For business growth, there is an incessant desire to earn more prospects—and to convert them into clients. Yet, in a populated marketplace, with competition right and left, you need a tactical brand visibility strategy that produces results. We’ve created this guide to aid you to develop your company’s strategy, helping you generate more visibility and audience engagement.
1. Conduct a Brand Audit
Before you begin your visibility strategy, you need to understand where you stand in your current state. A comprehensive brand audit evaluates your existing share-of-voice and brand awareness. Understanding the baseline allows you to build an informed strategy, focusing your efforts where it matters most for better ROI.
2. Create Buyer Personas
The best brand visibility strategy considers not only what content is placed where, but how to optimize the content to appeal to your target audience. Before you go any further, create buyer personas for your brand, evaluating the common customers you have, along with their unique needs and goals.
If you already have buyer personas, it’s time to dust them off and reacquaint yourself with your target audience. You may find your information to be outdated or in need of improved research. Now is the time to fix that, far before you create targeted messaging in the following steps.
3. Familiarize Yourself with the Buyer Journey
Your content’s value is linked with its relevance to your target audience. You could create loads of content, but if it doesn’t address your prospect’s unique needs, questions, or pain points, it won’t resonate with your audience. Further, it won’t be found easily in Google search results.
Understanding your buyer’s journey will help you identify key terms and phrases that will launch your content at the top of the search results. Try removing yourself from your existing understanding of your brand or services and think like a prospect walking through your brand for the first time.
Each prospect starts in the awareness stage, then moves into the consideration stage, and finally, the decision stage. By identifying the needs of the prospect through each stage, you can create compelling, relevant content.
To get started, ask yourself:
- What questions would a prospect have in each stage?
- What concepts need to be explained right away?
- Do I have content that varies in depth for each stage of the journey?
- Do I have proof points or case studies to leverage as the prospects reach the decision stage?
4. Identify Top Keywords and SEO Plan
Before you write – or even decide what to write – you need to create an SEO strategy that encompasses keyword research. To accomplish this, enlist the aid of an SEO expert who can guide you through the steps of creating an effective strategy. By following SEO best practices, you can create a more favorable impression with Google and boost your visibility.
One of the most effective ways to bolster your visibility and increase your organic traffic is strategic content creation. By identifying what phrases or keywords users are searching for, you can create content that appeals to your audience and is easier for them to find in Google.
Detailing a full SEO strategy is outside the scope of this article, but there are several things you should start with if you want to perform better.
Your Current Keyword Rankings:
Evaluate your existing organic traffic so you can track your growth. Start by denoting your overall traffic, and then identifying your top performing keywords. It’s important to determine if your top performing keywords are relative to your business and content strategy. For example, your top keywords should align with your target audience, not personal passions, such as your favorite foods, sports, etc.
For each top keyword that aligns with your business, check your ranking position. The larger the number is, the farther it is away from the first page of Google. If they do match, you’ll want to track those keywords quarterly to see if your content is moving higher up in the search results rankings. If they don’t match your brand, it’s time to identify some top keywords that do.
Keyword Research:
Before you write content for your website or blog, you need to conduct keyword research. By using a tool like SemRush or Ahrefs, you can discover relevant keywords with their respective search volume and difficulty rating. This information should inform your content, helping you decide what topics to write about and what key phrases to use.
Competitor Analysis:
Most likely, you’re keenly aware of who your competitors are and their tactics for increasing their brand awareness. Keyword research tools help you take this to the next level. By gaining insights on what topics your competitors are addressing, you can identify holes in your content.
5. Create an Informed Content Calendar
Now that you’re armed with buyer personas and an understanding of keyword research, it’s time to create a content calendar. This should encompass both owned and rented media, also known as your brand’s website and social media.
Social Media Strategy:
Social media offers you the opportunity to both attract new prospects and engage loyal customers. By creating an engaging social media strategy, you help leave an impression on your audience, and encourage them to come back for more content.
Encourage UGC:
User-generated content helps create engagement around your brand, while also helping build trust with your audience. Your prospects are more likely to trust other consumers who are just like them. By encouraging your followers and customers to create reviews, videos, or responses to your prompt, you’re creating an engaging community that others will want to join.
Blog Strategy:
Though blogs are an oldest tactics, they’re still one of the most effective methods for attracting more organic traffic. A 2023 study from Hubspot found that 60% of people read a blog at least weekly. It’s important to also recognize the value of video content, as interest in videos has grown over the past few years. Try pairing video and blog content together to attract both types of viewers to your site.
6. PPC Campaigns
While organic traffic is the best approach for long-term growth, paid ad campaigns can add to your overall brand visibility. By carefully conducting targeted advertising on relevant platforms and keywords, you can boost your views and your prospect base.
Paid ads can incur a hefty cost, so you will want to account for it when developing your marketing budget. Keep a careful eye on the ROI to ensure that you’re targeting the right audience with the right terms.
7. Public Relations Campaign
Public relation campaigns are a time-proven method for business leaders looking to gain a competitive advantage. By working with a PR team, you can secure coverage across print, digital, and radio channels where your target audience can be found.
Your PR manager will help you maximize your exposure to the right media channels. As you grow as a thought leader, you may have greater opportunities for media exposure with bigger or better quality outlets.
Reap the Results
Brand visibility must be constantly nurtured through relevant, timely content and a multi-tiered digital media strategy. By following the steps above, you can expand your brand’s visibility and reputation. For the best results, commit to a long-term plan and dedicate yourself to tracking and monitoring your progress.