When you’re managing a brand and attempting to craft a meaningful narrative, there is no end to the possible routes you can take. The following will explore several things you can do to help introduce your brand to a wider audience.
Create Content In A Variety Of Formats
It’s no secret that everyone has a favourite means of taking in content. Some people like podcasts, others like in-depth articles, others like social media images and blurbs. To reach a wider audience, you need to open yourself up to people who take in content differently. Maybe you want to use some PPT templates to craft informative PowerPoint presentations that explain your company and work. Maybe you want to organize a podcast tour where you speak about the work your brand is doing. Figure out what mediums your brand is not represented in and create the content (or hire someone to create the content if you’re struggling to manage that side of things for yourself).
Network With Other Creators
One of the fastest ways to grow your audience is to find an already existent audience that seems like it would overlap with yours (think popular blogs, well-regarded podcasts) and create content together. While you don’t want to be creating content alongside your competitors, there are bound to be some sister brands or websites or pages that could benefit from your current audience’s interest, just as you could benefit from their audience learning about your brand. Conduct podcast interviews, write guest posts or create some form of joint content that can bring your audiences together. This is the sort of thing that can help grow awareness of your brand and also help another worthy business or cause grow.
Be Inclusive
Ideally, the internet would be a friendlier place for everyone, but in particular, content that contains options for the visually or hearing impaired can really help create a standard of inclusivity. Write up alternative descriptions for images, have subtitles on your videos, present transcriptions of interviews and podcasts, and consider having a listen to this blog post option for written content. This will help create content that can be experienced by a wider variety of people and can, therefore, help draw a larger audience to your brand.
Embrace New Features
No matter what platforms you’re using, chances are that at some point, new features are going to become available. Whenever a platform rolls out a new element, they want to encourage the use of this new feature and so tend to tweak their algorithms so as to reward users who use them regularly. To be given the best chance with algorithms, you want to figure out how to use all the features a platform has to offer. This means that if you’re posting on Instagram, you want to create guides, reels, IGTV videos, stories, story highlights, and shops. Applications and platforms reward users who take full advantage of all their features. Take the time to learn about the areas you’re posting content in and see if there are additional elements you could be utilizing.
Be Open To New Platforms
Different age groups and demographics tend to prefer different platforms. This means that if you want to continue to reach out to new people (particularly younger people who are just beginning to make spending decisions), you need to be open to new platforms. Generation Z loves TikTok, while millennials adore Instagram. Generation X seems to prefer Facebook, while baby boomers are pretty content with email subscriptions. Figure out which age group you’re not reaching with your content, and then search the platforms they most prefer until you find something that suits your brand’s vibe and narrative.
Answer Questions
One massively under-utilized way to reach people is to spend some time on sites dedicated to questions and answer those questions. Websites like Quora are full of people with a pain point or interest that are looking for exactly what you have to offer. Hop on, answer the question politely and perhaps even direct people to your website or a social media page if they want even more information on the topic.
The above tips should help you reach a wider audience with your branded content. The majority of this information works best when it is applied consistently over time. This is because consistency is ranked quite highly by all algorithms and so is a critical part of expanding your organic reach. As with all reach-based efforts, these tips are not things that can be done once and then simply left alone. The internet is an ever-evolving, rapidly developing creature that requires regular adjustments. Constantly review your analytics and the outcomes of different efforts and be ready to pivot if certain things don’t speak to your ideal audience.