How to Increase Your Brand Visibility and Profit Margin in 2017

Brand loyalists are not as common as you might believe. For the vast majority of your buyers, their budgets and needs will be their top priorities. As long as you continue to meet those needs they’ll stick with you. If a competitor can meet them better, though, they’ll make the switch. This is why it is important that you never allow yourself to become complacent. You should always be taking steps to better serve your current buyers to keep them coming back and to attracting new eyes (and dollars!) to your projects.

You should also accept that the steps you took to get here will not necessarily be the same steps that you need to take to stay here. Audience demographics shift and change and the way you reach buyers current and new needs to shift and change along with them. Here are some of the growing trends in branding visibility and marketing that will help you grow your business throughout 2017.

Partner Marketing

Red Crane Media defines partner marketing this way: “advertisers pay you for limited access to your audience--access you already enjoy through normal business operations.”

This is not the same thing as simply selling your list to others or buying lists that others have built. This is a mutually beneficial arrangement in which one business provides something the other business wants to provide but cannot offer alone. A good example of this is selling targeted advertising space on a site you own, or including an insert in a piece of direct mail. The company gets to brand their portion of the project and you brand yours. This shows your audience that you trust this other company and subtly suggests they work with that business when they need its products or services.

Influence Marketing

This is a lot like partner marketing, but with one important difference. With partner marketing you’re looking at the product and whether or not it is complementary to your own. With influencer marketing, you’re looking at the person or company with whom you buddy up. Hiring someone as a spokesperson because you know they are popular with your target market is an example of influence marketing. Getting someone to endorse what you offer is another. A good example of this is when a popular YouTube personality features a product or talks up a service in their content. Oprah is probably the best example of influencer marketing in modern history.

This has been around for a while--link building campaigns were early predecessors of influence marketing. In 2017, the focus on this practice will be on social media and connection not just trying to game the Google algorithms.

The point is this: in 2017 you will need to work with others to help build your audience and grow your company’s visibility. No more shouting into the void and hoping someone stumbles across the message. Actively partner up with companies and people who can help spread your message.

And, of course, you will want to offer these partnerships and influence to others. Symbiotic relationships are key.