You run a small business, congratulations! Blood, sweat and tears have got you this far and you rightfully belong to agroup of cultural and economic supernovas.

You’re doing well; constantly improving your business and have got regular customers who actually convert! What more can you ask for?

‍

Awareness – it all starts here

(The Marketing Funnel - The stepwise process defining a customer’s journey to buying your product…again and again.)

Even the best product is invisible if nobody knows about it. Clichéd but true. Getting your brand out there, and doing it in the right way, is incredibly powerful, but it takes real planning.

What really is the best medium to advertiseyour brand? Can you budget for it? Does it work?

‍

Chronically online

I live in leafy Chiswick, West London, generouslyserved by Chiswick High Road, a stretch packed with art and culture. However, I am chronically online and, in my personal opinion, permanently time-poor, so I rarelyventure out ‘window licking’. Like 86% of people, I make most of my purchasing decisions on social media (we’re not so different, you and I).

However, most of what I see online is aggressive marketing pushing products that probably come from a dropshipper. I don’t like that. I may be glued to a screen, but I still scrutinise my spending,for example I’m a conscious objector to fast fashion. Whilst I immediately scroll past an advertisement, almost by instinct, I will linger on a video madeby someone real.

That’s how you‘ll capture my ‘three-second attention span’.

‍

Connecting to your audience

If you catch me on the street, I know my local fashion business offers better quality clothes, is environmentally andsocially conscious and just gets me. But how do I know that my local fashion business is Sarah’s store…and that it’s just round the corner?

If you speak my language on a platform I use, I’ll unstick myself from my screen and head to Sarah’s store when I’m in the market for a new jumper.

Fortunately, anyone can start on social media for free (well, except for the time spent), meaning anyone can begin building an audience and share their story. Democratisation at its finest - a free market for marketing, now you just have to stand out!

Quality is niche specific

Whilst social media connects us, it’s not indiscriminate. As humans, we’re socially inclined and want to connect with like-minded people. So, instead of one giant hodge-podge of users, we naturally carve out smaller niches shaped by culture, identity and interests. When we belong to a community, we relate more closely to its members and take their opinions and suggestions more seriously.

Your story must speak to that audience. For example, a high-energy try-on haul will often perform far better with a Gen Z audience than a polished studio campaign. It’s often difficult to predict how an audience actually interacts with your ad, rather than how you think they should interact with it. So, focus on telling your authentic story instead of trying to gamify the algorithm to ‘go viral’, and if it happens, that’s a bonus.

Virality doesn’t mean quality

By definition, when something goes viral, everyone sees it. This means mostly people who were never interested and will never be interested in your product. They glance, scroll past and move on. No engagement, no conversion, no loyalty.

What your advertisement needs is the right audience to drive the right kind of awareness, and we can do this with influencers.

Influencer Marketing

Over the last decade, influencer marketinghas become a cornerstone of social media strategy. These are community leaders thatshape the awareness and opinions of their followers, and it works!

Remember, influencers are rarely created in isolation. Their credibility comes from the fact that they are part of the culture they speak to and have built their following around their personality, perspective, and interests. Their audiences relate tothem and trust their opinions.

This is where their value lies. Influencers bring authenticity and social authority within their niche. Most are represented by agencies, so they’re quite professional. They’re powerful advertisers, as long as you’re not put off by the horror stories and price tag.

Niche-ing Down

The more focused thatniche becomes, the more powerful that influence is. A creator speaking to a defined community often drives far stronger engagement and conversion than someone broadcasting to a broad, generic audience.

For this reason, many brands are now seeing stronger returns from micro-influencers. These creators may have smaller followings, but their audiences are more engaged, more trusting, and far more aligned with their message. And in today’s creator economy, there is no shortage of passionate voices speaking to specific communities.

This is the kind of awareness that actually matters: visibility among the people who genuinely care. Whilst harder to find and vet than macro-influencers, their content is more reflective of their community and the numbers show it.

‍

Organic and Non-GMO

Let’s take this one step further, if influencers are trusted voices within a community, then user generated content (UGC) is the voice of the community itself. Instead of a brand speaking throughan influencer, customers speak about the brand to one another actinglike genuine reviews.

A real person sharingtheir experience feels different, it’s unscripted, relatable, and far morecredible. Because users, like myself, are suffering from ad fatigue and becoming increasingly suspicious of the intentions behind online content, authenticity guaranteesmy attention. Content that looks overly produced can feel detached, whereas UGC blends naturally into what we already consume.

In many cases, brands now build campaigns specifically around UGC. Instead of producing every pieceof content themselves, they collaborate with creators and customers who canshowcase the product in a way that feels natural to their audience.

Final thoughts

Think of it as a whistle-stop tour. You now have a clearer sense of where your audience is and how they behave. They are more scrutinising than ever and their preferences are evolving rapidly. Grab their attention and engagement with authenticity from genuine voices withintheir community.

Your audience is already out there, and you just need to tell your story in a way that feels real.

‍