Are you struggling to differentiate your company from the competition? Poor online visibility may be one root cause of your woes.
Fortunately, you don’t have to hire a white-shoe marketing firm to significantly improve your online presence. With the exception of #1 and perhaps #5, none of the strategies outlined below require any out-of-pocket investment.
- Target Common Search Terms (But Don’t Overpay)
One of the quickest ways to boost your company’s online visibility is to run paid campaigns covering the most common search phrases associated with your business. For instance, if you’re an online clothing reseller, you might want to target terms like “discount secondhand clothing” and “online thrift store.”
Your marketing budget will determine just how far you can do with this strategy. Price invariably increases with competition, so your ability to target super-popular terms may be limited by what you can afford.
- Set Up a Crunchbase Profile
This is a totally free strategy that should take less than 30 minutes of your time. If you’re not familiar with Crunchbase, it’s a popular directory site for businesses and key employees; though tech companies, startups, and funders are overrepresented here, Crunchbase is appropriate for just about every ambitious business. The Crunchbase profile for this arts and technology school is typical of entries that aren’t built with VC funders in mind: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/centre-arts-and-technology
- Boost Your LinkedIn Presence
Spend an hour or two burnishing your company’s LinkedIn presence. Items to address might include:
- Ensuring that all of your full-time employees follow your business page
- Completing and updating your profile’s custom fields, like business name and contact details
- Creating a succinct, compelling business description
- Adding a custom cover photo (wallpaper) above your featured photo
- Posting at least two short updates per week (more on that below)
- Create a Company Snapchat Account (Yes, Really)
Even if your company’s account never breaks into high-profile lists of the top Snapchat accounts to follow, it’s worth having around. Yes, even if your core audiences don’t spend much time on Snapchat. The more high-authority social properties on which your company has a non-token presence, the more visible it’s going to be to prospects.
- Schedule Social Posts and Blog Posts in Advance
Use a reputable social media management platform to schedule social posts well in advance, saving your team time and effort during peak periods. This well-known provider’s feature suite is representative of what you’ll get from a paid plan: https://hootsuite.com/platform/scheduling
You’ll want to shop around, though, and if your needs aren’t extensive, you may be able to make do with a free plan.
- Produce High-Value Longform Content on a Regular Basis
Commit to producing at least one comprehensive, shareable piece of top-shelf content per quarter, and ideally at least one per month. The more quality content you produce and promote, the faster you’ll establish your reputation for thought leadership — which is absolutely key for your long-term market position.
- Network With Industry Influencers
Finally, don’t be shy about networking the industry influencers. You never know when those connections will come in handy. If you’re not sure where to start, check out these brand-centric networking tips.
Is Your Company Ready for Its Close-up?
Your company is closer to better online visibility than you realize. Indeed, you can get started on most of these action items this week. The only question is, what are you still waiting for?
Kidal Delonix is a contributor to Mr. Hoffman's blog. The views and opinions are entirely his/her own and may not reflect Mr Hoffman's views.
