Without an effective marketing strategy, your business is not going to make all the sales it can, or generate any meaningful leads. You will have no means to increase brand awareness, and you will fall behind your competitors. In the digital age, it has never been easier than before to get a message out there. However, there has never been as much competition and saturation of markets. So if you want to stand out and get noticed, you need to put in the time and resources to marketing.
Every business needs to have an all-singing, all-dancing website. You need to get this up to scratch before you think about embarking on a wider marketing campaign. The reason is that most marketing material will point to the website, and if it is not right, you will fail to generate sales even if the campaign itself is strong. Creating a high-functioning website can be difficult. It might be wise to look at hiring a professional website designer, such as those at Cosmik Carrot, as there are a lot of elements to consider. You have to have it working on all devices and browsers, and loading quickly. All functions need to work. It has to look attractive and be in line with the marketing material. Content needs to be relevant. The site has to be ordered logically, with the main information easy to find - your telephone number and shop, for example. Think about SEO (search engine optimization), so have keywords on all pages to make sure they are discoverable on search engines. As part of your wider IT strategy, you may want to think about cloud services and other solutions. If IT is not a strong point in-house, you should think about outsourcing to Business IT Support.
You need a social media presence cross platforms if you are going to have any real success in the modern world. You will be able to learn a lot about your target audience from social media, and this information can help you develop better keywords, and how to position the marketing campaign. The strategy for each site will differ, but the key is in quality posts over quantity. It is about engaging with the audience and creating as many impressions as possible. So, you need to motivate them to share your content. Brand every post, think about taglines and core messages that will connect to your audience. You should also think about getting your business on as many listings and indexes as possible and have a Google My Business account.
Custom marketing materials are a great way to get your brand noticed. You can have some professionally printed, and you can get creative with it. It is worth getting the design right first and then designing the rest of the collateral to match. Portals such as Packlane can produce packaging for you if you cannot do it yourself. The key here is that your brand’s custom packaging should draw the eye as soon as possible, without being overpowering or in the way. You can find some great templates online. They are often absolutely free, and you can get a quick logo done for under $100 on Fiverr.
Getting out in the local community can pay dividends. It can provide you with many good photo ops, you may get in the local paper, and you can upload these on to your social media feeds, as well as blog about it on your website. You can create some fun competitions, or have a community day where you and your staff help litter pick or something. You could also ask to host a talk at a local event. Discuss key issues in the local area and what your company is doing to provide solutions for it. It may be worth discussing with other local business owners and devise a way you can advertise each other.
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