Visibility is something that all businesses can always get more of, especially if they’re a small enterprise or a startup that’s still in the early stages of introducing their products and services to their market. Being visible not only has the potential to get you the customers or foot traffic you want, it can also help you attract the best employees who will be integral to your operations and in your push toward sustainable growth.
Creating visibility for your startup doesn’t only mean putting out traditional advertisements for the products or services that you’re offering. That’s just the start of it. More than that, you also have to take active steps in making your company a more viable and attractive choice for customers to patronize. This typically means you have to endear your brand to the public, and more often than not, this takes more than just showing them a single 30-second TV commercial or a full-page broadsheet ad. It takes careful nurturing of relationships that can take months or even years to accomplish.
But exactly how can you achieve that? How should a startup go about making their business more visible to the world? Here are some effective ways to garner the visibility you want for your enterprise.
Hire a professional digital design company to design your website
When it comes to creating more visibility for your company, nothing comes quite close to having an functional and efficient website. Having one gives you a strong and significant online presence that opens you up to universe of opportunities. Furthermore, it also provides potential customers a glimpse into your company’s corporate philosophy and a look into how you create or develop your products and services.
With that in mind, it’s in your best interest to hire a professional digital design company to create your website. By doing so, you can more or less ensure that your site is attractive enough, design-wise, to catch the attention of your target audience—and even those who may still be on the fence about supporting your products or services.
More importantly, having a digital design company at the helm will also help you make sure that your website is efficient in not only being the standard-bearer of your web presence but also in converting your visitors to paying customers. This means a multitude of things, from providing your visitors a great user experience to being fully responsive to the device it’s being viewed on, such as on a desktop computer or on a smartphone. Having fast loading times, an easy-to-understand user interface and navigation, and being secure against cybercrime attacks are also essential features to have for your website.
Connect with your customer base through social media
Thanks to social media, enterprises from all over the world can shake off the faceless, heartless, and profit-seeking image that a lot of people often attribute to businesses, and instead connect with their customers in a much more human and endearing way. In fact, many companies have been able to create thriving and engaging social media communities that have spawned a flurry of user-generated content and attracted extensive media mileage. A noteworthy example of such is the social media account of American fast food chain Wendy’s.
Naturally, you wouldn’t want to pass up on the opportunity to leverage social media, as not only can you use it to promote your products and services for free, you can also use it to push your brand into the internet spotlight if you play your cards right. When the content you create “goes viral,” it can become so popular that you won’t have to spend a single cent for it to be seen by tens of thousands of people across the country or even all around the world.
Take advantage of this low-cost visibility-creating tool by either setting up and curating your startup’s social media pages yourself, by or hiring a savvy social media manager or even a marketing agency who can do everything for you. The latter is strongly recommended, especially if you’re not that experienced with effective social media jockeying.
Advertise in the public spaces where your target demographic congregates
While placing advertisements on primetime TV or popular newsprints has always been a marketing staple, it’s never a guarantee that such ads will reach your target audience, especially if the service or product you’re offering caters to a very niche market.
Save your time and money by advertising instead in actual locations where you know your target demographic congregates. For example, if you’re in the videogame industry, take out a booth in one of the many huge videogame conventions that happen year after year, such as E3 and PAX. If you’re mainly a gadget-manufacturing business, then make sure you that you make your presence felt at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show or CES.
Besides conventions, you can also try approaching businesses or establishments whose own products and services are related to what you offer, and ask them if you could build partnerships with them. You may need to negotiate to make things a bit more mutually beneficial, but no matter what you agree upon, this is a great way to get eyes on your startup.
Besides the fact that you need to reach out to you your target market, the creativity of your execution also matters. Think of immersive activations and experiential marketing activities that will get your brand even more mileage and attention.
Do giveaways
Hardly anyone will turn down a free giveaway, so take advantage of this basic human characteristic of fear of missing out by giving out freebies that sport your brand identity. To make it even more effective, think of giveaways that can be used by individuals on a day-to-day basis—simple but useful items such as pens, water bottles, baseball caps, flashlights, tote bags flash drives, and so on. You can make your giveaway relevant to your primary product, too. For example, if you’re running a startup beer brewery or winery, you can give away customized bottle openers or corkscrews.
Volunteer for a humanitarian or philanthropic cause
If this month’s overhead is looking pretty stiff, and you don’t want to strain your budget any further on marketing efforts, consider instead signing your team up to volunteer for a humanitarian or philanthropic cause that you personally believe in. Some causes you can look into are volunteering at an animal shelter, caring for the elderly at a local nursing home, or helping out at a soup kitchen.
Volunteering gives you the opportunity to be more visible in your local community and to generate a positive image for your startup. More importantly, your people will have the chance to contribute something positive to a cause outside of work, which is good for their sense of self-worth.
Generating visibility for your startup isn’t as hard or as expensive as it seems
Creating visibility for your startup shouldn’t just mean placing random advertisements here and there. More than that, it should involve you gaining the attention of your target market and nurturing relationships with these people over the long term. By employing the above-mentioned methods, you’ll be well positioned to create visibility for your startup without resorting to expensive or controversial means.
