Can you get your market to think of your brand when they are ready to buy?

Entrepreneurs and startup founders must fight to achieve brand recognition. Even if you have a solid blog or website with excellent well-written content you may still be struggling to grow your audience and make a real impact.

Brand recognition is the first step to establishing what is known as the “know, like, trust” factor.

This factor has been used in face-to-face interactions for centuries, but it is has been a struggle to get right in online marketing. It is important to strengthen each element in order to drive traffic and see results.

How do you get in the “know?”

We’re going to focus today on brand recognition – the “know” factor. How do you expect to grow your audience if no one has ever heard of you? The first step to establishing your brand is to make sure you have high-quality content. Your content allows people to see who you are and why they should be listening to you. Once you’ve created good content, you can focus on getting your brand name out to your target audience.

Let’s take a look at steps you can take to establish brand recognition:

1. Clearly, identify your target audience.

Casting a wide net is not the most effective tactic here. Instead, look to clearly define your buyer persona and then develop and position your content to suit that buyer. Stay focused here. Target a small but well-defined niche. Don’t try to target everyone because you will end up speaking to no one.

2. Highlight your expertise.

Take measures to establish yourself as an authority or expert. Use your content to display factual information and empirical evidence, not just opinions. This type of content is much more impactful.

3. Create targeted and thoughtful content.

Take the time to learn and understand what your audience really wants. Do some serious research, ask a lot of questions, and don’t be afraid to dig around to make sure you are creating the right content to appeal to your readers.

4. Offer an appealing free product.

Use all of that research you’ve done to get answers to a problem or issue that is frustrating your audience. Then, create a solution to that problem in the form of an eBook, special report, or white paper. This free product can easily be used as an incentive to grow your email list.

5. Spread the word.

Expand your network by encouraging your audience to share your content via social media. This is a pretty straightforward way to get your name out there and reach more people. Make sure you make the most of your networking efforts by being unique in some way.

6. Attract the attention of influential people.

Be tactical and tactful in reaching out to those people who are influencers in your field or industry. Use social networking and blog post commenting to your advantage. Who you know can be just as important as what you.

7. Establish a successful blog.

Do you want to start making money as a blogger? Click here for my step-by-step guide on how to start a blog.

How do you do it? Be unique and make sure to let your personality shine, but be sure to stay focused on your topic. It is important to develop a unique voice. The success of a blog has to do with the quality of the content and the way the content is communicated.

8. Ask the experts.

Remember those influential people you were trying to reach earlier? Interview them.

9. Be our guest.

Guest blogging is an easy and effective way to tap into a new audience market. Make sure your guest posts are interesting, relevant, and unique. Remember that good quality content is the foundation of this empire. Write something so good that they can’t refuse to post it.

10. Think outside the box.

Creativity is the word of the day. You can speak to audiences by going beyond the written word. Try to find alternatives that would appeal to that audience of yours. Webinars, videos, podcasts, and even simple infographics can have a big impact.

Utilizing these steps should help you get your brand out there and grow your audience. Also, remember that this is just one step in establishing that necessary “know, like, trust” factor.

photo credit: eifel Tower