Promoting your business is important at the best of times. During a pandemic, it’s vital. Whether your business is currently thriving or in need of some invigoration, follow these top tips and tricks to promote your company effectively.
1. Get planning
Without a thorough marketing plan, you can feel like you’re not making progress, or you can lose your way after a few unsuccessful or halfhearted attempts at promotion. So, to place your business in the best position, it’s important to create a marketing plan. This plan can be quarterly or yearly and will focus on strategies or campaigns that you will launch to promote your business. To create this yourself, you can download an existing template online.
2. Set goals
Having a goal to work for is a brilliant motivator. Your goals can range from making $10,000 next quarter or moving into a larger office space before the end of the year. They are personal to your and your business, so spend time to work out what is actually achievable for your business. It can be useful to set these down to paper (or laptop) — this keeps you accountable and helps you to visualize the end goal.
3. Business cards
Business cards are all but old-fashioned. Having a smart card to hand to someone when you meet them or to leave behind after you’ve visited can be the difference between making and losing a deal. Handsome, silver foil business cards show you’re serious, professional, and here to make an impact.
4. LinkedIn
Yes, you may have an account, but are you utilizing the service properly? Effectively using LinkedIn to promote yourself doesn’t mean just accepting connections from people. To use it to promote your business, you can post regular status updates, make genuinely useful connections with other people in your field, join groups, and participate in conversations with others. By effectively engaging with the platform,
5. SEO
In a world where everyone looks up everything, you can’t neglect search engine optimization. You don’t have to be a specialist to pick up enough knowledge to do it yourself, but if you have the funds, investing in someone to do your SEO isn’t a bad idea. If you’re doing it yourself, you can teach yourself through books or online SEO guides.
6. YouTube
YouTube is a great tool to help businesses reach new audiences. From plumbing to upholstery to cryptocurrency, there’s something for everyone on the platform, which means it could be a space for you to explore. Do you have any helpful advice that you could put onto the platform to attract goodwill or new customers? See if there’s any genuine, unique, and useful video content that you could create that would positively market your business.
7. Branding
Developing a strong brand (brand voice, visual identity, and brand values) creates a solid base from which to promote your business. This is a vital step in the development of creating a distinctive business and should be prioritized. Many businesses find that by solidifying their brand, marketing becomes easier, as they know what feels true to their brand and what doesn’t. It can help you build a strong support base for the business and enable you to reflect the identity of your business when you interact with customers.
8. Network, network, network
Making connections is so helpful when you’re promoting your business. You never know when you might get cut into a big deal from someone you gave a spare pen to at a conference last year. While that might seem excessive, networking is indeed a key step to promoting your business. (both online and offline). Meeting other people who work in your field can help you learn more about the current market, you can learn from what these people are doing, and help out from time to time. You never know when someone might return the favor.
9. Get on social media
Isn’t LinkedIn enough? Not at all. For a direct-to-consumer business, engaging with your customer base and reaching them where they are – on social media, on their phones – is key. So, get your business profile live and running across social media. Having a strong brand positioning is key here, and will inform your social media decisions. By ensuring that social media is built into your marketing strategy, you can have a clear handle on what you want to achieve. Keep an eye on what your competitors are doing, and start to post genuine, engaging content that draws in customers and builds awareness of your business.
10. Keep an eye on the competition
That doesn’t mean copying what other people are doing, but it does mean being aware of what they’ve done. By seeing how someone’s marketing went successfully (or unsuccessfully) you can build your own marketing and promotional ideas on top of that. Strong awareness of your competitors also gives you the freedom to carve out an independent space for yourself and differentiate your business from the rest.
11. Develop your website
If you don’t already have a website up and running, then now’s the time to get one. You can enlist the help of experts, or get your own going through sites like Sqarespace. Ensuring this is kept up to date and working efficiently is key as you start to develop your business and receive new customers.
12. Bring in the experts
Marketing isn’t easy, and not everyone has an aptitude for it. If you feel like much of what this article has detailed is beyond your skills and inclination, then it’s time to bring in an expert. For many, hiring a marketing manager is as much as a relief as hiring an accountant over doing it yourself — specialists are there for a reason. So, sometimes the best and most cost-effective step is hiring a marketing specialist who can take your business to new heights.
Hopefully you have found this list of tips and tricks useful. Good luck!
