Whether you’re a business owner or a licensed professional, building your brand online is imperative in today’s hyperconnected world.
For this, you need to be prepared to adopt the philosophies, strategies, and tools needed to draw your target audience’s attention. Otherwise, it’s only a matter of time before your brand gets drowned out by the hungry competition.
The bad news is, a lot of people are falsely convinced that all it takes to increase online visibility is to churn out brand-centered content. They showcase their credentials, shove their selling points down their visitors’ throats, and roll out visually appealing advertisements — all without paying attention to the value and engagement that the online audience gets.
This isn’t the way to earn their trust.
What you need is to focus on experiences that raise brand awareness, prove your expertise, and help your potential leads accomplish something meaningful. Once you put your target audience first, rest assured that your brand will begin to build itself.
In this post, we’ll discuss the best strategies on how to become an authoritative force in your niche.
Let’s get started.
1. Create a Blog
Most, if not all, brand building strategies are designed to pull in traffic to your website.
While an external digital touchpoint can be used to pique the audience’s interest, your website is ultimately responsible for converting them into subscribers or paying customers. That’s why, before you delve into tactics that expand your online reach, you must first develop valuable content that visitors will thank you for.
To find suitable topic ideas for your website, a good strategy is to use a content research tool like Google Trends. Simply enter any search term or topic to scrape trending queries from the web.
You can also perform keyword research to have an idea of what users are looking for in search engines. With a tool like Ubersuggest, all you need to do is enter a “seed keyword” to generate hundreds of long-tail keyword suggestions along with crucial metrics for gauging their popularity.
2. Answer Questions on Quora
Speaking of content ideas, another reliable way to generate them is through Quora — a Q&A website where users can post about their problems and await brands who can offer them a solution.
Just like content and keyword research tools, Quora uses keywords to help you find posts that are relevant to your industry.
But what makes Quora so valuable isn’t its usefulness in generating content ideas — it’s the opportunity to position your brand as a credible information source.
You can also funnel traffic straight to your website by providing a link to your content. Just make sure your answer can stand on its own regardless if users choose to check out your link or not.
3. Join and Create Social Media Groups
Aside from answering questions on Quora, you can also increase your brand’s visibility by participating in social media groups.
Facebook Groups, in particular, allows you to get up close and personal with potential leads. You could either join industry-specific groups or communities that align more with your target audience’s interests.
For example, if you’re a developer of a budget-tracking app, you can start looking for groups to join with a keyword like “money saving.”
Just remember that, unlike Q&A websites, some popular social media groups don’t allow companies to include self-serving links. This is to encourage all members to prioritize being helpful and contributing value to the community.
How can you get attention for your brand without expressly mentioning or linking to it in the group? The key is to fuse your business and personal brand into your own profile.
You can do this by updating your workplace information and your profile “intro” to contain all the brand-related details you want to share.
If you want, you can also change your profile and cover photos to reflect your brand. It could be your company’s logo, a photo of your office, a screenshot of your software, and so on.
Also, don’t forget to share your blog’s content on your Facebook page whenever they’re published. Doing will give your newfound contacts a peek at what they can learn from your website — thus, encouraging them to click on your site and have a closer look.
What’s important is to participate in the group as a legitimate member and let the curiosity of other users do the rest. You can answer questions, like posts, leave reactions, or share their own posts to make your way into their notifications.
4. Host a Webinar
Nothing screams authority more than a well-made webinar.
Let’s face it, there’s only so much written content can do when it comes to engaging your online audience. Videos, on the other hand, offer a more impactful way of conveying your brand’s message.
Statistics show that 92 percent of viewers are compelled enough to share the video with others — not to mention that 52 percent of them become more confident in a purchase decision.
Now, planning and hosting your own webinar may sound intimidating, especially if you never got your hands dirty with video content before.
With a platform like WebinarNinja, everything you need on the software side of things is consolidated in one location, from customizable registration forms to mid-webinar engagement tools. This includes a moderated chat section, screen sharing, and real-time polls.
WebinarNinja also walks you through the process of webinar creation with four different project types:
- Live — Broadcast and manage your webinar live.
- Automated — Pre-record a webinar and schedule it to repeat on specific dates.
- Series — Plan a string of webinars that cover an expansive topic.
- Hybrid — Present pre-recorded content while using live audience interaction tools.
Perhaps the biggest challenge at this point is preparing to speak for your webinar, which can be nerve-wracking for marketers with zero experience in speaking engagements.
In which case, it’s probably better to pre-record your webinar and make sure you avoid slip-ups. The only drawback is that you’ll miss out on the benefits of hosting a live webinar, such as the ability to interact with your attendees and the increased sense of urgency.
5. Develop An Online Course
If you somehow decide to step up your video content game and explore growth opportunities with online courses, then there’s no better time to do so than now.
Knowledge commerce platforms like Kajabi are more accessible than ever — not only in terms of affordability but also usability.
For example, one of the core features of Kajabi is the availability of product blueprints. These are essentially premade templates that can guide your course content creation efforts.
Remember, an online course must be molded around one of your target audience’s goals. To accomplish this, you need to pick the right online course structure from the get-go.
That said, here is a quick rundown of Kajabi’s product blueprints:
- Mini-Course
As the name suggests, a mini-course is designed for online courses that tackle one specific topic. It can still contain multiple pieces of content, but at the end of the day, mini-courses are no more comprehensive than long-form posts and how-to guides.
- Online Course
The online course product blueprint is necessary if you think you’ll need more than a few lessons to cover a subject more satisfactorily. Unlike mini-courses, a full-on online course usually includes multiple content categories to make interrelated concepts and information more digestible.
- Evergreen Training
Lastly, an evergreen training blueprint can be used if you need to drip-feed lessons over several days or weeks. This should give your audience ample time to really absorb or see results with each lesson.
6. Leverage Social Media Influencers
What’s the fastest way to build your brand’s visibility and authority online?
Simple — just leverage the existing visibility and authority of other influencers.
A survey revealed that 30 percent of consumers are more likely to buy a product that’s been endorsed by a non-celebrity blogger. On the other hand, about 60 percent of the survey respondents have considered social media posts and blog posts while shopping.
To get started with influencer marketing, you’re guaranteed to get results with a social media listening tool like Keyhole.co, which will help you find and engage popular users who are already talking about your brand.
Although guest posting isn’t necessarily an influencer marketing strategy, it’s also a great way to leverage another brand’s presence to grow your online visibility. A straightforward way to look for sites that accept guest posts is to perform a Google search with keywords like “submit guest posts,” “contribute to this blog,” and so on.
Conclusion
Establishing an online brand isn’t meant to be easy.
It may take weeks or even months before your efforts yield profitable results, be it in the form of increased traffic or higher conversions. Until then, exercise patience and stick to the strategies outlined above — you’re already on the right path! Cheers!
