Marketing; it really is the be all and end all when it comes to business success. While of course you need a good business idea, services or products that people actually want, without the right marketing you will simply never be discovered. The internet is a huge place, and when every kind of business has so much competition, potential customers are unlikely to stumble across you on their own. For this reason, you need to get your name out there to the people who are likely to be interested in shopping with you and that’s where marketing comes in. Here are a some interesting and fun ways to market your business to improve your chances of success.
Host an event
Do you run a local business such as a bakery, a retail store, a coffee shop or florist and want to get people down? Hosting an event is a great way to go about it. Invite some food vendors, or have a catering company create cakes, sandwiches or even set up a chocolate fountain! Have some entertainers to set up at your event, hire a bouncy castle and a face painter for the kids, arrange some games and activities to get people involved and much more. Hosting an event for your business with plenty to see and do will encourage people to come down, and while they’re there you can use it as an opportunity to tell them more about your business. Perhaps you have new offers and deals on, or you’ve created a new menu? Maybe you’ve introduced new products to your range? Whatever it is, it’s easy to inform people when they’re already down at your business for the event having a good time. Be sure you have good promotional materials around highlighting the areas of your business that you want to tell people more about- put out banners and signs with information and display large photos around the store for the event. Use this as an opportunity to hand out flyers and business cards, and take down people’s email addresses. One way you could encourage people to hand this information over freely is by running a giveaway. In order to enter, people simply need to enter their email address. You get to grow your list, and they get to be in with a chance of winning something exciting. The prize could be anything you like- something as simple as a gift card to your store to something as exciting as a car or a holiday. It all depends on your budget, and how many people you’re likely to get down to your event.
Attend a business expo
Business expos are a fantastic way to link up companies and clients. When you attend an expo, you have decision makers in attendance who are actively looking for businesses like yours to work with. They’re ideal for snagging yourself long term clients, and it’s these clients that will give you financial stability from month to month- as opposed to relying on one-off orders. Set up a stall and make it interesting, these are big events and so it’s essential to stand out. People will be limited in the stalls they can physically get to and will often make a decision based on what looks the most interesting. Instead of dull talks and presentations, host games and competitions relating to what your business does. Use banners with bold text and colours on your banners to grab people’s attention. Don’t be afraid to get a little gimmicky, if it gets people over to your stall it’s a chance for you to tell them more about your business and increases your chances of gaining those all important clients. Be sure to take email addresses or contact details of anyone who shows interest in what you do, that way you can send a follow up message a few days after the trade show to see if they would like to proceed. Have a selection of business cards and leaflets on your stall that anyone walking past is able to take, that way they can find out more about your business in their own time, if they don’t have time that day to stand and chat.
Utilise bloggers
Blogging has really taken off in recent years, and no longer are blogs just personal online diaries written as a hobby as many of them once were. They’re now businesses in their own right, beautiful online magazines that provide plenty of information to a reader. As businesses, we can work with bloggers as they’re incredibly influential- and often have sites with a high domain authority which a back link from can help to improve ours. It can be tricky building up a network of good, reliable bloggers as well as knowing how much to pay them. So for this reason, it’s often a good idea to outsource the work to a professional company. They will have a network of tried and tested bloggers who they have good relationships with and can easily get up long lasting and permanent backlinks onto their sites. They know how much to pay and in many cases will provide the content needed that bloggers require to include the backlink. Otherwise, if you already have an established marketing team in place, have them focus on outreach. Bloggers can be the key to improving your domain authority, which means you will rank higher in search engine results. The closer you rank to the top, the more organic traffic you will receive.
Give away marketing merchandise
There’s no word that has quite as much impact as ‘free’ when it comes to marketing and advertising. People absolutely love free stuff, and while giving things away might not sound like a smart strategy when you’re trying to gain profit- it definitely can be. One way you can give away free things which will benefit you is with marketing merch. Things like mugs, travel cups, pens, keyrings, car air fresheners, notepads and more are all items that people use on a regular basis. If you have these printed with your company name and website, every time the item is used it’s free advertising for you. You could give these out at an event or expo, or you could give away a free gift with purchase. Either way, these items aren’t too expensive to have made and whenever they’re used you’re reminding people of your business- even if it’s on a subconscious level. That’s the thing about advertising, it needs to be subtle. When a potential customer has the need to use a business like yours later down the line, it’s your company you want to pop into their head. And repeatedly seeing your name is one way to do this.
Create an ad
Tv advertising is expensive, but it reaches a massive range of people and can really make your business a household name. If you have the budget for this then it’s definitely something to consider- something interesting, unique and even a little wacky will grab people’s attention so that they remember you. Find a company that specialises in this, and have them bring your ideas to life. Everything from the music or theme tune to the fonts on the screen, the actors and the script will all need to be put together carefully for the best effect. If you want to create an ad but your budget is smaller then why not create a video for your website? Video marketing is incredibly successful, and massively increases the chances of a customer making a purchase when landing on a page containing a video. There are companies out there again who can put all of this together for you, so no worries if you’re not a director or video expert! It really needs to be done professionally to avoid looking cheap and amateur so you’re best leaving it in the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing anyway. It’s every companies dream to create an ad that goes viral, having it shared all over the world and being seen by lots of people could mean massive things for your business. But even if it doesn’t, it’s still a great way to promote, market and give more information about your business.
Have an app built
These days, more sales are made on smartphones and tablets than they are on laptops and computers. And an efficient app (as opposed to an optimised website) is definitely people’s favourite way to shop as it’s secure and looks appealing on the screen. So having an app for your business is definitely something you should consider as a way of gaining more profits anyway, however it’s also great from a marketing point of view. When customers have your app downloaded on their phone, you’re able to send notifications of things like deals and discounts to encourage them to click on it. The trick is to find the balance, send notifications too often and they might get fed up and turn them off or delete the app entirely. But done well, it can be a fantastic way to communicate with your customer and get them interacting with your company.
