How to increase brand presence and share of voice online.

To focus on the short-term will only yield short-term profitability, while persistent application and investment for the long-term will not only build your brand but is also likely to drive consistent growth and greater returns.

It is best to first determine the ultimate goal and desired campaign outcomes, the most appropriate approach can then be applied accordingly. To illustrate this, your overarching goal may be to increase conversion volume and in addition to this, you have a desired outcome may of driving a consistent level of traffic too. In simple terms, you have two measures of success. Traffic and Conversions. In order to achieve these results, you could incorporate a brand awareness campaign, perhaps promoting an offer in order to increase its effectiveness in driving traffic. In addition to this, a retargeting campaign can then be employed to further nurture your target audience to capture potential leads and drive conversions.

It is of great importance for brands to maintain a strong and consistent presence across the digital media landscape in order to effectively penetrate and influence audiences at every stage of the customer journey. However, this requires a well-executed, rounded strategy that enables brands to foster and facilitate steady growth.

An always-on strategy with a multi-channel and cross-platform approach is favourable in order for brands to become more prevalent, and thus more discoverable and reachable in an ever-increasing cluttered digital landscape. It would be fair to describe the current landscape as competitive, post-pandemic it’s likely to become even more difficult, presenting unparalleled challenges for brands, both new and established, as they seek to navigate and embed themselves into this new normal.

It’s too easy to forget the need to STAND OUT. Sometimes the best way to improve your own offering is to listen to your customers. What are their needs, wants, desires? What pain points do they have and how can you solve them? Once you’ve answered these questions, find a way to push your message in a unique and memorable way. Adjust your approach in line with performance, A/B test those witty ad copy ideas to find a winner and repeat. Your ad targeting and content will set the foundations from where you can initiate thought-leadership, expertise and benefit, which will ultimately increase presence and share of voice. To put simply, understanding target audiences and how they operate is essential to campaign effectiveness.

Ensure that your brand is fully accessible and coherent on and across all platforms. Complete all page information and ensure it reflects the brand in a positive light. Thereafter, analyse the activity and follower growth, the content performance and audience interaction. This is a recommended source of insight and can help to identify trends – it should remain a continuous undertaking in order to stay ahead of the curve.

Furthermore, analysis of competitor position relative to your own can assist in determining common and/or uncommon attributions, which can again assist in establishing what resonates best. Don’t be afraid to draw inspiration from the content of competitors but be sure to put your own spin on it.

These learnings can inform and guide a multitude of brand decisions, from tone of voice and language through to visuals, content and its delivery. All vital elements that shape a brand’s ability to navigate and reach target audiences and penetrate markets.

When it comes to social media, invest in both organic with paid amplification for maximum impact. Not only will this generate an online presence, which is key to establishing familiarity and crucial in spreading awareness and increasing followers and consideration in the long-term, but it will also provide a greater opportunity to test, experiment and draw significant conclusions to inform optimisations and importantly direct future strategies.

Although the delivery should not be disregarded in the success, the content is also of key importance. The role of organic differs to that of paid promotion and so generally speaking, and perhaps as would be expected, the outputs have distinct content requirements and demands but are not completely dissimilar.

It is fundamental to exploit the organic opportunity in order to avoid going ‘dark’. With regular postings, brands can not only share useful, relevant and informative content but these can evoke conversation. Conversion leads to increased engagement and encourages high quality and active followers. Leading to considerable value that supports a growing audience base and, importantly, builds community. But, be sure to audit, adapt and test content to strengthen performance, while also implementing platform best practises. The content should resonate on a personal level, so tailor ads and consider the most appropriate ad type required in order to connect, engage, and drive action. Your options understandably vary by platform, for example, LinkedIn has released an intriguing new feature that provides you with topics and articles that your target audience has engaged with, which can be used to discover content ideas that drive results – well worth exploring further!

It is most imperative to understand the topics of most significance and relevance to the target audience in order to initiate and be the driver of thought-leadership in the industry and market.

The open domain of social media grants the ability to actively explore, join and lead conversions from a brand perspective – though actively encouraged, bear in mind the responsibility to share reliable, unique sources of information. Furthermore, it goes without saying that the brand voice and behaviour should reflect and align with its own values. Take the opportunity to engage in trending discussions, reshare and produce content which helps to increase exposure and recognition, as well as leverage physical and virtual events to help connect directly with the target audience. These things combine to instil trust, confidence and credibility, and also allows for vital interaction within the community that deepens engagement, build relationships and allows domination of the conversation.

Ultimately, it must be expressed that in this day and age, simply to be seen and to be heard may not be enough to drive results and must be recognised that brand values and the perception of the brand are of huge influential factors to the brand’s success in establishing presence and increasing share of voice in the market. Inaction now will result in long term irrelevance, so strategise now, be relevant, be interesting and we look forward to engaging with your next post!