There are around 32.6 million businesses in the US, and the majority have under 500 employees. We’re clearly a nation driven by its small businesses, with many innovative minds filling various niches.
You can’t just create your own company and hope that people flock to you though. You could have the best product or service on the planet but go out of business quickly if you don’t market your brand.
Thankfully, you don’t have to go through drastic measures to do it. Here are some simple marketing tips to help you enhance your brand exposure.
Know Who You’re Marketing To First
Before you dive into the deep end, you need to first establish who your target audience is.
In an ideal world, you’d market to everyone since your brand’s products and services are perfect for people from all walks of life. However, the reality is, even if your brand appeals to the majority, there are certain demographics that are more worthwhile to focus on.
So think about what the ideal customer looks like. Attributes to think about include their cultural backgrounds and financial situations. Another important point to establish is what the ideal customer’s pain points are; your brand should be the answer to these.
Develop Your Brand Identity
Having a strong brand identity from the beginning will make marketing much easier. If you don’t put in any effort to brand your company, you might find that you need to make changes later on. And when you do that, it can confuse consumers.
So make sure you do things right at the very start. Establish things like your:
- Logo
- Tagline
- Color scheme
- Company values
This ensures that moving forward, your company will have a cohesive way of communicating with the public. This can help with consistent messaging and improve brand recognition.
The above is vital because it takes several impressions before people recognize a brand. If you keep switching things like your logo and brand colors, you’re essentially making them start over from zero again.
Have A Strong Social Media Presence
Social media is the answer to your marketing prayers. Almost everyone has a social media account or browses these platforms, so you’re sure to reach your target audience here.
Make sure to post often, but only with relevant content; otherwise, people will think you’re spamming. You can also get more engagement numbers by buying real Instagram followers. It will significantly grow the numbers which can help build your brand quickly. Additionally, you can try interacting with your followers as much as possible. Don’t just post and not respond to comments, as users might think you’re a bot and become disinterested.
Not only can you post about interesting things you’ve found, but you can also show off your new content. It’s a great channel for getting the word out about exciting news too!
Partner With Influencers
Speaking of social media, you can get brand exposure fast by partnering with influencers. These people have already spent the time and effort to amass followers, so it’s a fantastic shortcut for you.
These are working relationships that are beneficial for all parties too. The influencers get to try your products and services for free (or at a huge discount), and they review and promote them to their followers. It’s a quick way to get your brand out in front of people you wouldn’t have otherwise reached on your own.
While these promotions can be one-offs, you can also form long-term partnerships to keep customers coming in.
Do Content Marketing
Content marketing is a cost-effective way to drive traffic to your website. Types of content you can produce include:
- Blog posts
- Infographics
- Whitepapers
- Ebooks
- Videos
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here either. Take a long-form piece of content (such as an ebook) and break it down into several other shorter pieces, like blog posts and infographics. Recycling reduces your efforts and gives you several choices to share with potential clients.
When you finish making content, post about it on your social media accounts. Not only does this raise awareness, but it also gives you things to post about. Feel free to reshare the content every so often too, as some people might miss it the first time around.
Encourage Word Of Mouth
Throughout history, word of mouth has always been an effective way to enhance brand exposure. This is because you’re getting personal and authentic testimonies of your company.
If you already have happy customers, then encourage them to tell others. Make things easier by having online forms for them to fill out. You can also link them to your Google business page so they can conveniently give you positive reviews.
Go To Events
Events like trade shows are perfect for marketing your brand. The attendees are open to hearing about new businesses, meaning you just have to bring your A-game.
Print out materials to hand out so people can take them home, then be reminded of your company when they look at these things. This can keep your brand top-of-mind and reel in sales when consumers decide it’s time for your products or services.
Don’t Be Afraid To Use Paid Ads
Organic marketing is more cost-effective; not to mention, it’s more satisfying to know that you brought in website traffic and raised brand awareness on your own. However, there’s no shame in using paid ads.
Paid advertising can give you access to a larger audience and a quick boost in traffic. This is because instead of working hard to climb the ranks of search engine results pages (SERPs), your paid ads are served right at the top of search engine results. As a result, you’ll have more visibility.
Using a combination of paid and earned advertising is always a good idea. Don’t ditch one in favor of the other, or else you’ll fail.
Market Your Brand And See Your Business Soar
While there are tons of marketing methods, admittedly, it can be difficult to find out which ones work best for you. But we’ve given you a great starting point where you know the choices available to you.
From here, you can experiment and discover the best ways to reach your target audience. Then, you can focus your marketing efforts on those areas and get the most bang for your buck!
