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A whopping 30% of the world’s business is conducted online these days, with millions of brands and retailers fighting for the same share of customers. In other words, it’s easy to get lost in today’s crowded marketplace!
That’s where brand visibility makes all the difference. Getting shared, read, and seen online is more important than ever—but for small businesses, it can also feel less possible than ever. How do you encourage more people to check out your brand when you have low or no visibility to start with?
If you’re feeling lost, we’ve got you covered. Let’s take a quick look at the five most important steps to building brand visibility.
1. Highlight Your Unique Selling Propositions
What makes you stand out from your competitors? Before you jump into any of the steps below, it’s important to refocus on your unique selling propositions (USPs).
If you’re a new brand, this might require some brainstorming. Write down all of the things that make your brand unique, from your offerings to your company culture to your expertise. You might also need to research your competitors to check out the USPs they list in their products, features, ads, and marketing.
Once you know your USPs, make sure that you talk about them prominently, and hone in on them in every step below. Don’t be worried if focusing on these USPs narrows down your target audience: marketing toward a specific niche is always a better path to success than creating generic and boring strategies.
2. Create Valuable Content
If you aren’t creating valuable content, you can forget about all of the other strategies on this list: your audience will have no reason to stick around once they’ve checked you out!
Showcase your knowledge, authority, and industry expertise with the types of content your audience most likes to consume. This might mean creating helpful blog posts for your legal clients, exciting video tutorials for your coaching business, or an infographic deep-dive for your graphic design brand.
Make sure that you’re focusing on the issues and solutions your clients struggle with most, as this will help more visitors find you when they’re searching for answers to their problems.
3. Invest in Your SEO Strategy
It’s true that search engine optimization is often touted as a behind-the-scenes approach, but SEO can be a great way to gain exposure online.
The most common SEO tactics can help you in a few key ways:
- On-page SEO does things like adding keywords in all the right places, offering valuable content, and even helping with visibility tactics like Featured Snippets
- Off-page SEO connects your brand with other authoritative sites to increase your visibility with both readers and search engines
- Local SEO ensures that people searching for relevant products in your area will see your brand first
- Technical SEO ensures that your website matches the requirements of Google’s algorithm, helping you jump up in the search rankings
In essence, SEO is geared toward driving more traffic to your website, which can earn you more organic exposure in addition to a nice boost in the search engine results pages. If you’re not sure you can do it on your own, consider partnering with a reputable digital marketing agency for help getting started.
4. Harness the Power of Social Media
If you’re hoping to enhance your digital presence, social media marketing is an easy and cost-effective approach. Even better, this type of marketing takes place where your audience is most active, which means that you have more opportunities to get in front of them in helpful and organic ways.
Of course, it goes without saying that you’ll need to be smart about your strategy. Make sure you’re creating accounts on platforms that your audience actually uses, and do research to make sure you’re posting the right types of content to those platforms. When in doubt, it’s always a good idea to study the types of things your competitors post, as well as the types of business posts that become popular in general.
Once you have your social media accounts up and running, don’t forget to share content that you’re posting elsewhere—such as on your blog—and to engage with your followers!
5. Buy Ads
If you’re launching a new product, service, or even your new business itself, buying ads can be a great way to gain some immediate visibility.
No matter where your audience spends its time online, you’ll be able to get in front of them by investing in ads. This is true from social media sites like Facebook or LinkedIn to more expansive options through Google Ads. Here’s a quick breakdown of the main types of ads that can increase your brand awareness:
- Search ads: these appear in the search engine results pages when the searcher types in a relevant keyword
- Display ads: these appear on the top, middle, or side of website content
- Social ads: these appear on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram
In order to get started with this, you’ll need to create great ad copy, often including written, image, and/or video content that focuses on your USPs. Again, if you don’t have the time or expertise to tackle this yourself, a digital ad agency can help!
Start Improving Your Brand Visibility Today
Improving your brand visibility is easier said than done, and it won’t happen overnight. However, honing in on your USPs and following through with the strategies above can be a huge help. Don’t hesitate to reach out to a pro as you start to reconsider your content, your tactics, and even your audience.
Looking for more of the business and tech tips you need to know? Our other content is packed with helpful advice, so be sure to check it out!
