The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
1. Tell Your Story
If you are just starting out, tell the story of how your company came to be and where it is headed next. Regular updates on your progress will cause customers to care more about you and check in more regularly. It gives a company a personality and makes it easy to connect with.
– Colbey Pfund, LFNT Distribution
2. Leverage SaaS Tools
These days, there are many tools in the price range of $10 to $20 a month, that can help you leverage digital media in a more optimal manner. For example, CrowdfireApp helps brands quickly engage on Twitter and manage the right mix of followers. You can also use design tools like Canva to design branded content. And Google Analytics is a free tool to understand the outcomes of your digital marketing.
3. Build an Email List
An email list is a valuable resource that increases your brand’s value over time. Creating a large and responsive one isn’t necessarily easy, but you can do it without investing much. While paid ads help you build a list more quickly, you can also do it cheaply with SEO and social media marketing. Make sure you provide helpful content to your subscribers and your list will keep growing.
4. Calculate SEO Value of Organic Keywords
Each organic keyword has SEO value. The SEO value is what you would expect to pay Google AdWords if you were paying for each click. By analyzing the collective SEO value of the clicks your website organically brings, you can establish an ROI to SEO efforts and bring a number to your digital brand value. Want to know what your SEO value is now? Check out Spyfu.– Brett Farmiloe, Markitors – Digital Marketing Company
5. Hire a Freelancer
Hiring a freelancer who specializes in digital marketing is a great way to increase your digital brand value. Small-business owners have a lot on their plate, and oftentimes digital takes a back seat. Instead of adding another thing to your long to-do list, hire a digital marketing freelancer who already knows what they’re doing and can increase your digital brand value on their own.
– Jared Brown, Hubstaff Talent
6. Live-Stream Content
I think I’m addicted to live-stream. I love the idea of broadcast media and enjoy interviewing and featuring stories, as well as sharing bits of my life and work. It’s engaging for my audience, who love to ask questions. This way, I get to know more of them by speaking directly to them, which also helps to shape the live-video content.
7. Appear on Podcasts and Quora
Podcasts are a great way to get the word out about your company and establish yourself as a thought leader with expertise in your industry. Another low-cost, untapped channel for increasing your digital brand can be Quora. By informatively answering questions that are relevant to your industry, you can not only position yourself as an expert but also drive traffic to your website.
– Brian David Crane, Caller Smart Inc.
8. Create Valuable Content
Most content published by a business is self-promotional and, frankly, not worth reading or watching. Instead of thinking about how content can best serve your business, think about what your audience needs and wants. Focus on creating and promoting content that is truly valuable to customers and leads, not on hacking engagement and traffic metrics.
9. Improve Your Footprint Through Reviews on Google and Yelp
Yelp and Google Business are the best way for small businesses to create a digital footprint. Small businesses can create a profile on these networks for free and then add tons of content about the business. You can also reach out to your customers to submit reviews about you on these sites. This will create strong brand value when someone searches for you or similar businesses online.
10. Provide Case Studies
Having well-designed and statistically driven case studies on your website is a low-cost solution for increasing your brand value. Case studies provide verification of your brand’s ability to perform. Simply displaying a list of services and telling your customers what you do is not enough to establish authority. Case studies show customers you can walk the walk and not just talk the talk.
11. Invest in Instagram Ads
A lot of people judge digital brand value by social media reach. Instagram ads, especially story ads, are highly effective at bringing more eyeballs and followers to your account.
12. Pivot to Video
One of the best ways to increase your business’s digital brand value is to stay abreast of digital trends and find low-cost ways to leverage them. Right now, that means video. The “pivot to video” across the social media landscape means new opportunities for this engaging format, including native video. And producing authentic, high-quality video content is not as expensive as you might think.
13. Set Design Guidelines
Establish your design guidelines so that every post is a consistent embodiment of your brand foundation. Fonts, colors, line weights, logo use, subject and so forth all play into your brand recognition. Before long, a particular look will remind people of your brand instead of being stashed away in the memory bank as a random internet meme.
