Top-Of-Mind awareness (TOMA) is the first product, service, or brand that comes to mind in a particular niche. For example:
Coffee – Starbucks
Email – Gmail
Phone – Apple
Movies – Netflix
Car hire – Uber
To attract leads and build a loyal customer base, you need to constantly put your brand in front of your clients. You need to rank top of mind. If you don’t do so, you risk losing to your competition.
Do you want to be the first brand that a customer thinks about when a problem arises? Do you want to be the most trusted name, the go-to expert, or in other words, do you want to be Top of Mind?
What can you do to keep your brand in front of your clients? You will need to implement new business promotion tactics. Below are the 23 marketing tactics that will help you to build a strong brand.
1. Have a Slogan
Your business needs a short and memorable slogan. This slogan will constantly remind your customers why you are the go-to choice. It will always remain top of mind. Nike perfectly accomplishes this with their slogan: Just Do It.
- Create an effective and catchy slogan that embodies the values of your business. Post this slogan everywhere including business cards, social media channels, and websites.
2. Stand Out
If you want to keep your brand top of mind, you need to stand out. Whether it is McDonald’s Golden Arches or T-Mobile’s pink signage, they all stand out.
- Ensure that your brand stands out in all the places that your customers congregate; online and offline. Build a logo for your business that stands out.
3. Community Initiatives
If you want to keep your brand fresh with local customers, get involved with different community initiatives. Make sure that your presence is felt during these initiatives by increasing personal contact. During a community drive, your employees can hand out promotional products such as branded pens and bumper stickers. This will keep your brand fresh in the minds of event attendees. Initiatives you can be involved with include:
- Supporting local charities
- Organizing food drives
- Sponsoring a local sports team
4. Give Customers a Reason to Choose Your Business Over the Others
Start a memorable brand. You might not have the big budgets of your competitors but find something that will make your brand memorable to your consumers. This can be offering a more transparent and authentic customer service. It can also be offering a better way to support productivity.
Read More: The Psychology Behind Building Strong Brands
5. Understand Your Ideal Customer
Know their age, gender, education level, income, and location. That will help you to be able to define their pain points, goals, motivations, brand affinities, and influencers.
6. Provide Value
Providing value is the best business promotion. Whether it is new or old clients; provide them with value for money. That will make them come back and always think about your brand.
- Always look for better ways to satisfy the needs of your clients. Don’t be afraid to innovate and push the limits. Find unique ways of meeting client needs.
- Don’t put your business in a box. If you do so, you will lose your competitive edge. Encourage your employees to be creative and innovative.
7. Improve Email Marketing & Social Media
Make maximum use of social media and email marketing to keep your brand fresh in the minds of consumers. The best social media platforms for marketing are Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Read More: Tips to Improve your Email Marketing Campaigns
8. Provide Customers with An Interactive Online Experience
Offer customers with an interactive, user-friendly, elegant, and functional website. That will make customers who are visiting your website easily find what they are looking for.
9. Connect Emotionally
People want to be inspired and to connect emotionally with brands and what they offer. Look at the big brands such as Apple and Coca-Cola; they have formed a special bond with their audiences.
- Being authentic will help your business to connect emotionally. Today’s consumers want to connect with brands in an instinctive human way.
- Practicing empathy is the easiest way to connect emotionally with your customers. Pay attention to your customers and ask questions. Read their body language and respond accordingly. All these will help with business promotion.
10. Follow-Up with Your Customers
Your interaction with your customers shouldn’t end after you make a sale. You should follow-up to confirm whether they are satisfied with the product or service. In case you have something new, reach out to your customers and inform them about it. This will make them always think about your business.
11. Consistency Builds Trust
Consumers trust consistent brands. Inconsistency breaks trust. Be consistent with your newsletters, content posting schedules, and offers. Consumers can easily notice a pattern of inconsistency.
Read More: 10 Ways to Earn Customers Trust and Confidence
12. Remain Present
Thomas Smith in his 1885 book, ‘Successful Advertising’, points out that a consumer needs to be exposed to a brand message 20 times before they decide to buy. This book was written over a century ago, but its message remains relevant. You should find where your potential market is and should be there regularly with a good media mix.
13. Promotional Products
Sponsor local events that connect with your niche. During those events, give away promotional products such as mousepads, mugs, pens, tote bags, and bumper stickers. This will build brand awareness by increasing visibility.
People love freebies such as free estimates, free apps, free trials, free samples, and free downloads. You can use a freebie to evaluate if a potential customer likes and trusts your brand.
14. Use Gift Cards and Loyalty Cards
Gift cards and loyalty cards will encourage return visits. Starbucks Rewards is a loyalty program where members are given a free drink on their birthday. This keeps Starbucks top of the mind during the most valuable day of a person’s year.
- Start a loyalty program that is tailored to the needs of your customers. However, make sure to honestly disclose to your customers the information you are collecting. Respect their privacy.
15. Share Industry News
Keep your audience informed by sharing industry news. That will keep your brand top of mind. It will also position you as an authority on a particular topic.
- A brewmaster can share news on the latest beer trends while a chef can post about healthy eating habits. Use an RSS app to stay updated on the latest industry news that you will share with your audience.
16. Organize Contests
Contests will help with business promotion. A valuable prize will make the contest exciting. Everybody loves winning. After winning, someone will tell their friends where they won the prize and that will keep your business top of mind.
17. Tell Your Brand’s Story
Consumers easily bond with companies that use the storytelling approach. Through storytelling, people will know the background of your business and the values that you stand for. You can use storytelling to reveal the conservation issues that you stand for; this will make you connect with people who love conservation.
Use stories to directly speak to your customers and address the issues that they might have. Create videos using the storytelling approach.
18. Think Long Term
Rome wasn’t built in a day. You won’t capture the minds and hearts of your customers in a day or even a week. You need a long-term business promotion strategy. You need to take time to understand your customers so that to be in a position to satisfy their needs and make them loyal customers.
Read More: 10 Ways to Delight Customers and Keep Then Loyal for Life
19. Research Competitors
You shouldn’t copy what your competitors are doing. By researching competitors, you will know what they are doing so that you can be able to differentiate yourself from them. When consumers notice that you are different and better, they will stick to you.
20. Know Your Customers (KYC)
Studies show that customers like businesses that know them. Make a point to know some of your customers by name. Have your employees interact with customers to find out key customer traits.
21. Build a Community
You can use meetups to build a community. This will generate buzz and it will keep your customers close to you. If you own a vegan restaurant, you can organize a weekly cooking class. The meet-up can happen online or offline. To generate interest for your meet-up, invite an industry expert.
22. Become an Educational Resource
You don’t have to be always pushing marketing messages to your customers. At times, provide them with in-depth information about what your business deals with. Offer customers with digital resources that can help them to learn about the products you deal with.
23. Stand for Something
A study that involved 7,000 consumers showed that around 64% of consumers had a strong relationship with a brand that they had shared values with. The easiest way to get consumers to ignore your brand is to choose not to stand for anything.
The Bottom-Line:
Aim to Build Customer Loyalty!
Customer satisfaction means nothing, but customer loyalty is priceless. Satisfaction is a rating while loyalty is a brand.
According to Chip Bell, the founder of Chip Bell Group, “loyal customers don’t only come back, they don’t just recommend you, but they convince their friends to do business with you“.
