Small businesses face a tough road when it comes to building brand awareness. With so muchcontent being published/streamed on blogs and social media, building your specific brand has become a heck of a lot more complicated than hiring a domain broker service, building a beautiful website, setting it and forgetting it. Businesses need to rise above the noise to be heard. They must also stand out from the crowd. This takes marketing.
According to recent report, when it comes to building brand awareness in 2021 and beyond, businesses big and small “face an uphill battle.” But podcasting, local SEO (search engine optimization), and influencer marketing are affordable and even powerful tools that can assist you in your efforts.
Technology has also upped its game in that opportunities that were once reserved for large businesses with large budgets, are now accessible to smaller outfits. For instance, a brand new business can tap into affordable manufacturing and distribution at a low scale. They also don’t need to hire full-time employees but instead, talented freelancers and gig workers.
While online marketing has become extremely accessible for small businesses and entrepreneurs, it can also be a stressful at times. In a word, there are just too many options. Plus, advertising, such as Facebook and Amazon ads, can run hundreds, if not thousands of dollars per week!
That said, if you’re a small business or a single person outfit who’s been having a tough time establishing brand awareness, here’s three powerful strategies to “build up the buzz” around your venture.
Audio
Audio is nothing new. Since the invention of the radio, radio adsprovided a means to accessing a good sized audience. Product promotion via audio is still a truly effective means of engaging with potential customers. Of course, it’s accessible for those who aren’t able to access a visual screen.
Anyone with limited data can download audio files easier than they can video content. With audio, customers can listen anytime and anywhere with earbuds. What this means for the new small business is that if you can’t afford radio on your present budget, you might want to create audio content by creating your own unique podcast.
When compared with costly radio adverts, brand building podcasts offer complete creative control along with a much higher ROI (return on investment). Says Quill’s Studies, podcast listeners will generally listen to at least 70 percent of a 30-minute show. That’s a far better statistic than potential customers who shy away from long, time-consuming videos and articles.
Influencers
Along with the internet and social media, another variety of brand building and marketing has come of age. It’s called Influencing. While the big corporations can pour thousands of dollars per day or week in pay per click advertising (PPC), small, less cash rich outfits can build affordable branding by hiring a reputable influencer.
Influencers can connect you with your “targeted demographic.”They will also tailor their services to fit your budget. For instance, you can hire micro-influencers to work with visual social media platforms like Instagram to reach specific consumers who might be interested in your brand. The better the influencer, the more the audience will come to trust your business and the products/services it offers.
Influencers don’t just post on social media on your behalf. They already come equipped with a “cultivated following,” which means they are close with people who already have a relationship with the influencer, making them trustworthy.
SEO Domination
SEO has been around for a while now with its ability to get a high keyword ranking which, in theory, is supposed to drive organic traffic to your website and/or blog. One area of SEO that’s all too often overlooked, is “local SEO.” By utilizing local SEO practices, mom and pop brick-and-mortar shops can drive consumers to both their physical stores and their website.
While these days, it’s important to find a consumer base on a global scale, it’s important to start with your local and regional audience first when just getting a startup off the ground. This is how you begin to build the organic traffic who will spend time on your website, and eventually come around to visiting your store.
Since just about everyone is armed with a smartphone these days, most people will take a look at your company website prior to taking the time and effort to visit your physical location. If you learn to dominate your search engine listing on a local/regional level, you will begin to build a much needed buzz around your newly emerging brand.
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