Digital Branding Tools

We have written before about how digital branding tools have made branding accessible to small businesses as well as large corporations. These tools include digital branding: remarketing, audience targeting and promoted posts. Here is a closer look at each.

Remarketing is an advertising tool for bringing previous website visitors back. We use it more broadly: to help a brand become the first choice for a defined audience.

The first step is to build an audience, primarily from website visitors, prospective and current customers, and the phone numbers and email addresses a business already has. These data can be used to create remarketing lists in Google, Yandex, VK, Facebook and Odnoklassniki.

For example

We add a special code from the VK advertising account to our website. The social network then identifies our visitors as its users and adds them to a single audience list. Across all systems, our lists contain 160,000 people: people who know us and with whom we can communicate regularly.

Contact databases containing email addresses and phone numbers can also be imported into these systems. The platform matches the details to registered users and adds them to a remarketing list. We can then reach those people with social media posts, banners and ads across many websites.

Audience targeting is an advertising tool for attracting website visitors who may not know your business yet. First, define audience segments by age, interests, family status, city and other characteristics. You can then use the advertising platform to show them your content and brand advertising.

Targeting lets us segment an audience precisely, so content reaches people likely to be interested. This selective delivery can help reduce marketing waste.

For example

Before digital tools developed, companies spent large budgets reaching audiences through offline display advertising and the media. Branding was therefore accessible mainly to large corporations. That has changed.

Today, small and medium-sized businesses can build a brand too. Targeting lets us choose a smaller audience and communicate with it regularly. Some platforms allow audiences as small as 100 people. With a modest budget, a brand can become well known within its chosen audience, much like Apple, for example.

Promoted posts are a social media tool for showing content to people on remarketing and targeting lists. Even if they have never heard of your business or followed your page, your posts can still appear in their feeds. This can build awareness and, through regular communication, help establish the brand.

For example:

A post in the Roscosmos community reached 20,000 people despite having more than 400,000 followers. A Digitale post reached 32,000 people with a community of just 6,500 followers. Companies invest in useful, engaging content, professional photography and sophisticated video, yet only 20–30% of their followers may see it. Promoted posts help address that gap.

Reach alone is not enough. Communication with your audience should be regular, high-quality and varied. A complete approach combines visual ads with useful, original content.

The people you reach regularly are one of your most valuable marketing assets: they are your brand’s audience, and they can be measured and understood. Before digital branding tools existed, it was much harder to build this kind of detailed relationship with an audience.

For example:

Someone searches Yandex for a refrigerator and visits your website but is not ready to buy. They put off the decision for three weeks and forget about you. Remarketing can keep your brand in view with banner ads and posts offering advice on choosing a refrigerator or comparing different models. When they are ready to buy, they may remember you as experts who have been consistently helpful—and choose your business.

Regular contact alone is not enough. To build a positive impression, you need to create different types of content. We previously explained in more detail how to build lasting relationships with your audience through content marketing.