Getting visibility online is key to generating new leads and growing your business. But most of the time, being successful online is more complicated than just upping your exposure.
In order to really grow your business, you need to have a brand that’s top-of-mind, one that customers will think of when it comes time to make a purchase, inquire about a service, or offer a recommendation to a friend. Whether it’s to keep a loyal customer or attract a potential lead, you need to be not just visible, but identifiable as a brand they can recognize and a business that can meet their needs.
Here’s how you can start marketing your business so that you can always be at the forefront of your customers conversations and the top of their minds:
1. Compelling and Consistent Branding
The first step in keeping your brand top-of-mind is, well, to have a brand. If you want your customers to think of your business before your competitors when it comes time to buy a product or service you offer, then it’s essential your business have a strong brand identity.
Being known by your product or service is one thing, but being known as a brand is far more powerful. Having a brand that customers can recognize, and identify with, will ensure your business is front and center in the minds of buyers when it comes time to make a purchase.
Make sure your branding is not only unique and compelling, it’s consistent. If your business has a well-known logo, keep those colors in mind in your designs, your ads, and your other branding efforts. If you’re known for your impeccable service, play on that. If you’re known for your excellent quality or your low prices or your extra “flare”–make that a regular part of how you brand your business and how you market that brand. Keep in mind that a crucial part of compelling branding is finding your niche and sticking to it. If there’s a void that you can fill, make sure everyone knows it, and fill that void consistently in an authentic, relevant, relatable way.
3. Retargetting
Most of the time, customers aren’t necessarily prepared to make a purchase the first time they see your add or visit your site. Customers get distracted, they like to browse, they want to wait, and it’s not unusual for them to click onto a site, only to click away from it without taking action. These leads however, can be some of your most valuable, which is why it’s essential to bring them back with retargeting.
Retargeting allows you to follow a searcher after they’ve visited your site or engaged with your business online in another way, and re-engage them later on with targeted ads designed to help them come back, and ultimately: convert. Retargeting is key for keeping your business top of mind when it matters most and will help you convert customers who’ve already shown interest in your brand and a desire for your products or services.
2. Get Social and Stay Connected
The Internet is more social than ever. More and more people are checking Facebook while waiting in line at a coffee shop or watching TV or before bed, they’re looking at businesses and connecting with other professionals on LinkedIn, posting tweets on the daily, browsing through Instrgram and Pinterest for the latest ideas and the most aesthetically-pleasing time-killers, sharing their opinions about experiences, products, businesses and so much more. If you want to keep your brand in your customers conversations and at the top of your customers minds–having an active social presence is key. Setting up social profiles on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Youtube is a great first step, but if you stop there, you’re not going to be building your brand or promoting your business. Make regular posts, add detailed information, share valuable content, respond to your customers, encourage comments, retweets and shares, hold contests and get your friends and fans involved in any and every way possible.
Once you have a loyal base of fans and customers, it’s important to keep in contact if you want your brand to be kept top-of-mind. Follow-up with past customers and potential leads by having consistent, engaging email campaigns. Create emails that recipients will actually want to open, to read, to share, and to act on. That way, they’ll be thinking about you the next time they’re going to think about inquiring for more information, recommending a product, or making a purchase.
4. Widen Your Brand’s Impact Online with Influencer Marketing
After you’ve created a compelling brand, you need to market that brand and promote it around the web. Having a wide online footprint is the key to getting your business more exposure, higher authenticity and online authority, a more engaged audience, and traffic from a diverse set of sites and sources.
Promote your business with coupons, offers and deals. Make sure to consistently create content and connect with your customers through social media marketing on sites like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and more.
Engaging in social media marketing on sites is a great start, but to really connect with your target market today, you need more. In order to reach your customers and create content that resonates, it’s best when you’re not the only one sharing that message. Consumers expect businesses to have a biased opinion, because who wouldn’t promote their own products and services? That’s what makes Influencer marketing–the new word-of-mouth marketing–so powerful. Influencer marketing allows brands to team up with the bloggers, as well as Youtube and social media personalities that their customers already follow and love. These online influencers monetize their followings by creating quality content for you that highlights your brand and gets your message out in front of their audiences. In order to grow your reach, connect with an enormous audience, and build a real, authentic presence for your brand online, brands need to start investing in partnerships like these. If you’re not sure if Influencer marketing is right for your brand, or how to get started, you can contact us and one of our team members can walk you through what an Influencer marketing campaign looks like for businesses with any sized budget.