Online Advertising as a Branding Tool
Many marketers overlook the internet when planning where to devote their branding budget. For years, the major players in each industry spent billions on traditional media. The goal of advertising was ultimately sales, yes, but to be one of the best known and most beloved brands meant lasting success. Consider Nike, Apple and Coca-Cola. Now the formula for brand success has changed. Today, one of the best branding tools available to marketers is also one of the most accessible, most measureable and cost-effective.
“The Internet gives advertisers the opportunity to build “mind share” more effectively, by targeting the right context at the right time, ensuring their messages are relevant to the people they are trying to reach,” Gopi Kallayil of Google’s AdSense marketing team says. “Advertising networks have proven very effective in building brand awareness and generating demand. In addition, the internet gives marketers more precise, measureable accountability for their ad spending than does traditional media.”
You too can harness the power of the internet for brand awareness and increase consumer engagement, recall and action. Here are some easy, cost-effective ideas on how to increase your brand’s online presence.
- Integrated content – Consumers are both savvy and selfish. You need to motivate consumers to interact with your brand. One of the easiest ways to do this is through targeted, integrated content that meets your consumer’s needs and promotes your brand message. Place your advertising in relevant places where your consumers seek out content.
- Blogging – Blogging allows you to communicate your brand message in a more personal voice. Allowing consumers to see the people behind a brand creates a comfort level and familiarity that other media can’t.
- Sponsorship Opportunities – Using banner ads and text links exclusively to sponsor entire categories, sub domains or online communities is ideal to reach a target niche explicitly and implicitly. Your message resonates with consumers while they are engaging with the site as well as long after they leave their computer.
- Donating prizes – Online promotions allow marketers to inform consumers about the products that they offer while establishing a positive brand relationship based on the consumer’s desire to win.
Branding is all about creating relationships. Why not utilize online advertising to reach consumers where they are comfortable, active and interested?
Rachel
Tags: Online Advertising
