In your startup’s earliest days, you need to improve its online visibility as much as possible. Boosting brand awareness and making your startup visible to your target audience is the most important thing you can do – the more people are aware of your company, the more likely they are to make a purchase.
But how can you do this without stretching your limited budget further than it already is? Let’s look at five smart ways to boost your startup’s online visibility.
Research your target audience
Before you can practice any specific marketing strategies, you need to know who you want to market to in the first place. That means researching your target audience as thoroughly as you can.
Specifically, you should research your target audience’s demographics enough that you can create an audience avatar. The audience avatar is a generalized representation of the average user or shopper for your products and services.
Once you know the audience avatar for your target audience, you can start tailoring your marketing materials, brand identity and even brand copy to them. For example, if your target audience tends to be men over the age of 30, you can make sure your ads are direct, to the point and enticing to that demographic.
Alternatively, if your target audience comprises younger shoppers, you’ll want to ensure your marketing materials speak to them by using up-to-date language, leveraging memes and so on.
Bottom line: The first best way to boost your startup’s online visibility is to know who you should be talking to.
Practice organic SEO
Next, you can and should leverage organic search engine optimization or SEO strategies. Search optimization strategies involve tweaking your website, blog copy, and other marketing materials so they all rank higher in Google’s search results.
Google uses several highly complex algorithms to determine which websites and brands it puts at the top of the SERPs (search engine results pages). The higher you rank via SEO, the easier you’ll get organic traffic flowing to your site. That’s the traffic you don’t have to pay for, contrasted with PPC (pay-per-click) ads.
Not sure where to start? There are three easy ways to practice organic SEO without breaking the bank.
Streamline your site
First, streamline your website and make it easy to navigate. Google’s web crawlers analyze how easy it is to search through your site and index all of the available pages. The easier you make your site to navigate, the higher it will rank with Google, and the easier it is for your target audience to find and shop at your site.
For example, you should list all of your main pages at the top or side of the screen. You should also ensure your site has no broken links that lead to dead pages. And don’t forget to grab a relevant, easy-to-spell domain name for your brand!
Use the right keywords
Next, use a keyword research tool to investigate the top keywords for your brand, industry or niche. Once you’ve identified these, start using those keywords in your:
- Blog posts
- Product descriptions
- Other website copy
Using the right keywords will help your brand skyrocket to the top of Google search engine results. That’s because Google uses keywords to determine what your pages are about and how relevant they are to searchers’ queries.
Post regularly
Lastly, you can practice good SEO by posting on your website regularly. If your startup brand doesn’t have a blog yet, make one. Posting high-quality, informative, relevant content will improve your brand’s authority in your niche, establishing you as an expert in the eyes of Google and your followers.
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Social media marketing
You can’t ignore social media marketing on popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Social media marketing is effective because it:
- Allows you to improve brand awareness for your startup.
- Lets you communicate directly with your target audience members, answering questions or alleviating concerns.
- Gives you another avenue through which you can announce special deals, new products and important business information to potential customers.
For the best results, you should post on several social media platforms simultaneously. And just like you should make blog posts regularly, you should also publish on social media every day. That will help you stay at the forefront of your target consumers’ minds and get rewarded by social media algorithms.
Start using PPC ads
PPC (pay-per-click) ads are cornerstone elements of good digital marketing and brand awareness development. Luckily, you only have to pay Google whenever someone clicks on your ads, making PPC advertising one of the most cost-effective ways to boost your brand’s visibility.
However, your PPC ads must be designed well and feature engaging calls to action. High-quality PPC ads should bring people to your online shop in droves. It’s a good idea to compare different PPC ads against each other as the weeks go on. That way, you can double down on the ads that perform well and cut the ads that don’t bring much traffic to your site.
Reach out to influencers
Lastly, consider leveraging influencer marketing to improve brand visibility in your target market. Influencers operate on popular social media platforms like Instagram and can be invaluable for building an audience from scratch. You can pay influencers using rewards to your online store, crypto, by the post or a fixed overall rate.
Why? Popular influencers already have audiences that hang on their every word. If you strike a partnership with an influencer to showcase your products or services, that audience could serve as a source of new customers for your startup brand.
However, you shouldn’t partner with just any influencer. Instead, you should make sure to partner with influencers who:
- Have audiences that overlap with your target audience members and demographics.
- Match your brand’s aesthetic, tone and identity, so you come across as authentic.
Do some research and reach out to influencers you believe will be a great fit for your startup. If all goes well, they’ll be valuable sources of new traffic and effective marketing avenues for years to come. Use digital scheduling solutions to ensure all your marketing posts go out at the right times.
Wrap-up
Improving online visibility for a company is never a matter of practicing only one strategy. You should identify your target audience, practice search engine optimization and follow the other tips to boost brand awareness. These strategies will help you keep your audience members even after they’ve already become customers of your brand.
