As a business owner or manager, you need to come up with ways to promote your business beyond flyers and billboards. Fortunately, it isn’t too much of a challenge these days because of the way in which people network, communicate, and use the world wide web. You can learn many techniques to help you achieve increased leads and sales. However, for some of the more intensive and time-consuming tasks, you will eventually need some expert guidance. Fortunately, help is only a click away. Here are some of the best ways to get you started.
Develop a Recognisable Logo
Corporate identity is one of the critical factors in brand promotion. When you are instantly recognisable, you can become synonymous with a product or service. Think golden arches, black ears and a white tick, and you get the idea. Customers should be able to identify your company without the name being visible and immediately think of a specific product when they see your logo. Developing a logo is challenging. But it’s a vital part of starting a business. Then you need custom products like those from StickerYou to spread your brand’s visual identity.
Reward Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty should always be rewarded. But not that many major companies do so. For this reason alone, you can get a jump on the competition by becoming known as the generous brand in your niche. And it doesn’t have to be anything that costs considerable money since people love getting stuff for free, no matter the cost. For instance, you could offer a free order for every hundred. Or free shipping to customers who place more than ten orders per month. Additionally, you could use reward cards similar to supermarkets and entertainment services.
Promote Your Business with Local SEO
If you have been developing an online brand, you have probably heard of SEO. SEO helps search engines understand your content and where to place it in relation to a search engine query. There are many aspects of SEO. But one that’s often overlooked is local SEO. Local SEO focuses on ranking you based on your business’s physical location. So, for example, when someone searches for something “near me”, your company has the chance of being on the results list. Considering 70% of SMBs have no SEO plan at all, you have a huge advantage. If you have a niche marketing need such as for a dental practice, make sure you use dental marketing that suits your needs.
Have a great name
Having a name that’s easy to remember and pronounce is one of the most important things when it comes to branding your business. A great name will make people take notice of your brand and what you have to offer.
You can’t have a great business without a great name. Your name is the first impression you make on potential customers, so it’s important to choose something that is both memorable and reflective of your brand.
If your business does not have a name that is memorable, it is time to change business name.
Run a Prize Giveaway
Prizes are a fun way to encourage people to engage more with your brand. And they’re a fantastic way to promote sales of a new product. As such, the games industry often holds contests for new versions of upcoming games. Having such an event generates buzz around a product, which can spread pretty quickly these days because of social media. Additionally, anyone who wins a price from your company is more likely to engage moving forward, and it helps establish brand loyalty. And it’s excellent for optics within your niche.
Attach a Blog to Your Business Site
Blogging has become so much more than simple online journals since it began. Today, it’s a worldwide phenomenon and accounts for 77% of daily internet traffic. Given the billions of users per day on the web at any given time, you can’t afford to ignore blogging. You don’t have to sit and write all day. You can hire freelancers or companies to generate blogs around your products and services. Your business website is great. But it’s essentially a digital business card. So the goal of blogging is to increase traffic to your site using SEO-rich content.
Don’t Underestimate Email Newsletters
There are over 5 billion active email users today. So contrary to false belief, email is not a dead medium. Email newsletters are a powerful and cost-effective way to promote your brand. And it’s easier than ever. As such, over 30% of professional marketers claim email is the best way to generate new leads for sales. And almost 50% of consumers are happy to receive emails from brands they know and love. You can tell if your email strategy is working based on the open rate, which averages 21%. But if you aren’t sure how to implement it, you can get expert help.
Hire a Digital Marketing Agency
The expert help you are looking for comes from digital marketing agencies. Digital marketing agencies are a requirement if you plan on any increased success in the online world. There are many complex tasks involved beyond simple online advertising and social media. The highly skilled at digital marketing agencies can help you with the following branding services:
- Business site design
- Business site development
- Brand development and awareness
- Graphics development across the board
- Copywriting, press release and blogging services
- PPC marketing campaigns
- Conversion optimisation strategies and lead generation
- SEO-focused marketing
- Social Media marketing campaigns
- Developing solid email lists and newsletters
You can do some of the required things yourself, but you can only go so far based on the time and knowledge you have. As your business expands, the time will come when a digital marketing agency becomes necessary for beating the competition and levelling up your brand. The costs can vary depending on what you need. But they will always work with you for results.
Target an Audience with Facebook Ads
One of the unique services that DMAs offer is data analytics. However, you don’t need to become an expert to learn to use analytics. Social media platforms contain data analysis software to help you develop branding strategies based on data-driven decisions. Facebook’s advertising system goes a step further by recommending demographics based on user interaction with your Facebook business page. Using Facebook ads, you can target customers based on age, sexual orientation, interests, political views, comments, and gender identity.
Encourage Customer Reviews of Products
An honest customer review is one of the single greatest ways to promote your business to new prospects. An honest review by a verified customer helps new customers make a decision based on the experiences and interactions of others. This applies right through your company, from customer service and ordering to delivery and the quality of the products or services themselves. Don’t be tempted to order a review writing service. These are cookie-cutter responses and will deter customers. Additionally, you need honest comments to improve.
Attend Trade Shows
Networking plays a significant role in expanding business. Attending trade shows and events within your niche lets others see firsthand how much better you are than the competition. Typically, companies spend between 5% and 35% of their advertising budget on trade show attendance. While trade shows are expensive and aren’t a guarantee of profit, they help customers get up-close and personal with your products. Essentially, they are an excellent demonstration platform. Networking with others is a crucial part of these shows, not sales themselves.
Use Social Media to Promote Your Business
Right now, there are 4.2 billion social media users on platforms like Facebook and Twitter every day. While you can advertise on these platforms, it costs money and provides little engagement. Engagement with customers and prospects is one of the single most incredible ways to boost business. In fact, UK-based clothing retailer Primark doesn’t advertise on TV or in magazines. Instead, they engage with customers who essentially do the advertising for them using word-of-mouth posts. This saves the company millions while boosting sales at the same time.
Hold a Charity Event
Holding a charity event is an excellent tried and tested method of making your company more public-facing. For example, suppose you operate in a single region. In that case, you could hold a fundraiser for a local service that relies on donations. A children’s hospital, perhaps. While you are essentially marketing your company and using a specific reason to do it, you are still raising money for a good cause. And no matter the business-related reasons for doing so, you are still helping people. And if you can’t arrange an event yourself, you can always sponsor others.
Upgrade Long-Term Customers
Customer loyalty is vital for long-standing business. But if you don’t engage with or offer customers a reason to stay, they might switch to the competition. Loyalty schemes are an excellent way of retaining clients. In fact, Sony has just announced a long overdue rewards scheme for game-related items for PlayStation users. But another option is to upgrade customers to a better service. For example, UK cinema chain Cineworld upgrade cinema pass holders to a premium package after one year. So consider what you can do for your customers.
Summary
Running a company is hard enough. And then you have the added challenge of finding ways to promote your business. Given the easy access to the internet these days, promotion is more accessible than ever. Some of the best methods of business promotion include developing an instantly recognisable corporate identity, hiring a reputable digital marketing agency and upgrading services for long-time customers. A logo helps you become associated with a niche. While a DMA can help with SEO. And upgraded services will help cultivate brand loyalty.
