Effective Digital Marketing Strategies for Outdoor Recreation Brands

Last Updated: 

July 26, 2023

Innovation, unified customer journeys, and real-time customer engagement are challenges for outdoor brand marketing teams. All of these could make it harder for your small business to draw in new clients. 

Your outdoor brand can draw in motivated, interested customers if you’re using effective marketing techniques. 

Continue reading to learn how to promote your outdoor business through digital marketing!

Key Takeaways on Creating an Effective Digital Marketing Strategy for Outdoor Brands:

  • Establish Your Branding: Form a distinctive brand identity to stand out from competitors and build brand loyalty. Brand elements such as your mission, color scheme, logo, typography, tone, and personality all contribute to this.
  • Consider Your Values: Build your brand positioning and narrative around the values you hold dear. This can help create an emotional bond with customers.
  • Perform Extensive Research: Understand your target audience's demographic and psychographic details to create more effective marketing strategies.
  • Update Your Website: A fast, secure, user-friendly website enhances brand credibility and helps generate high-quality leads and sales.
  • Create and Diversify Content: Develop a content marketing strategy, including blogs, interactive content, videos, testimonials, eBooks, and infographics.
  • Earned Media Generation: Engage with other writers or hire a marketing agency to generate exposure via content that you didn't create or buy.
  • Collaborate With Other Outdoor Brands: Working with other businesses or subject matter experts can broaden your reach and recognition.
  • Use Search Engine Marketing: Use techniques like SEO and PPC to enhance visibility on search engines and other online directories.
  • Direct-to-Consumer Opportunities: DTC marketing lets you bypass retail intermediaries, giving you control over your brand's messaging and potentially increasing client loyalty.
  • Use Social Media: Engage with customers on social platforms, reformat blog content for each site, and consider collaborating with influencers.
  • User-Generated Content: Create a branded hashtag and encourage customers to post pictures using it. This can increase brand trust.
  • Create a Loyalty Program: Foster brand loyalty by rewarding customers, which can increase ROI and attract new customers.
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Example of Outdoor Recreation Brand Logos
[Source: Freepik]

Establish Your Branding​

Establishing your company's brand identity should come first. You may differentiate your company from competitors with a distinctive brand, which will prevent customers from mistaking you for competing outdoor brands in your market. 

Your goal and purpose statements, color scheme, logo, typography, tone, and personality all contribute to your branding. Additionally, once you've established your standards, be sure to maintain consistency in your branding. 90% of customers believe that brands should maintain consistency across all platforms and channels for marketing. 

It's essential to remember that 59% of consumers prefer to purchase from recognisable brands. Once customers start to recognise your brand, they might buy from you more frequently. 

For a single person, it may take more than five impressions before you start to develop that awareness. 

A smart way to make sure you stay on top of customers' minds is to use omnichannel marketing to appear on more platforms they use. 

And when customers decide to buy your brand, start building brand loyalty. Brand loyalty can generate ten times more revenue than a single purchase. 

Your brand's vision, goal, and direction may change over time. Take the time now to evaluate your brand if you haven't in a while. You can find fresh growth prospects by assessing and comprehending your situation.

Consider Your Values 

You must consider your values when creating your brand identity. Base your positioning and narrative on the ideals you establish for your brand. 

Next, think about your USP (unique selling proposition) or unique value proposition. Customers will distinguish you from competing brands and understand why they should pick your company. 

Find out what function your brand serves in your consumers' lives. How are you enhancing their daily lives? More consumers will value your brand if your objectives are clearly communicated. 

Additionally, by creating an emotional connection with your audience through pertinent postings that encourage engagement, you will boost your digital marketing efforts. 

Perform Extensive Research

Perform extensive audience research before reading the remaining parts of this guide to online marketing. Decide who you are attempting to reach online first. Take into account the consumer's psychographic and demographic data. 

Create buyer personas if you're targeting a broad audience. You should take into account the following:

  • Age
  • Location
  • Gender
  • Salary
  • Education
  • Career
  • Buying behavior
  • Online behavior
  • Interests
  • Pain points

Consider how you can solve their problem while identifying their pain points. You'll find it simpler to demonstrate your value after that. Perform keyword research as well. 

Marketing Strategy
[Source: Freepik]

Use Google Trends and Keyword Planner to find out what search terms people use to find your brand. Use this data to assess what influences consumer purchasing decisions. 

You can create content and search engine marketing (SEM) plans using the results of your keyword research. 

Update Your Website​

More than 70% of businesses spend money on design to distinguish their brands online. The aesthetics of a website can also have a big impact on how credible a brand is. 

Simply updating your website can aid in the expansion of your small business. First, check to see that your website is quick, secure, responsive, and user-friendly.

A user-friendly website is simple to use and easy to navigate. Your website's bounce rate can rise if it doesn’t share these attributes, which would affect search engine rankings. 

Your website unquestionably affects your capacity to produce high-quality leads and sales, so make sure it has several opportunities for conversion. You may include a call-to-action button in the navigation, for instance. 

To make your forms easier to fill out, remove all unnecessary fields. Consider collaborating with a web design and development company to accomplish the required website updates.

Create and Diversify Content​

Develop a content marketing strategy before you begin using marketing for your outdoor brand. Consumers will understand the value you are providing, thanks to your content. 

First, choose the subjects you want to cover in your articles based on keyword research. Then, experiment with writing excellent, distinctive blog entries as well as interactive content, video product demonstrations, testimonials, eBooks, and infographics.

Start distributing your material on many channels. For instance, you may share your posts on social media or send an email newsletter.

Earned Media​ Generation

Content that you didn't produce yourself or buy is considered earned media. Connect with other writers on media platforms to start generating earned media, or employ a marketing or public relations company. Introduce yourself in a brief email to the author, editor, or business. 

Inform them that you can speak on topics pertaining to outdoor trends or other relevant topics of knowledge. For backlinks, you may also start guest posting. Backlinks from quality websites can improve your search engine rankings.

Collaborate With Other Outdoor Brands

Your online reach can also be increased by working with other brands. Look for other businesses or subject-matter authorities. You can advocate for a cause, inform readers, or work with others on initiatives. 

All of these will increase brand recognition through appearances on several platforms. By using your partners' existing audience, you will automatically increase your reach.

Marketing Strategy Infographic
[Source: Freepik]

Use Search Engine Marketing

With search engine marketing, you can appear on social networking sites, search engine result pages, and other online directories. SEM consists of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, remarketing, SEO, and video advertising. 

Use keyword research to enhance the SEO of your blog posts and raise your SERP ranks. Making it to the top of a search results page will guarantee that users find your website first. Before producing quality leads, you can increase brand awareness and website traffic. 

If you run an online store that sells firearm accessories, you might want to use keyword research to find terms related to your products that people are searching for. 

Discovering that, for example, terms related to rifle triggers are frequently searched could guide you in creating specific content around these keywords. This could range from blog posts reviewing various AR15 triggers, video demonstrations of installation, or even comparison guides. By using this keyword effectively in your content, you can drive more relevant traffic to your site, increasing the likelihood of sales.

Use Google Ads and Facebook Ads to begin developing your PPC campaigns. These advertisements inform customers about your company or products and may lead them to a landing page before they close the deal. 

A remarketing advertising campaign can be made to show up in front of past website visitors, giving you a second chance to persuade them and convert them. 

Before using SEO or PPC, consider dealing with an established digital marketing business. They may make sure you employ the best techniques to increase your ROI.

Direct-to-Consumer Opportunities​

Opportunities for direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing can let you bypass the retail intermediary. You can increase sales while cutting expenses to improve ROI. Using digital marketing, DTC sales can also assist you in growing your target market. 

You'll have more control over your brand's messaging and image, and you'll probably also notice an increase in client loyalty and engagement. For instance, adding eCommerce to your website can result in direct sales without the use of a middleman. 

Use Social Media

Start interacting with customers on social media as soon as you start implementing these digital marketing methods. One of the best ways to interact with customers is through social media marketing. 

Direct more traffic to your website right away to produce leads and purchases. Reformatting your blog material for each social networking site should be your first step. Plan to publish stuff frequently. 

To stay organised, make a content calendar. Think of holding a competition or an online event. Start contacting and collaborating with influencers to bring in new clients for your business. Don't forget to answer any remarks or direct messages you get. Show your clients that you are willing to assist them.

User-Generated Content

Make a branded hashtag and invite customers to upload pictures of your goods using it. User-generated content (UGC) can assist potential customers in learning about your business. It also contributes to building brand trust. 

Customers are more willing to give you a try if they see that people just like them love your items.

Create a Loyalty Program​

Keep in mind that brand loyalty can increase your ROI by encouraging repeat business. For customers who are loyal to your brand, think about developing a loyalty program. You can use brand ambassadors to increase word-of-mouth advertising and attract new customers online.

Wrapping Up

Using outdoor brand marketing will help in the expansion of your company. Present yourself to new clients, increase your ROI, and produce recurring business. 

Now that you have these essential tips for digital marketing, you can get started.

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