Hello again. In the previous video, we discussed the marketing funnel and its benefits. Now in the following videos, we'll share specific marketing strategies for each funnel stage. Let's discuss the first stage in our funnel, and that's awareness. In this stage, the potential customer may not know about the product or service. Maybe they have a specific problem or pain point they need to solve, such as wanting to buy a new piece of furniture. Or maybe they were introduced to your brand without specifically searching for your product or service, such as through a Facebook or Instagram ad. However they encounter the brand, the awareness stage is when a potential customer first becomes aware of the product or service. This first impression counts. Imagine you're a digital marketer. You're tasked with creating and implementing a strategy to get more people aware of a product or service. Well, how do you do it? Now before I get into these strategies, let me first say that if you're struggling to understand these terms and concepts, that's okay. I'll be covering these more in depth as you go through this course and the following courses. So by the end of the certificate program, I promise you will be a pro. Let's quickly go over the difference between strategies and tactics. This is an important marketing concept. Often, you'll find marketers using these terms interchangeably. However, for our purposes, strategies support the plan to achieve the marketing goal and tend to be more general ideas. Tactics are actions taken to make the plan happen. For example, social media marketing would be a strategy. It's a general idea. And actions on social media would be the tactics. These support the strategy. Here are some strategies and tactics to build awareness. First is search engine optimization, also called SEO. This is the process of improving a website to increase its visibility in a search engine such as a Google Search or Microsoft Bing. Think about when a potential customer searches for a resolution to their pain point. If your website appears at the top of the search, they will become aware of your business. Next is search engine marketing, also called SEM. It's when you increase a website's visibility in a search engine through paid advertisement. It's similar to SEO. Now when a customer does a Google Search for what you provide, wouldn't it be great to show near the top of the search results? SEM can get the brand there. Display ads are graphic-based advertising such as photos, videos, or text. Now you commonly encounter display ads on websites and applications. Build awareness by getting display ads on websites your potential customers are visiting. Next is social media marketing. These are posts on any social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Typically, these are at no cost. Now depending on the social media platform, there are many ways to build awareness. One common strategy is to get a follower to share the brand's post to their followers. When this happens, new people get introduced to your brand. Social media advertising is similar to social media marketing, except that it's paid. The type of advertising varies depending on the platform. Now, a common paid opportunity that builds awareness is an ad that shows in non-followers' feeds. You can target new potential customers based on their interests. Video marketing comes in many forms, but a common one to build awareness is a YouTube ad that plays before a video, similar to social media advertising. You can target potential customers based on what videos they previously watched. Influencer marketing is when you partner with a person or a brand that has a large following. For a fee, they will promote your product or service to their followers. There are several types of influencer marketing partnerships. A common one to build awareness is a review. For example, a brand could pay an influencer to try out their product or service. The influencer then details their experience. That review could be in a video or photo or a text format. Remember, when doing influencer marketing, make sure your influencer discloses the relationship. Follow all regulatory guidelines. Next is content marketing. This is a marketing technique that focuses on creating and distributing valuable content. An example of this is a downloadable e-book that your potential customers may want to read. It could also be an educational webpage. Content marketing is often tied with SEO or SEM, but remember, creating valuable content is just the first step of content marketing. The next is to get the content in front of potential customers. All right, that was a lot of strategies to build awareness! As a quick recap, we covered search engine optimization, search engine marketing, display ads, social media marketing, social media advertising, video marketing, influencer marketing, and content marketing. Remember, you'll be learning more about those throughout this program.