While the online world is making it much easier to get your business out there, it’s making it harder than ever to have it stand out. Even if your search engine optimization and outbound marketing are on point, if your brand doesn’t have its own unique appeal, you’re likely not going to get the brand visibility you deserve. So, here are a few ways to ensure that your brand packs a punch in a very crowded marketplace.

Be Authentic

This should be obvious, but the truth is that one of the most popular strategies is to copy or imitate some of the most popular brands in your industry. If you offer a “budget version,” you might experience some success, but you are never going to steal a more established company’s primary market. The best thing you can do is to position your brand against it. Make it clear that you aren’t what they are because your goal is to be unique in some form or fashion, not a knock-off version of them. However, you may be providing something that they don’t. Find and pursue your niche, whether it’s a certain market or service. Make sure it’s reflected in your marketing, too. Find your own visual style and your distinct logo. Create a brand story that’s authentic to you, not what you think the audience wants to hear. While your business may be similar to another, your goal is to put your distinctive stamp on yours. No one can “do you” like you.

Exhibit Emotions

Want people to believe that your brand is authentic? Give it a little emotion. Get engaged in it. Give the brand a personality of its own. For instance, even if you have delegated your social media tasks to someone else, everything shared should reflect your voice, not theirs. Delegate tweets and posts to one person if possible to ensure consistency in content and tone. When you’re writing website copy, get to the emotional core of what you’re trying to communicate as well as providing all the information your audience needs and wants to know. Add a little flair so that people remember your brand. Remember, brand visibility, being unique and memorable are important goals.

Get Your Audience

People are a lot more likely to engage with and to remember those brands that forge a connection with them and appeal directly to what they want from your business. If you want your brand to resonate, then focus on connecting with the audience. Specifically, focus on the problems and challenges they face, also known as pain points and how your products or services help solve those problems. Or perhaps your services help them reach a goal or lifestyle they aspire to have. Make the customer’s point of view the main point of view of your marketing. Provide not just a solution, but detailed steps that take them from problem to resolution. To do this, of course, you have to ensure that both your products or services and your marketing reflect who your audience is and the problems that they are facing. Hence, why it is extremely critical to know who, exactly, your audience is.

Offline Matter

One of the ways you can immediately stand out from the majority of online-only businesses is to establish a little real-world presence. This, however, doesn’t mean that you have to start a brick and mortar storefront. Instead, find opportunities to get your brand more visibility, such as placement at conferences and trade shows. You can use a multitude of real-world marketing ideas to help establish your brand more broadly, too. Something as simple as giving away custom branded lanyards, for example, and branding your booth, you create a visibly consistent brand image between the online and the offline. By bringing branded goodies to conferences, you give attendees even more reason to remember and recognize you when they see your brand online.

Find The Most Engaging Ways To Tell It

Make your brand story something that the audience wants to hear. The best way to get an audience invested in any story is to find the emotional core. Let’s say that your brand’s story relies on solving a problem for your target market. You need to find the right way to tell that narrative. For instance, video marketing makes it easy to tell a story efficiently, since you can use both sound and visuals at the same time. But some companies might be better able to convey their brand’s message through an infographic if they have to communicate a lot of information. You need to think about what the central message of your brand is and find the most engaging and effective way to tell it.

Nurture your base

What is truly unique about your business? You might refer back to your USP (unique selling proposition) every time you hear the question, which is OK. However, another USP that may be accurate is your audience. Even if you share the same market, you likely have your own customers and followers. It is often this base that can help you truly stand out whether it’s through word-of-mouth or through expressing their own “fandom” through their own social media channels. Make sure you focus your efforts on customer satisfaction and engagement to nurture that base. They are following and purchasing from you for a reason. If you fail to do this, you risk losing a unique aspect of your entire brand.

Be unpredictable

Finally, don’t be afraid to go off the wall with things from time to time. Even if the majority of your branding has a consistent, clear message, don’t be afraid to experiment occasionally. Look at some viral marketing ideas that have been successful of late. They are not always clear-cut or immediately understandable because many of them begin with a mystery, a shock, or a question. However, there is no denying that they help grab your attention. You can create an image or a video that leaves a lasting impression and helps immediately propel your business into the spotlight. Don’t go chasing virality by duplicating what someone else is doing, however, think outside the box and get creative with your own brand.

If you genuinely want it to be powerful, you have to ensure that your brand is created around a strong core and that you make use of every opportunity to expose it to the public. However, do understand that brand visibility, recognition and respect aren’t simply handed to you; you have to earn it piece by piece and that level of success doesn’t happen overnight for the vast majority of new entrepreneurs. Patience is indeed a virtue.

*Collaborative post