It may not be the most fun and exciting part of running a business of any kind, but it’s still incredibly important: marketing your business.
You see, it doesn’t really matter how high quality of products or customer service you offer, because if no one even knows about your business, then no one is going to show up.
Sure, you can really build word-of-mouth to grow your business once people do start showing up, but the trick is setting up a highly effective marketing strategy in the early growth stage.
Here are the top four marketing tips for businesses today:
1. Have A Success Story (and Market It)
Seriously, who doesn’t love a good success story? Take your success story and write it down to paper (or in a Word document of some kind) and promote that story on your website, on your social media pages, and when you network with people in person.
In fact, you can make your business success story a major theme of your overall marketing efforts, and you can incorporate it into any blog posts or video advertisements as well.
Every website has an ‘about us’ section somewhere and that’s the perfecto opportunity to share your story for the first time. People will be able to easily identify with a success story, and they’ll be more willing to check out your business as a result.
2. Create A Truly Great and Original Logo
Designing a memorable and original logo is particularly important for one simple reason: it’s the symbol of your business. When people see your logo, they should immediately be able to assume what your business is about. And vice versa, when they think of your business, your logo will be one of the first things that come to their minds as well.
There are many important tips to follow when designing a logo for your business (or when having one designed), but easily some of the most important to follow are to stick with just two to three colors, employing the use of rare or custom fonts, making your text readily visible, and having a logo design that’s ‘active’ rather than ‘passive.’
In addition, you need to remember to optimize photos for your logos for social media as well. As Flashmarks discusses, “Social media image size is one of the most important things to get right when you start establishing your brand’s online presence.”
3. Forge Relationships In Your Community
The next most important tip for you to follow for marketing your business is to forge relationships with your community.
Take note that this is something you should do even if you run a purely online business and don’t have a physical presence established in town, because networking in-person with people in your industry is huge for opening new doors and making new important connections.
Join business and entrepreneur meet-ups in town, sponsor community events, market your business in the newspapers, and even hold events if you’re able to. The more well known you are in your community, the more effectively you will attract local customers, who will then spread the word.
4. Reward Loyal Customers
It’s a well-known secret in the business world, if you could even call it a secret, that customers love to be rewarded. That’s why rewards and loyalty programs are so common with small businesses and large companies alike, and you’ll also want to employ the same methods.
Something as simple as giving a customer $10 off when they refer someone or allowing them to accumulate points with each purchase they make can make them more eager to come back later because they know they’ll be getting special discounts to save money.
Furthermore, rewards and loyalty programs communicate to customers that you care about them, and that’s huge for bringing them back. Remember, no business can thrive without repeat customers. If there’s one secret to business success, it’s convincing people to buy from you, and to buy from you again in the future.
Top Marketing Tips For Businesses Today
No business can pick itself up off the ground on its own. Rather, every business strives and grows on attracting new customers, and the only way that you can attract new customers is through marketing.
In the early stages of your business growth especially, investing the time and the money into marketing will be even more important.