Get Exposure and Win Trust [2 of 4 Steps to Building and Maintaining Your Brand]

Last week I talked about the first step of building your brand: understanding and defining your brand. Once you've established what your core message, offering and values are, you are ready to start promoting it.

Step 2: Get Exposure and Win Trust

After you know what your message is, you need to find ways of broadcasting it. In the brand building stage, PR, content marketing and events are more effective than advertising. Try things like befriending journalists, writing a blog and organising seminars and tutorials to spread the word about yourself. You need to concentrate on reaching your audience first and planting a seed of desire for your services in their head.PR and marketing campaigns are ways for you to spread your brand message to a wide audience

While you do it, talk about the benefits of your products or services to the client and be consistent about what you stand for. Don't overdo it with promoting your company though - your message and the benefits should do the job on their own. A lot of these activities involve a lot of work, consistency and commitment, but can be done on a tight budget. Take advantage of the following to help you get noticed:

1. Social media, like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ - share your information as well as other related links and engage with your clients
2. Blog - you can create one for free e.g. with Wordpress
3. Newsletter - provide your consumers with tips and information directly into their inboxes, but only to people who actually subscribed to the emails
4. News releases - if you have a piece of news related to your business, contact relevant news sites and try to get it published
5. Reach out to your local community - take part in a local event or organise your own to bring your local consumers together

Once you have established your brand, you need to make your message stick. This is where we go on to the next stage. Continue reading this series here: Secure Your Place in the Market [3 of 4 Steps to Building and Maintaining Your Brand]