A lot of business owners make that mistake of just jumping right into a business without actually establishing a marketing strategy first. Sure, you can have the best products and services in the world, but without a proper plan to match it, it may not sell.
If you’re currently struggling in getting enough leads or sales, don’t worry because we’ve listed down nine ways on how to reach more customers, while growing your business.
1. Create A Brand For Your Business
Your brand represents who you are, and this is what sticks to the consumers. The market is full of competitors and having a “brand” will make you stand out from the crowd.
There are three factors that you need to consider when branding your business, and these are:
A. Brand – Your brand makes up the whole image of what your customers perceive you to be. It’s the emotional connection that you have with your target market.
B. Identity – These can be the colors, fonts, interior store design, product packaging, and other visual aspects of your brand.
C.Logo – Your logo can either be an icon or text. It’s one of the essential elements of your brand.
It’s also important to take note that rebranding can happen from time to time. A lot of businesses do it because they want to catch up with the trend, or they want to cater to a new market. Several big brands have done it for the past few decades, such as McDonald’s, Nike, and Starbucks.
2. Find Your Target Market
The biggest mistake that business owners and marketers do is not finding their target market. This stage of business planning is crucial because it will determine how you’re going to market your products and services.
The right way of doing this is to create research-based buyer profiles. These are fictional characters that represent your ideal customers, their buying patterns, hobbies, interests, age, location, purchase power, and everything about them that is relevant to your business.
3. Create A Visually Appealing Website
Have you ever clicked on a product that you really wanted but ended up not buying it because the website looked sketchy? That’s how most businesses lose customers because of a poorly designed website.
Just imagine the amount of effort and money wasted on getting those clicks. Still, a customer decided to cancel the purchase because the site wasn’t user-friendly, mobile-responsive – or it was just plain ugly.
Apart from getting the essential elements of a great website, it’s also important that you incorporate your branding elements into it. You can use your brand colors, fonts, and even the writing style on your content.
4. Set Up Social Media Accounts
This is actually a no-brainer! Businesses who don’t have social media accounts are losing sales at the moment. Being on social media doesn’t cost a penny (unless if you’re using paid advertising), and it only takes a few clicks here and there to post your products and services.
In addition to that, social media is a way to “humanize” your brand. You can post more about your business, like showing photos of your employees, how you create your products, feedbacks, and more. Social media helps build that connection between you and your customers.
5. Utilize SEO Properly
Don’t ever underestimate the power of SEO! A properly optimized website that has the right keywords and placements will show up on the first page of search engines, and this will result in more traffic and, eventually, result in sales.
Please take note that SEO doesn’t only apply to websites, but it also applies to social media accounts and every online material that you have. Even if you don’t have a website, your social media accounts will show up on the search results if it’s optimized.
6. Use Google My Business
Google My Business is an underrated tool that most local businesses miss out on. It’s the perfect tool to attract customers in your local area, or people are visiting.
You can register your company on GMB and add your location, store hours, and even photos. For example, if you own a restaurant in New York City, having your business on GMB will be shown to people who search for local restaurants in NYC through Google.
What’s good about it is that people can leave reviews on your GMB listing, which can help boost your credibility.
7.Get Involved in Sponsorships
You might think that this is an expensive form of marketing and only applies to more prominent companies, but it’s actually not.
We understand that not all businesses can afford to sponsor major sports teams and celebrities, so what do you do? Go Micro!
Support your local fun runs, high-school sports teams, or whatever it is that attracts people on a regular basis and associate your brand with it. Make sure that you post it on social media too!
8. Run Contests and Do Giveaways
If you really believe that your product is as great as you think it is, do giveaways and contests. Everybody loves free stuff!
Don’t ever think of this as an expense but think of it as an investment. Your ROI might not be in the form of sales, but it can be an increase in social media following, website traffic, and engagement. This data can help you craft paid campaigns later on to get more leads and sales.
Another thing you can do is to work with micro-influencers in your industry. These are people who have a fan base that are your perfect target market. Send them over a few products and have them review it and you’ll be surprised to see an increase in your sales.
9. Create a Referral or Loyalty Rewards System
While it’s a good thing to have sales coming in from new customers, you can always make use of existing customers too. You can do these by creating loyalty rewards or referral systems.
There’s a reason why airlines have rewards programs for their flyers, and Airbnb has these referral systems for their hosts – it’s because they work.
Final Thoughts.
Put together a marketing plan for your business prior to starting your new business. If you’re an established company, review your current marketing plan on a quarterly basis. Try different marketing methods and tactics until you find the ones that work for you. And when you do, focus all of your efforts on it and scale using that strategy. Before you know it, your business will grow in terms of sales and market share.
