collaborative post // Do you admire successful business owners and think of how they started? Most started as small businesses before growing big. It is worth knowing that one main tool that pushes companies to a bigger platform is marketing. Marketing helps your clients and customers know how great your product is while maintaining a good relationship with customers.
While you remain relevant in your business space, you also get to engage with your customers and build a solid relationship with them. When you market your business, you can provide insight about your business without meeting your clients face-to-face.
As a business owner, you must be resilient and consistently satisfy your customers. Fortunately, the following are some effective measures you can implement to market your small business.
Create a brand logo
Clients typically use your business name and log to identify your business. Moreover, they can set your business apart from your competitors. Often, you see some company logo, and they ring a bell. That is to say that the logo speaks for you without needing an introduction.
As a small business owner, you’ve got to invest in your logo to draw customers to your brand. Make sure to use colours that are inviting and attractive. Consequently, do well to strategically plan how you want your logo to look. Make sure to avoid replicating another brand’s logo. This can be uncomfortable and cost you a lot in the future when the business becomes a household name, so keep this in mind.
Leverage social media to promote your brand
In the past, billboards, newspapers, television, and radio advertisements called the shots in marketing. But in recent times, where technology has become the norm of the day, you do not need to struggle to gather huge sums of money for a television commercial that will only last for a few seconds. Leveraging technology and new media to advertise and market your business is advisable.
Some platforms, such as Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others, help you reach a larger audience with little to no cost. They allow you to display your business anytime and anywhere with a click on your phone or laptop.
The good thing about these platforms is that you only need the internet, and you’re good to go, unlike television, billboards, and radio advertisement, where you’d have to pay huge sums of money to display your business. Make sure to take advantage of all the social media platforms and do well to follow most of your clients when you sign up.
You can also inform your clients about your social media platforms and encourage them to follow the business. Try as much as possible to incentivise your clients when they frequently comment to encourage them to visit your social media handles often.
Know your audience
In growing your business, remember that your audience matter. You’ve got to know your target market. This means you must understand their needs from time to time, which will help you build your services or products to suit their needs and wants. Remember that they are the reason you’re in the market.
Try as much as possible to interact with them from time to time and find out what more they expect from your business. This will help you to improve by doing things differently when you start your business. You can sometimes leverage your social media platforms to survey certain things about the business.
This will help you receive as many results as possible since most clients tend to be honest under the condition of anonymity.
Ask for referrals and reviews
Referrals from your clients can result in gaining new clients. To grow your business, you can ask for referrals from your customers, but you must make sure that how you request a referral doesn’t make you desperate. Remember that your customers are connected to several millions of people and can identify among their millions of friends who need your product.
Their referrals can produce another set of loyal customers, as they have tried and experienced that your product is good. Apart from the referrals, you could also use some reviews. Reviews give you a picture of how well your business is doing. It also helps you to identify the negative things about your business.
This allows you to work on the negatives and thrive to do well with the positives.
Offer giveaways or offer discounts
Apart from the fact that giveaways and discounts inspire customer loyalty, it gives your customers the perception that you care about them. Giveaways and discounts are one of the most important things to your customers. Various studies indicate that customers purchase many products when there are discounts and give away.
Giveaways, for instance, help your business to stand out in the crowd. For instance, souvenirs such as umbrellas, t-shirts, and other visible items with your logo and business name will help others notice your business. They sometimes serve as an advertisement, and customers are proud to be associated with these souvenirs.
Consequently, reduce your prices at specific periods to encourage customers to patronise your brand.
Learn from other businesses
How can you become successful without the help of teachers, mentors, and self-initiation projects? It’s a good step you have taken to start a business. But mind you, there’s nothing new under the sun; whatever cause we choose to take today has been one that someone trod on years back or even recently.
So why not learn from them to know what worked and what didn’t work for them, so you don’t end up repeating some mistakes they did? Be committed to learning a lot from other successful businesses. You do not need to talk to them in person before making any changes to your business.
Watch them, and study them from afar on their website, social media platforms, and many others. You may identify 1 or 2 things they are missing out on or failing to do.
To operate effectively, you can focus on their challenges and turn them into opportunities in your way. Please take advantage of this, as it will distinguish your business from others and allow you to progress effectively. Research what other businesses do and how they go about it so you can learn new ways of marketing your business.
Use videos to market your products
It is worth knowing the contents provided in video forms have a 30% higher audience reach than those shown in image form. Therefore, to grow your business effectively, you must use videos more than images to impact your target audience.
Using visual elements to reach your desired customers has increased sales for most small-scale businesses, so keep this in mind. While at it, ensure that you post helpful content that would add value to your customers. As a tip, upload how-to or informative videos that will address their questions or needs.
There are many perfect types of marketing videos for all products. The best approach is to choose a video type that will showcase the product in the most favorable light and reach the target audience. For example, a testimonial video would be a better choice for a product that relies on customer satisfaction for its success.
Another type of video is an explainer video, which would be a good choice for your new business producing complex products that require much explanation. Mobile app explainer videos have become increasingly popular in today’s mobile-first world. In 60-90 seconds, they can describe app functionality, benefits, and user interface.
List your business on popular local directories
As a small business, you may consider listing your business on a popular local directorate to increase the awareness of your brand. It also boosts your search engine optimisation, popularly known as SEO, and improves your local visibility.
Consider paid adverts on social media
Indeed, free marketing on social media is effective. However, you can leverage paid adverts on social media while online to get more followers and show your products to a much larger audience. While your usual social media handle projects your business to your primary user demographics, paid ads allow you to choose from psychographic elements you want to target.
This increases your reach and allows you to have new customers anytime. On Facebook, for instance, if you are new, it would take some time before you can get followers. Therefore, you can pay to advertise your products or business for a few days, a week or even months to remind people to visit your business handle, so keep this in mind.
Create a website
SWEOR research indicated that approximately 75% of customers will judge a business’s credibility based on its website. Indeed, a website is essential for promoting your business. This is because your customers will likely visit it to understand you business and what products or services you offer.
Moreover, you can cause them to stay loyal to your brand if they have positive experiences with your website. Seeing these benefits, you want to create a business website if you haven’t already.
You want to ensure that your website is best suited to your needs and preferences. For instance, you’ll find it helpful to work with professionals to create a professional accounting website if you are a freelance accountant.
Consequrntly, ensure that your website is mobile-friendly, with eye-catching graphics. It’s also prudent to include CTAs on your webpages, so that your customers can quiclky contact you if they need your products or services.
Promoting your business is a great way to increase sales and ensure business continuity. Get ready to storm the business world with your business in no small time with the above effective tips. Cheers!
