The economy is like a battlefield on which each business owner is fighting to the death for a share of the market. When you’re new to the world of commerce, it can take hard work and effort to establish yourself, but once you do, there’s every opportunity to experience unparalleled growth. Like any endeavor, getting started is half the battle. Start your business off with a bang by trying any of these marketing tips.
Trade Shows & Conferences
A highly effective, yet uncomplicated technique is to arm yourself with a stash of branded promotional products and head to the many events, trade shows and conferences in your industry. From reusable coffee cups and hats through to pens, mint cards, and more; there is an abundance of options that can see your business appear everywhere for the benefit of brand recognition. Offering branded promotional products also helps you to start conversations and potentially make new leads. The aim is to leave that event with a long list of contacts to follow up.
Networking
If you’re starting your business as a one-man band, it’s easy to get wrapped up in those crucial clerical tasks and forget that you need to be making connections. A company cannot be successful without customers, and if you aren’t actively getting your face and your brand out in the public eye, there’s every possibility that you’re missing out on a new client base. In fact, research shows that you are 34 times more successful in face-to-face requests than you are if you were to use email.
Use Social Media
When you start up a new venture, you will likely be inundated with opportunities to market your concern via the full range of traditional advertising methods. The problem is, these old-school media such as newspaper, radio, and magazine, are no longer as effective as they used to be. Social media is taking over as the next big thing.
Companies are seeing the benefits now more than ever, and can actively analyze the results to prove it. As a result, from 2014 to 2016 the social media advertising budget doubled, with 31 billion dollars spent in just one year.
Diversify
When it comes to gaining that commercial edge in a competitive environment, you’ve got to be smarter than the next guy. While it’s clear that social media marketing is the way of the future, it’s important to spread your budget across multiple platforms to ascertain what works best for you. Don’t throw your entire marketing spend into one campaign. Instead, spread it out over various media to find out which one brought you the best returns. In the beginning, it can be hard to tell what is going to attract a customer base, so you need to try multiple avenues to get a feel for your target market.
Get Found
The internet is a thriving hub for billions of websites, but some think that by merely existing on the web, the masses will come. Without optimizing your website and its content for search engines, you’re less likely to appeal on that highly sought-after first page. With enough SEO experience and expertise available, new business owners can practice SEO services for their businesses. However, they must also consider working with a search engine optimization professional or a WordPress SEO expert. WordPress SEO experts have the best SEO practices for local visibility and traffic insights which help boost and direct traffic to your business website or blog. As 93 percent of all traffic comes from a search engine, it’s a good idea to set some of that marketing budget aside for search engine optimization.
If you’ve started a new business; congratulations, it’s a big step to take. Now the fun begins. Don’t rely on organic growth to get the momentum going. Instead, try any of these five marketing tips and set the ball in motion.