Using Social Media to Increase your Brand Awareness and Value

 

Your Brand is just as important to you as it is to your customer. Your customer could be a business or you could be dealing directly to the consumer. Your customers and clients must be able to trust your brand before they buy into it and have the confidence in the brand to know that the service is there and your product lives up to expectations.

Social Networking Sites are now a major player in marketing today and  internet users spend most of their time on sites like Facebook, Twitter and other sites where they can share information and view. It’s now becoming the easiest way to shop. Hassle free and convenient to most with asos.com reporting record sales around £25m per week as their global expansion continues to penetrate into new markets such as Australia and Germany..

There is still some research that confirms that retail outlets are still some customer’s preferred way to buy garments  online etaililng are definitely the most popular way forward especially with the younger socio economic age groups where technology is part of their everyday life.. .

So to help you on your way with your web marketing campaign please find below some pointers to help you on your way.

 

Social Networking Sites get MORE traffic than the almighty Google!

This is an amazing statistic but its little use IF you do not work your social networking site properly; that is a general lack of marketing knowledge on how to use all the social networking and social media sites..

So please read on for some suggestions from myself, Syreeta McQueen, at Fashion Capital!

 

 

3 Pillars of Success

 

1. Brand Recognition

 

2. Lead Generation / Data

 

3. Create Raving fans which in turn creates value

 

 

The 3 Pillars of success are extremely important when planning your marketing campaigns and social media plans. The sights or plan chosen has to benefit you and the brand.

 

 

1. Brand Recognition – Ensure all of your marketing material and social media sites and web pages advertises your brand and compliments your brand. Include your logos and social media site addresses on all marketing material and ensure that your brand is clear and shows consistency i.e.. use the same colours when setting up pages and on information  links include any URL addresses you may have, your websites and email on.

 

1. Lead Generation / Data- The backbone to where the money really is. Always think of ways to increase your database; this could be by offering something free or running competitions, simply asking for basic data to get to a certain section on your website such as a “members only”,  receive a discount in exchange for information or simply ask for free information. Knowledge is power so gather the data and use it. Keep your customers happy and always  remember word of mouth is the strongest way in sales and promotions

 

1. Create Raving Fans – set up fan pages or leave comment options as new clients will always review other customer’s comments if they are not familiar with your brand or service. Happy customers will always buy again and tell their friends about their fantastic experience and customer service is the key to repeat business.

 

Pre – Selling

Show benefits to your client or customer before encouraging them to buy. This could simply be by describing your service, garment or product and explaining a positive unique selling proposition in the description. You could be referring to a garments fit? Explain why they should sign up to your membership? Is it a specific area that makes your product unique such as how soft the material is in your cashmere dress. Celebrity dressing is always a great way forward but not so easy to achieve. This act of endorsement encourages any client to buy. These tips are all pre-selling. They endorse the product, give confidence to the potential customer and makes the selling process easier for you.

. A hard sell rarely works and if it does its very rare that they come back.

 

Plug-ins

Obtaining Plug-ins that assist your business is a cost affective way to enhance you sales. Most are simple to use and they can be added to your business websites.

A Countdown plug-in is a good example of what works. Group-on is a site that uses it frequently and it can be adapted to suit different brands. You could use the countdown to offer a discount, a limited edition which may encourage the customer or client to purchase earlier rather than later. This is not a hard sale it’s simply a limited time in which an offer can be available. You could use this to your advantage to obtain data and early sales. “Data is Key”

 

Trust

 

Offering free tips builds trust so even if you are using your site to sell there is nothing wrong with offering free advice or information in the area of expertise. This will attract traffic to your webpage and raise your brand awareness.

This also increases data so if you send out anything to your clients in an email shot for example they may not be interested but they may tell a friend and recommend.

 

Twitter

Again ensure that your page is in line with your brand image and if you haven’t yet got a twitter page get one! It’s the fastest growing online networking portal. Hoot Suite can help you schedule tweets if you have limited time and can schedule your tweets for different times of the day and repeat at least twice; this is because a 7am tweet; if tweeted at 4pm will reach a different set of followers as none of us are online 24/7 a day looking at our twitter accounts; well I hope not. Ha ha

 

Twitter is a great way to engage with people also and build your reputation. Although you can not control what is said about you or your company on twitter you can definitely control the likelihood of it being positive or negative so in short; use this to encourage your efficiency. Always advertise your website in your info section and use the search icon to search for other companies or people who may be of benefit to you or who you may benefit and get following.

 

Crowed Buster is also a good add on which can tell you the best time to tweet.

 

Facebook

I am guilty of neglecting my facebook since Twitter arrived however try if you can to manage all of them. A fan page on facebook is advised as you can link it to your website and increase your client retention. Link everything to your website. More Traffic More Brand Awareness….More Brand Awareness, the less trust you need from the beginning to the more likely a client or customer will buy, sign up, add or follow.

Facebook will soon be changing to a timeline so also go online and research this so you know how it will work before it happens and your left behind.

 

YouTube

Have you ever thought of using YouTube to advertise? We have all searched YouTube but a good way to utilise this site could be to offer advice and use the correct headings. This can then have your website page on the comment section: again creating more traffic and potential customers as you could be listed on Google.

For example if you are a fashion Designer maybe offer tips on how to get the look of a celeb or how to measure a person for a fitting or maybe how to draw a design or even make a pattern? This is free knowledge but you can advertise your services or website which could turn into sales. You could even add comments to other YouTube videos with your email or website if making a video isn’t your cup of tea.

 

Amazon

Another place to advertise your website link or products; there are additional ways of making money from each click; so Google this for more info in this.

Pinterest

Another new concept and media site which can be used to advertise your web page and increase traffic. You can set up a page and create a board. This is something new so look into it and let us know what you think.

Other popular social media sites and apps include….

Linkedin

Digg

Hopefully you have benefited from this and feel free to give us feedback on any changes it may have made to your business or ideas. My email is syreeta@fashion-enter.com

 

Fashioncapital.co.uk care and offers support and advice to all businesses and designers or students within the Fashion Industry. So please do read all info on our website as it does change daily due to the amount of knowledge we collectively have.

 

We offer seminars in different areas also so please email us so we can include you in our future seminar dates so you can be the first to see as our spaces are limited.

 

Syreeta McQueen

FashionCapital.co.uk 

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