The Weekly Authority

The Sales Funnel Series Pt. 2: How to Increase Brand Awareness with Content

Content can be a powerful, cost-effective way to engage with online prospects and make them aware of your brand.

But how do you create content that gets noticed, read and remembered (especially when you may only have seconds to grab someone’s attention)?

Answering this question, this week, I’m continuing the Sales Funnel Series by sharing tips on how to promote brand awareness via content.

Building Brand Awareness with Content: 5 Essential Tips

1. 1. Use content to solve your audience’s problems – Think about what your readers struggle with, what challenges they have and how your brand is positioned to help them overcome problems or obstacles. Content that shares insights and guides readers to useful solutions can get brands noticed.

2. 2. Use content to pull the curtain back on industry myths or secrets – Are there common misconceptions about your industry? Or are there certain trade secrets that could be fascinating to the public? These can be great topics for interesting, sharable content. And being the first to expose fascinating “truth” or “behind-the-scenes” knowledge about your industry can get readers to recognize and remember your brand.

3. 3. Publish high-quality content on a consistent basis – It can take time to cultivate brand awareness online. If you’re regularly beating the content drum and publishing interesting, well-written content, it’s far more likely that you’ll build a following of loyal readers who’ll be perfectly positioned to become new clients when they need your product(s)/service(s). Loyal readers also offer the added bonus of helping you build brand awareness by sharing (and promoting) your content with their followers, fans or friends.

4. 4. Share helpful resources – Compile a list of resources that can help your readers. These lists can include useful tools, industry Influencers, etc. By sharing resources, you can capture the attention of your readers – and possibly colleagues and Influencers.

5. 5. Always provide value – If you want your content to consistently engage your audience, this golden rule should guide any piece of content you create. Content that’s educational, insightful, helpful or otherwise valuable will hook readers, compelling them to regularly visit your site, check out your social pages, share/comment on your content, respond to your calls-to-action and otherwise provide value back to you.

Driving Brand Awareness via Content: A Few More Tips

1. ● Do your research before writing – Research can help you understand what’s already out there so you can figure out a fresh angle to cover. It can also help you uncover statistics, case studies or other lesser circulated, relevant information that can add credibility to your content.

2. ● Edit with fresh eyes before publishing – This can ensure your content is clean and concise. It may only take one typo to lose credibility with a reader.

3. ● Keep the headline catchy – This could be the only chance you have to make a reader aware of your content and your brand. So, take some time to craft an informative, interesting headline that someone will want to click on. And once you have your headline, go back and edit it at least once (preferably with fresh eyes).

4. ● Don’t forget about the visual content – According to HubSpot, when “a relevant image is paired with information, people retain 65% of the information three days later.” So, pair your text with interesting visuals that will capture and keep your audience’s attention. Including pictures is good. Including infographics, videos and other “rich” visual content can be great.

Have you been able to increase brand awareness with your content? What type of content have you tried? What have you found to be more (or less) successful?

Tell me about your experiences, challenges and successes on Facebook and LinkedIn. And don’t hesitate to get a hold of me on social media to ask any digital marketing question or just to say ‘hi.’ I look forward to hearing from you!

Content Marketing