Research forecasts demonstrate that the United States moving services industry is expected to bring in a total of $18 billion in 2019. If you operate within this specialized market, there is obviously strong prospects for increased sales and expansion for your company. The tactics employed by you in advertising will have a profound effect on the amounts of customers and sales that your business accumulates.
This article examines various marketing methods to help create leads and boost sales. Let’s get started.
What is brand awareness?
The degree to which consumers in your target market are aware of and can recognize your brand is called brand awareness. Firms with notable brand recognition tend to be labeled as ‘trending,’ ‘buzzworthy,’ or ‘well-liked’. Developing brand awareness is a beneficial piece of marketing and advertising your enterprise and products, especially when first starting a business.
It may appear that brand awareness is a vague notion, and in fact, it is. If you are a marketer or business owner who likes to measure their success with concrete data, brand awareness may not fit nicely into the equation.
Even though it might not be possible to calculate it precisely, this doesn’t mean that it is of no importance.
Why is brand awareness important?
Brand awareness fosters trust.
In these times of widespread consumer research and advice from other people, it is critical for a brand to be trusted. Once a person establishes a connection to your business’s image, they are more likely to buy again without conscious deliberation – this strengthens the relationship between trust and dedication.
Brand awareness establishes that brand trust. Giving your brand a recognizable figure can help consumers to trust it more easily. Establishing familiarity with your brand allows it to have a personality, obtain critiques, and narrate its tale. These are all the methods we humans can use to establish trust with each other. The human/brand relationship isn’t any different.
Brand awareness creates association.
I’m guessing you’ve put a Band-Aid on when you’ve gotten a paper cut. If you ever had an urgent inquiry, you probably used Google for the answer. I imagine that you took advantage of a Xerox machine when you wanted to produce multiple copies. I’m sure when you put together a picnic, you made sure to include a can of Coke to enjoy.
Am I correct? Most likely. However, take note of how some of the words have been capitalized. These are brands, not nouns or verbs.
That’s what brand awareness does. It links particular companies to the behaviors we do and the products we purchase, implanting the idea in our subconscious to switch out general terms for the brand-related terms. Before long, even small paper cuts and outdoor meals are helping advertise our company.
Brand awareness builds brand equity.
The worth of a brand is defined by brand equity, which is determined by the public’s view of it and their experiences with it. Perceptions and experiences which are favourably viewed will lead to a positive brand impression, similarly negative impressions will also have an adverse effect.
Here are a few valuable things that come from positive brand equity:
- Higher prices due to higher perceived value
- A higher stock price
- The ability to expand business through product or service line extensions
- Greater social impact due to brand name value
When individuals become familiar with a product, they can identify it automatically, look for it with the intention of buying it, prefer it over any other similar items, and become devoted to it, encouraging others to buy it and recommending it to others.
How to Increase Brand Awareness
These are a couple of approaches to amplify your brand recognition that go beyond your original plan.
1. Offer freemium.
A business strategy known as Freemium utilizes a base service or product line that can be acquired without cost and only charges for any goods perceived as advanced or suitable for large-scale businesses. It is a frequent cost plan employed by program businesses, e.g. HubSpot and Trello.
Giving customers a free version of what you are selling allows them to experience your product and brand before they decide to buy it. This is a chance to sample the product before purchasing and can continue for an indefinite period (unlike the limited span of a trial period that some companies provide).
An offering of a free version of the product or service is often available, with the caveat that the company-branded watermark is displayed on any of the parts of the product/service that are visible to the public. Freemium creates a positive result for both the consumer and the brand: The consumer receives the product without cost, while the brand obtains free advertising when the consumer utilizes it.
2. Create free content.
Content is a great tool for increasing the public’s recognition of your brand as it is the simplest way to express individuality and vocalize thoughts and stances on matters; these components give life to your brand and make it more relatable.
Content doesn’t have to be in written form, either. You can produce videos, info graphics, audio programs (which we will discuss below) as well as other content. It is clear that creating written content like blog posts and downloadable guides is a convenient option, but it is not the exclusive choice.
Content does not need to be contained solely on your website. Guest blogging and sponsored materials offer a chance to introduce yourself to new groups of people and vary the kind of material you make.
If you are not producing content related to your brand, you could be failing to capitalize on chances to raise your brand’s visibility. Authentically bonding with one’s target market while generating exposure for your company is a wonderful opportunity that content offers.
3. Sponsor events.
Sponsoring events is a guaranteed approach to getting your organization noticed by countless members of your ideal customer base. This could be hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people. Your brand will have maximum visibility if you become a sponsor of an event as promotional materials such as flags, leaflets and water bottles will bear your company name.
Funding an event can give you the opportunity to tie your brand name to an event that aligns with your interests, likes, and fervors, thus allowing people to link your business to that event’s atmosphere and essence. It can also assist your company in developing brand recognition among very specific and highly qualified audiences. Professionals don’t attend events just for fun. They go to become informed about the newest progress in their field.
It’s not just being part of a crowd of similar vendors. Sponsoring events regularly will solidify your status as an expert in the industry in the minds of those in attendance. They key is to be consistent in your sponsorship.
4. Give your brand a personality.
Giving your brand an identity starts by addressing it as if it was an individual and pinning down its story. The following action should be to inject this character into your promotional activities.
By injecting personality into your product and service promotions, your brand can become highly visible as its identity will be clearly recognizable. Your customers will certainly recognize the pants or pasta being advertised, but they will also be able to sense the personality of your business through your advertisements.
This is a fantastic approach when integrating your classic promotional efforts with campaigns that build recognition of your brand. It is not absolutely necessary for them to agree with one another, but there is potential for them to do so.
Consider Old Spice. I pictured the man on the horse in my head. Their commercials for their hygiene supplies are super upbeat and funny, yet they still make sure to emphasize the items they are selling. The impact of the commercial is so strong that even just hearing about the “Old Spice man” directs people to view the ad on YouTube and purchase the deodorant in stores.
5. Produce a podcast.
Making podcasts used to involve intricate procedures, usually limited to people with a recording studio and an expensive microphone. At present, it is more convenient than it has ever been to construct and distribute a podcast, and executing so can greatly benefit your brand visibility efforts.
Why? Podcasts offer a reliable mode of communication with your audience that feels highly genuine. Rather than trying to push your product or service too hard, podcasting can help you increase your brand’s recognition by educating or entertaining your audience and creating trust in your company.
Here are some examples of great podcasts produced by brands you know and love:
What topics have these companies elected to talk about with regard to their overall brand narrative and their products or services? This assists them in connecting the podcast to their identification and keeps heightening recognition as well.
Content Marketing Promotion and Distribution
It is self-evident that once content marketing has been completed, the next action should be disseminating and advertising the content. Let’s explore a few aspects here:
- A well-crafted advertising plan: Your plan needs to include your advertising budget, marketing platforms (PPC, mobile, or social), target audience, and advertising goals or KPIs
- KYC (know your customer): You need to understand your customer in order to come up with relatable advertising content that will prompt action – signing up for a newsletter, calling your company for the next move, signing up for your referral program, or sharing your content on social media.
Here are strategies to get the most out of your content (whether it is something created by your brand or from a user).
Blogging
Blogs can be used to provide your readers with meaningful, worthwhile data. When people are preparing to relocate, they can benefit from advice, instructions, and even advice on how to do it themselves. If your business dealing in relocating creates content that people are likely to find useful, it is more prone to appear higher in search engine results. They also help to answer customers’ questions. They, therefore, act as part of customer support.
Blogs are the actively updated sections of websites. This is the spot to consistently upload new material, providing your entire website with great content that will help Google rate your website highly in search results.
Wondering what it takes to create blog content? Here are content ideas:
- Relocation guides
- Expert advice
- What to look for when hiring moving companies
- How to navigate an international move
These two blogs, Feedspot and Movehq, provide reviews and summaries of the top blogs dealing with the moving industry. Come up with new strategies to improve your blog.
Link building
User-generated content (UGC) such as customer blogs that include a mention of you can be an effective way of getting promoted.
You can collaborate with notable websites to create high-caliber backlinks for your company. These could be review platforms or a trustworthiness source such as BBB (Better Business Bureau). You can have professionals who specialize in the same subject you do build blog posts that take the reader back to your website. In this manner, customers view you as an authority within your specific field and will select your company because of its reliability and dependability.
Social media
Content can both be created and distributed through social media. Developing content tailored for social media can be enjoyable and captivating, as well as offering your brand’s other material such as blogs. Social media is also an outlet for providing customer service in the form of the content that is posted.
Happy customers will share their great experiences on social. It is very probable that they will spread your business’s information among their acquaintances. If you have clientele who are deeply dedicated to your product, you could ask them to distribute your company’s material. They will be happy to do so.
Be sure that you comprehend which social media outlets your customers generally use the most, then create a gathering place there.
Email marketing
Email marketing is not going away any time soon. Hubspot suggests that there are 5.6 billion currently active email accounts this year. This is a substantial chance, and relocating businesses should jump in and take on their responsibilities in this situation. Better still, email marketing has an ROI of 4400%.
What tactics for email marketing should a moving company consider?
- Build a large customer base. This is because the email open rate is between 15 and 20%. If you have a customer base of 1000, then about 200 people will open your emails.
- Build the email list before you begin to distribute your brand content.
- Build an email list of industry related experts like realtors, and moving owner associations.
- Always send introduction emails, even if a customer has just signed up or used your services.
- Provide value in your email content.
- Optimize your email for mobile. Most people will use their smartphones to open their emails anyway.
- Remove undelivered emails from your list. This prevents email platforms like Gmail and Yahoo from seeing you as spamming people.
- If you have a large database, don’t send out emails at once. This will avoid triggering spam filters. You can send the emails out in batches or phases.
Video content
Real content and visuals like video are great . Making people feel comfortable and relaxed while transitioning can be especially important. You can make material depicting what a run-of-the-mill relocation would look like. Record the moving process from scratch. If you’re trying to extend your influence and turn viewers into customers, videos are an excellent source of content. Here are a few video marketing stats :
- People share videos 92% of the time after viewing them
- Video increases click-through rates by 200 to 300%
- Video increases conversion (by 80%) if videos are embedded in landing pages
These videos could be educational, entertaining, or informational. Possible customers might be interested in knowing details such as ‘how much time do the movers need to pack a residence.’ Producing videos can be an excellent method of becoming the brand that takes care of such queries from prospects – at the same time, it can help user intent (great for search engine optimization).
In conclusion
If you put a content marketing plan in place that is suitable for your business, your moving company can advance quickly. Creating content is an effective strategy to increase your visibility on the web and garner attention for your insights. When you offer advice and guidance, individuals who are seeking assistance with a transition are more likely to find it.
