Marketing is a crucial element of any business, whether you have just launched or have been operating for 10 years. Without a marketing strategy, you cannot expect new customers to find you or even know you exist and retaining existing customers will also be challenging. Fortunately, there are lots of marketing techniques you could experiment with, so do not give up at the first hurdle; what works for one company might not necessarily work for you, so there will be an element of trial and error. Here are some marketing tips to get you started…
Monitor Your Competitors
Finding out what your competitors are up to by way of marketing will help give you some insights into what works or does not work. You could draw inspiration from them, but tailor your approach so that it’s more inline with your branding and ethos. Monitoring your competitors might also give you some ideas of strategies you should avoid or how to improve upon their methods.
Analyse the Data
Take a look at data from previous marketing campaigns, if you have any, and find the areas which worked well and which did not. For instance, if you spent a lot of money on flyers a few years ago and you did not see any increase in sales, then perhaps you should avoid that method in the future. Alternatively, if you invested in telesales and your profits spiked, this could be an area that you try again. Essentially, assessing the data will help you understand the most appropriate ways to invest your budgets going forward.
Work with the Press
PR is a fantastic way to spread the news about your company, and it doesn’t necessarily have to cost you a penny. There are various ways to get yourself into the press, such as creating a publicity stunt, launching a competition or donating to charity.
Give Away Promotional Merchandise
Branded items are great for attracting new clients and retaining existing ones, because it’s your way of thanking them for choosing you. Give away items at your next exhibition, take some branded stationery along to your next pitch meeting, or add a little gift to your deliveries over the Christmas period. There are lots of options when it comes to promotional merchandise, and even if you don’t notice a spike in sales, it should help you with brand awareness.
Work on Your Digital Presence
Speak to an SEO agency about how to improve your website and online approach to ensure you are ranking well in the search engine results page (SERP). There’s little point in having a website if no-one can find it, so you may need to improve your website content, post some blogs and work on your backlink profile. For quicker results, you could consider PPC, which will be more costly, but you’ll get to the top of Google’s SERP much quicker, meaning you’ll receive an increase of higher quality traffic to your site.
Try Networking
It’s really important to build strong relationships with other people in the industry when you’re running a business. Attend networking events and engage with people on social media. Perhaps you could even consider partnering up with a charity so that you can help one another get the recognition you deserve from perspective customers. For instance, you could donate a percentage of your sales to your chosen charity, which will entice people to choose you over a competitor, will help the charity and will build brand awareness for both parties.
These are just a few ideas to get you started – there are plenty of more marketing strategies you could experiment with until you find something that works well for you and is a good ROI. Just make sure you have a clear set of goals in place so that you can monitor your progress.
