercise whether you are launching your website or simply updating it.

You may wish to download our “GETTING YOUR WORDPRESS WEBSITE RIGHT” Business Guide to help you.

One of the most cost-effective ways to increase brand awareness and generate relevant organic traffic to your website is through search engine optimisation (SEO) and ensuring you have the right content.

Make sure you develop a comprehensive SEO strategy as well as creating relevant content that meets the needs of your customer

A defined content marketing strategy will help you better connect with your target audience and support them through their customer journey.

As an example of the importance of creating relevant content, here at Acumenology, our Business Guides are our means of creating relevant content.

This section is the second most popular page visited after the home page receiving nearly 35% of visits

Social media is an increasingly important channel for connecting with customers, though it has to be said that social media is not always relevant to some businesses.

A well-defined social media strategy will help determine what to achieve in order to better connect with your community.

Your brand should be represented consistently across all social media networks through posting relevant, high-quality content.

With social media, your aim for consumers is first to gain trust, then become loyal, and finally advocate your brand’s offering.

Do not underestimate the power of email marketing. Done selectively and with thought, your highest click-through rate will come from the emails you send to your database.

A word or warning!

The advent of new data privacy regulations via the GDPR and the existing PECR (Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations) means that you have to be careful when building up your database to ensure it complies with both regulations.

However, the advantage is that whilst your list may be smaller, it will comprise of consumers who have actively ‘opted in’ to hear from you and thus, are more likely to engage with your content.

The right content, at the right time, to the right person is critical for driving traffic to your website and increasing conversions from email.

Remember, not all email messages need to be sales-driven, as consumers are in different points of their buyer journey.

Paid digital advertising or pay-per-click (PPC) is effective as it can lead to quick short-term results.

However, beware. Once the ads stop so can the leads and sales.

A strong paid advertising campaign on platforms such as Google Ads or Facebook will rely heavily on:

• Smart paid advertising goals
• A well-defined target audience
• Clear organization / campaign structure
• Tracking performance meticulously
• Compelling creative copy and design
• Split-testing for optimization
• Using the right keywords

In order to maximise your ROI, PPC is best done in conjunction with all the other inbound digital marketing channels (SEO, email marketing, social media, blogs)

You now have an overview of the tactics behind building brand awareness through digital marketing, engagement.

Place these components together with a cohesive strategy and consistent execution and you will be well on your way to building a successful brand.

Acumenology has produced a series of Business Guides on a variety of topics relevant to starting and running a business.

These can be found at: www.acumenology.co.uk/business-guides