No matter how successful a brand is, maintaining visibility in front of its customers is crucial for sustainable growth. Still, visibility by itself is not enough. It is just the first step in a long journey from awareness, to purchase, loyalty and the Holy Grail – brand affinity. Perhaps a belief that visibility is the end goal is why so many brands remain mostly invisible.
A brand that understands the foundational role of visibility launches its efforts in a very specific manner. While it executes many of the same marketing tactics as its competitors, it employs a strategy founded on six core ideas that ensure a successful leap to the next stage of connecting with customers.
Your Brand Visibility Checklist:
Be Consistent.
If you want awareness, you must be consistent in your outreach. It is less important that you be visible everywhere than that you be continuously visible somewhere to your customers. I wish it went without saying, but if you are too busy, or too intimidated to be visible online or in networking circles, then don’t be surprised no one knows about you.
Be Focused.
You cannot be all things to all people. Know whom you serve, and let your communications speak directly to them. If you try to be visible to too large an audience you become effectively invisible to everyone.
Be Your Promise.
Brands that say they create a certain experience or result but fail to deliver on that promise, lose visibility as a result. Pay as much attention to your customer experience as you do to your marketing. This prevents restarting your visibility efforts over and over with a new audience. The best visibility will always be a referral.
Be Patient.
It takes a lot of touches to build trust with a new customer. Don’t expect immediate response from your visibility efforts. Visibility is a long game.
Be Forgiving.
You will make assumptions in your efforts to grow visibility. Some will have tremendous success, and others will definitely not. Enterprise organizations can absorb the impact of poor results, while smaller organizations feel them more intensely. Give yourself the grace to try things, and experiment – but only if you can afford it. Then if it doesn’t go as expected, determine your lessons, and get back up on the horse and try again.
Be Compelling.
Brand visibility is emotional at its core. To create visibility that converts to purchase you must create a compelling call to action that exists in a compelling visual and verbal brand context. In other words, your imagery, your brand’s talking points, and your execution all need to demonstrate what your brand stands for. Make me believe you – and make me want to be better because I bought from you.
When you do these things well, your brand’s visibility will grow. Not only that, the visibility you earn will create a clear path to purchase, loyalty and the deep emotional bonds of connection that are contained in brand affinity.
While broad visibility is not required to keep the business running, it certainly creates greater growth and greater profit for both the long and short term.Â
If you want to understand how to improve your brand’s visibility, reach out to me at: hello@unstoppablebrandleader.com