collaborative post | When it comes to wanting to move your business forward, you might be feeling a little unsure about what direction to take. You may have your website, and a basic presence online through social media accounts, but in a saturated market of online activity and businesses cropping up every day, how do you stand out from the crowd?
The truth is, you have to be proactive, and it is something you also have to be consistent in. A marketing strategy can be an excellent way to prioritise your focus on the things that you want to do.
However, with so many different options what could be right for your business? What would work and what perhaps wouldn’t suit your business style or image?
With that in mind, here are some of the best marketing strategies you could consider and see if you could move your business forward in any way. Let’s hope it gives you the incentive to try out new things and perhaps build your business up and move forward to be the success you have dreamt it to be.
Image source – pixabay – cco license
Grow your social media following organically
A great place to start is to think about social media. Growing your accounts organically is what you want to achieve. Rather than looking to buy followers which many businesses and influencers think is a quick fix. This means that you work hard to grow your following by engaging with your audience, sharing posts consistently and also knowing the best times to post to get the maximum reach.
Using hashtags can also help you reach a wider audience and following and liking status updates and pictures within your niche could also help you. Thankfully, there are many articles online full of tips and tricks to help you organically grow your social media following.
Having a clear campaign for social media
There is no doubt about it, social media is one of the best ways to advertise your business, and you probably already know that and use it every day already. But, are you taking full advantage of it? Having a campaign specific to your social media marketing is a great way to ensure that you achieve exactly what you want.
The ways that you can do that is by not just sharing words and images; you can start to share other content such as video clips. You could use the stories element on Instagram and Facebook, or even choose to do live videos for behind-the-scenes footage. The more content you create, the more engagement you will start to have.
Trying out social influencer marketing
There has been an influx of people becoming social media sensations or having a large and engaged audience in all different genres. These people are normal, and more down to earth than celebrities.
They could be a blogger or vlogger on YouTube, they may be just someone who posts great content online, but the differences are that their audiences are engaged. This could be great coverage for you and asking to work with them on advertising campaigns or reviews could be an amazing way to gain some exposure.
Try competitions and freebies
Why not try running a competition or giving out freebies? You could give a feebie to the first number of customers to sign up to a mailing list or register interest in something. Competitions and freebies are a great way to also grow a social media following as an entry can be to follow you and tag others.
Giving things away is always going to raise the interest of others, and you could ensure that you then keep that audience engaged with future posts and may even entice people to do business with you in the future. Many businesses do things like this to get some interest around their business and brand quickly and effectively.
Gain customer feedback and reviews
A top tip is to gain customer feedback where posttible. You will want to know how they felt using your business, what they bought and their experiences. A great way to do that is through reviews and feedback and then showcasing them online. This helps to build up brand loyalty and trust as well as being a great way to encourage more people to deal with you. You could also share this feedback through social media updates.
Host or attend marketing events
Sometimes it is good to work with other businesses and attending marketing events can be a great way to learn new skills and also collaborate with other businesses where you can help each other to thrive. These events give you a chance to steo out of your business and look at it from the outside, which could help you to make vital changes to how you market and advertise your products and services in the future.
Head to a trade event
Your business niche may have trade events and hige expo’s that you can attend. You could hire a stall, for example, a baby business could go to the baby show held in different cities. You are going to be infront of an engaged audience who are there because they want to see businesses such as yours. Many people make sales at these big tarde events and they can be very lucrative and successful.
Share content differently
Sharing content is key these days, especially digitally. Your website is one of the best places to do that, but you will need to consider what you put on there. The content needs to include keywords and can also help you with things like your seo strategy. A professional seo service is often one of the best ways to utilise this.
But you could also share content through online blog articles. This is another way for you to share information about your brand and business. When it comes to social media, you could also try and share the content differently. You could do it through video content, images and editing them differently.
Upping your photography game
Images speak many words to people, and so often ensuring that you capture your products, your locations, or your services in the right way is essential.
Often with products, clothes, and even tech and holidays for example, you base your decision on whether to make the purchase based on the pictures you see, which is why a business owner should enlist the help of a photographer to capture the essence. A professional photographer will always be able to capture images in just the right way, which will work wonders in any form of marketing avenue you go down.
Try being the local expert
The next thing to think about would be how you are perceived locally. There is a new trend these days that encourages people to shop local and shop small, and so more and more people are discovering what businesses and brands they have in their local area.
So now is the time to be the local expert in your area. This will encourage people to use your business and brand and it can also help you to be introduced to a whole new set of customers.
Get involved in community events
If you want to really get ahead with the local advertising side of things then you may want to think about getting involved with local community events. Many local communities hold events such as fetes in the spring and summer, and having a stall or sponsoring events can be a great way to really open up your brand and business to a new set of customers.
It also encourages you as a business to not hide behind the computer screen and to think about a new direct marketing approach that focuses on one area. Which of course, can then be expanded as and when you move forward with your business and brand.
Work with a charity
You might also want to think about working with a charity. This could be a local charity where you will both benefit from advertising opportunities and funds being raised for a good cause. Sponsoring a charity through events and fundraisers really opens up the market for where your business can be seen. But you don’t necessarily need to stay local. You could consider working with national charities or specifically with something that is close to your heart in terms of what the charity is raising funds and awareness for.
Try marketing locally
Finally, why not try different methods of advertising and marketing locally. First of all, you could consider a local leaflet drop. Specific to housing estates and roads, dropping leaflets in through the door is a real direct way of advertising and does have a small outlay in terms of cost.
Other methods might include local advertising in terms of local radio and local papers. This gives you a direct market local to you that can help you target your market more effectively. It can also help you work on being the expert in your local community, which can only be a good thing.
So there you have it, some of the tips and suggestions for marketing strategies. I hope they will help you to move your business forward.
