Manila, Philippines — Whether you are a natural or accidental entrepreneur, by now you may be aware of how your brand’s digital presence can truly impact your business. Here are some brilliant ideas you can do to give your brand improved exposure and presence online:
1.Build your own online community
If you are looking to save costs on advertising and marketing, building your brand’s online community could be the best bet to market your products and services easily. For baby steps, you can start building a Facebook Group. But before you do so, make sure you are solid in terms of who your target market is, and what your brand can specifically do for these community members. In short, make a solid mission statement of your brand. Your community conversations should highlight the key message of your brand, and discuss the benefits your products or services can offer to your possible clients or customers. Decide how you want to show up online and who you’re showing up online for, and why you’re showing up online for them.
Once you are clear with your brand mission and community’s key messaging, as well as what type of members you want to attract, you need to make sure that you can offer consistency, belonging, emotional security and insider status to your members. You need to make your members feel that it is safe to share their thoughts in your community, and that they’re accepted in the group. Take it up a notch by giving discounts or promos which can make them feel like a real insider or that they’ve earned a spot in your online club.
There will always be awkwardness in the beginning, but keep the conversation going by providing quality content and consistent convo starters. You may use memes for a little humor or share insightful articles that you know can benefit your customers and your business. And of course, testimonials of what your products or services can do. Once you successfully manage your online community and satisfy your members’ needs through your quality products or services, these members can do word-of-mouth marketing in your behalf. That alone can save you a lot of marketing bucks.
2. Be creative with your strategic partnerships
If you want to increase your brand’s online presence, you need to find strategic partners that you can work with. These could be other brands from other industries that have synergy with you, and of course, those with similar, if not the same audience as yours.
For example: You are a fashion brand. You may collaborate with a beauty brand which has the same target audience. You’re amplifying your presence to a different audience, but an audience that would be interested in what you’re offering and be likely to convert at a higher rate. You can maybe do a seasonal online promo together on Facebook or Instgram– with mechanics that allow your target market to experience both your brands. After that partnership, there is a chance for repeat transactions from customers which benefit both brands. Win-win.
3. Maximize Instagram’s new features.
Instagram has ever-changing algorithms. Try to adhere to Instagram’s guidelines as much as possible, and take full advantage of any features that are newly released. Every time Instagram create a new feature or tool as impactful as it says, try to use it as much as possible as Instagram rewards people who use those tools by finding ways to make you see success with these features.
For example, when you post a video to IGTV, it tends to show up higher in user feed because the company is trying to promote this feature, which will in turn boost its impressions. Then that IGTV post of yours may show up on feature pages or discovery pages, and your brand can therefore get that amplification as well. Be alert in knowing this platform’s new features as first adapters usually are rewarded with more exposure.
You can apply the same philosophy to other social media networks you use.
4. Content is STILL king.
The importance of passion in content in your social media networks will never go out of style. Just create good, pure content– things that people love and are motivated by, because you cannot downplay word of mouth. If your audience are engaged in what you’re doing with your brand, loves what you’re talking about and loves what products or services you are offering, then your brand will always be mentioned in their conversations one way or another. At the end of the day, customers’ word of mouth is still powerful. Once you get your clientele involved or invested in your products or services because of the quality, and they are as much invested in your brand’s strong message online, then you have truly made a brand that resonates to your market both online and offline— which will then translate to business income.
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