Is your brand invisible? And what exactly does that mean? Brand invisibility is a brand awareness problem taken to absurd heights; in this almost impossible state, almost nobody knows about your business. And with no awareness, sales and growth are practically impossible.

Fortunately, there are countless ways to dig your brand out of this hole – and together, we’ll explore some of the most valuable potential solutions.

The Ruthless Pit of Brand Invisibility

Brand awareness is critical for everything that matters to your business. People who are more aware of your brand are more likely to buy from you. Existing customers who are more aware of your brand are more likely to remain loyal, more likely to make purchases from you in the future, and more likely to recommend your brand to their friends and family members. The higher your brand awareness is, the more trust you’ll be able to cultivate – and the more your competitors will struggle to crawl out from under your shadow.

Brand invisibility puts your company in a veritable pit. Brand awareness has an aspect of self-perpetuation; since greater brand awareness leads to more word-of-mouth advertising and the natural proliferation of your content, even a small amount of brand awareness can eventually start to snowball. 

But if you don’t reach that important first threshold, you could be stuck indefinitely without the benefits of brand awareness.

How do you solve this problem?

The Top Remedies for Invisible Brands

Before you get too deep in brainstorming solutions to your brand invisibility problem, it’s a good idea to conduct a root cause analysis. Why is it that your brand is virtually invisible?

In many cases, this is a simple byproduct of launching a new brand. When your company is young, brand invisibility is inevitable; it’s your responsibility to take the first step in building that brand awareness. However, this could also be attributable to a problem with your approach to marketing and advertising, or a fundamental problem with your brand identity.

Depending on what you find in your analysis, these are some of the top strategies to remedy the invisible brand problem:

• Solidify your brand identity. First, take a moment to revisit your brand identity. Do you have a consistent and rigid set of standards that establish the foundation of your brand? Does everyone within your organization adhere to these brand standards? Without a coherent, consistent identity, your brand awareness strategies are going to fall flat.
• Create original, valuable content (and distribute it). Next, create original, valuable content, and work to distribute it. Content marketing remains one of the most effective ways to build awareness of and trust in your brand, since it gives people the information they need, typically for free. The trick is to create content that’s both original and valuable to your target audience, which can be tricky. Once you have the content created, you’ll need to do the legwork of distributing and promoting it – or else, people won’t be able to find it.
• Go omnichannel. Visibility problems often emerge as a result of narrow promotional efforts. To combat this, go omnichannel. In other words, market and advertise your brand in every channel you can think of, from in-person networking to social media pay per click (PPC) ads.
• Increase your advertising budget. There’s no question that advertising is getting more expensive, but that’s partially because advertising keeps getting better. Today, advertisers have access to more data and more tools than ever, and if you’re willing to use those tools to their fullest potential, you should have no trouble reaching people. Advertising is an investment in your company’s future, so don’t be afraid to splurge a bit here.
• Offer freebies. One easy way to get people’s attention is to give them something for free. We’ve already mentioned the merits of offering free content; you can generate even more brand awareness if you’re willing to offer people products or services for free when they need them. Free trials and giveaways are ideal for building your brand presence.
• Push your social media presence. Social media is a uniquely powerful tool for improving brand awareness, since it gives you access to billions of potential followers – and the basic features are free. Start a contest, engage with your existing followers routinely, post regularly, and consider partnering or collaborating with existing thought leaders in your space; if you’re consistent, it’s only a matter of time before you achieve visibility growth.

Building brand awareness isn’t a one-time ordeal; it’s something your company will have to practice consistently and indefinitely if it’s going to flourish. That said, once you crawl out of the pit of brand invisibility, you’ll be in a much better position to make your brand known – and ultimately win over your most important target customers.