How to Raise Your Company Profile & Get More Leads

Are you looking to grow your business in the coming year? For businesses seeking that necessary growth to survive, particularly small and medium-sized businesses, putting effort into raising your company profile is a great next move. Here are five helpful insights into how to raise your company profile and get more leads in 2023.

5 Steps to Raising Your Company Profile

1. Develop a plan for your marketing

When you’re looking to boost your company’s profile to generate more leads and grow your business, you need more than a handful of random tactics to be successful. You need a plan focused on differentiating your brand and products or services from your competitors, increasing visibility and establishing credibility in a competitive marketplace.

The more laser-focused you can be in your planning, the higher your likelihood of a good outcome in raising your profile. Trying to be everything to everybody is a fool’s errand. Instead, focus on what makes your company unique. You’re not looking for everyone to know about you and your company; you’re looking for your ideal clients to recognize and know you.

2. Differentiate your brand & become an expert in your field

One way to separate your business from your competitors is to promote yourself. You may already be well-known inside your company, but leveraging your knowledge to the outside world can pay big benefits for your business. Consider beginning to actively position yourself as a thought leader or an expert on a topic or two. You’ve compiled a lot of knowledge in your time running your company. Leverage that knowledge by sharing it with others in a formal setting.

Look for speaking opportunities at industry events. You can start small with local chamber meetings and work up to industry or association events and conferences. Consider trade shows and other professional or business/social dates that afford opportunities. Start by attending these events and getting to know the people running them. Share your thoughts and tease them with some key insights you’ve found to bring success (have a case study or two in mind to share).

As an alternative, you can host your own event and invite vendors, clients, and associates to participate. You don’t have to be the only voice, and the others you invite will be flattered and appreciative. You don’t even need a facility—with the simplest technology, you can create a webinar or a podcast and do the same, with the added advantage of repurposing the recorded event on your website and through social media.

This type of leadership works to communicate to your customers or clients that you are knowledgeable, an expert in your field, and someone who can be relied upon and trusted. Even those who don’t attend or never hear you speak will have evidence of your leadership, and building your reputation as an expert in your field in this way will reward you with higher search engine scores and deliver referrals and new inquiries.

Perhaps you’re not at all comfortable with public speaking. You can still take advantage of this leadership method to build your reputation and authority in your field by creating a blog with your views and opinions on topics related to your business or having yourself quoted in your list of frequently asked questions on your company’s website. At the very least, you can be active by commenting on the social media posts of your clients with a professional, experienced voice representing your brand. These are easily actionable ways for how to create a profile for a company.

Raising your profile is all about marketing, so get started by developing a plan for this key component of your business’s success. Create a plan that works for you, one that identifies your target audience and the most effective channels to engage them with. Outline the goals and the specific actions you plan to take and decide on a budget that can accomplish what you set out to do in order to facilitate success.

3. Build or expand your digital presence

Are you a retailer with no web presence? Capture more sales by setting up an online store. Use your customer emails to build an email campaign and keep your name and message in front of them. If you’re already online, try optimizing your web pages to convert more shoppers into buyers. Promote your new products and services or some recent client wins in a section on your website or in a customer newsletter. Issue a press release to let people know what you’re doing and why. When you make a new hire at a senior level or celebrate a new benchmark, share that information online. 

Another great approach to increasing your digital presence is to provide valuable information to customers for free. For example, offering a free ebook with information that the customer actually finds useful or creating a YouTube channel where you share information that isn’t widely available will grow your digital presence and build trust with customers.

4. Engage users through social media channels

Another way to raise your profile is to be active on social media. When it comes to social media, the keyword is engagement. Your goal is to build a solid social media presence that others will interact with and trust. You (and your brand) should seek reciprocity with your posts and comments. Sometimes, the easiest way to start is by jumping into an established conversation. 

With more than half of the world’s population (that’s over 4 billion users worldwide) using social media, it’s not a channel that businesses can ignore. Leverage your strengths through social media like Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Treat them as a way to present your company to the world, as well as to gather information on what your clients think and what the trends are as a way to generate new ideas in your company.

Even just adopting the posture of a follower can help you build your digital presence, allowing you to find others to connect with, some of whom may become a mentor in some area you are seeking expertise. The best way to do this is to follow others who are relevant to your business and your customers. Sometimes, business leaders are blinded by their success and good fortune and decide that they have it all figured out. This type of research helps bring you back down to earth and enables you to continually teach yourself new things. You’ll see and hear about what others are doing to solve problems similar to those your company may be facing. You’ll also present your wit and wisdom to consumers who are hungry to learn about your company.  

Here are a few general rules to help in your social media dive:

• Try to consistently post 5-10 times per week across various channels.
• Be active on the social media channels where your customers are.
• Respond to questions in particular but also address any comments relevant to your brand.
• Don’t relegate the task to a junior employee; you’re demonstrating expertise here.
• Use appropriate, high-quality images and double-check your facts.

5. Seek out & build new professional relationships

LinkedIn is a great place to seek out and build new professional relationships. It has transitioned from a recruitment platform to a professional network where people come to educate themselves and learn about other companies and opportunities in their industry. With more than 15 billion sessions in just the second quarter of 2022, it’s a go-to place for uncovering potential partners, clients, or vendors (as well as finding useful professional connections, such as lawyers or accountants). Where to begin? Start by seeking out others on LinkedIn with shared affinity. Find alumni from schools you attended or identify similar groups or causes to connect with as a way of introducing yourself and making a connection that can lead to a professional relationship.

Relationships where you share a level of influence, mutual interest, or vulnerability can be transformational for individuals and, by extension, their businesses, according to Darin Rowell in the Harvard Business Review. Creating professional relationships opens you up to a variety of perspectives, viewpoints, and opinions that can grow your mindset and your business.

Volunteering is another example of building professional relationships, and there are several benefits. Not only are you helping a cause that means something to you, but it’s also an excellent way to meet others who share your affinity for that cause and to demonstrate to your employees and consumers that you believe in more than the bottom line. The overwhelming majority of consumers surveyed have a positive image of companies that give to charities and are interested in knowing how companies support charitable causes.

Do you want your employees to feel better and work better? Encourage them to volunteer with you. An added benefit is that it allows them to see you in a different light and interact with you more as a peer, which can be good for morale. Giving financially is always a good thing, but people who volunteer tend to feel more connected to their community, more fulfilled, and more purposeful.

What raising your company profile can do for you

Raising the profile of your company and creating a clear, consistent identity for use across all your communication channels will serve to build confidence and trust in your brand and lead to growth and success for your business. The bottom line is to engage—with social media, your customers, vendors, and even your competitors, always in a positive way.