In the past 18 years, I have worked with several companies dealing with name recognition issues. They wanted us to get the word out about their company, their products, and services, as well as the value of their products and services.
It has given me an opportunity to work with established com
panies, companies that were just getting started or had just introduced a new product or service and wanted us to help promote it, or believed their company had plateaued as to growth and exposure, and wanted to get it growing again.
No matter what the situation, the initial goal always was to establish—or reestablish—company and product name recognition.
For a company that had stagnated and lost some of its name recognition, this often meant having a “grand reopening”—reintroducing the company and its products to the industry marketplaces using a variety of marketing and PR strategies.
The following are 10 marketing and PR strategies that have helped us enhance an organizations name recognition. All have proved successful no matter the product, service, situation, or the marketing goals of the client:
- Develop a memorable company tagline that expresses the features or benefits of the product or in some cases how you want your end customers to “feel” or think about your company and its products. Good example: “Betcha can’t eat just one” from Lay’s potato chips.
- Create message words. In one case, a client always wanted to refer to their green cleaning solutions as – just as good as if not better – than traditional cleaning products. In time, it became memorable and was associated with this company.
- Make a list of all industry trade publications along with the editors and account reps of these publications. These are the people you need to get to know.
- Work with these editors by providing them with quality content addressing challenges their readers – and your potential end customers face – tactfully suggesting how your company’s products can provide solutions. Once they are published, post links to these articles on your website and social media.
- Send out press releases at least once per month; they are not as effective as they used to be. So, try and be creative or tie them to a current event or new story. Make sure once they are published on different trade publication sites, they are also on your company website. Distribute these as well on social media.
- Do not put all your marketing eggs in one marketing basket. If introducing a new product, for instance, put the bulk of your marketing dollars initially in advertising, and then move your spending slowly over to public relations and social media. Advertising gets the word out with a bang, but public relations and social media help end customers better understand what that bang is all about.
- Partner with industry influencers; their endorsements of your products or services can carry a lot of weight.
- Start a blog and post updates at least four times per week—more if you can.
- Along with attending and exhibiting at tradeshows, company leaders should look into speaking opportunities at these gatherings.
- Put “sales sheets” on your website highlighting the features and benefits of your company’s products compared to those of your competitors. Product comparisons can be very powerful. Along with this, add customer reviews.
And one more tip: View all marketing strategies as a journey. There may be times to increase or scale back marketing projects, but when it comes to marketing there is no end point. It’s important to keep your name and products on end customer radar screens.
AlturaSolutions Turns Words into Sales | 312-880-8176
