Rachel Humphrey, The Founder of Brand Building Co., works with young brands who are looking to elevate from being seen to being remembered and loved through strategic and creative PR. With consumer spending softening and general economic fear, it has never been more crucial for small and young brands to increase their organic PR efforts to build brand loyalty, meet new audiences and maintain strong momentum when the going gets tough.
Here Rachel shares PR tips and organic methods, for brands; showing you how to be seen as a ‘must have’ brand even during challenging times. So you can build your brand and sell MORE than ever, with integrity, despite softer consumer spend.
Find the right (and new) audience:
It’s important to assess and look at the audience you have been targeting when the landscape shifts and changes. You may be targeting a sector that knows you well within your paid marketing strategy, but when it comes to organic brand building, it’s important to continue to introduce yourself to new groups. For example, if you’re a CBD or supplements brand you may be inclined to think about the audience that reflects the original specific target audience you had in mind. This is a great start and probably works brilliantly for direct sales when consumer trust is high, but PR requires digging and looking for the hidden gems who may also be really open to your product – if they just knew a little bit more about you. A great example here is looking at a slightly older audience who are still looking to spend on their health and wellbeing. You could target older influencers or pitch to business network sites, leaning into workplace strain. These are new ways to communicate your brand benefits to new people and start making waves amongst a set of people who, A you haven’t tapped into before and B, are potentially still managing a healthy disposable income and looking to enjoy new and beneficial purchases.
Celebrate your current customers:
We love initiating customer-centric ideas for our clients and a customer thank you/appreciation day is a brilliant way to reward current customers and encourage them to share their love through word of mouth. You can use social channels to host engaging content, Instagram lives and give offers and rewards for customers who engage with you on that specific day. It creates buzz and fun and keeps the brand vibes high – it’s also a great chance to offer some great value for customers who have been cutting back.
Use your internal talent:
Small businesses really must share their purpose and values and shout it out loud and proud. The Founder story is so powerful and really does help brands create a deeper human connection with consumers than purely seeing product coverage. As a Founder you can dedicate some time per week for sharing your story with the press, jumping on other brand social channels to share content and sharing business tips amongst networks where other small business owners show up. You can also use other great internal talents – does your tech team have some great learnings or do your designers or buyers want to share trends? This way of sharing your experiences of growing a brand leads to longer-form content and more memorable emotive coverage.
Even if you implement just one of these tips over the coming weeks, you will strengthen your brand and generate more momentum in your sales funnel. When the going gets tough, that’s when people need uplifting and active brands that create engaging campaigns, more than ever. PR and organic brand building is an incredible tool for building a true connection with an audience that will stay true to you for the long haul. Enjoy it and stay true to your ‘why’.
Featured Photo by Hipster Mum on Unsplash
