Every businessman knows how important marketing is. It doesn’t matter that you make the best products, or whether you package them in the most attractive way; as long as your marketing strategies are wanting, you will not earn the profits you want.
Marketing can make or break a business. The only way to stay ahead of your competitors in the cut throat world of business is to have an effective marketing strategy. Often, a little creativity can go a long way in putting you ahead of your competition. Below are a few outstanding ways to market your brand in 2018:
1. Digital Marketing
In recent years, digital marketing has taken a central place in the world of marketing. We live in an era where computers and smartphones are a basic part of many people’s daily lives. It therefore makes plenty of sense to create awareness of your brand through the devices that most people can’t do without. You can do this through:
• Email Marketing
Email marketing refers to sending promotions to potential customers advertising your products or services. Usually, you can get people to sign up for your emails or newsletters from your website, or you could even try cold- emailing.
The first rule for effective email marketing is to avoid aggression at all costs. Spamming customers’ inboxes simply doesn’t work anymore. If people make it clear that they no longer want to receive your mails, simply stop sending them.
One way to ensure that people actually read your emails is to make them interesting and to keep them brief. Anything other than that is a waste of time.
• Content Marketing
Content marketing has proven to be the best way to get your brand the right kind of attention over and over again. The marketing process is quite simple. All you need to do is create helpful and informative content regularly, and then share it with your target audience. With time, you will establish yourself as an authority in your chosen field. This adds to your credibility, which in turn earns you loyalty.
You can post your content on the company website or a blog. To maximize your visibility, you will need to do some SEO. Doubtless, optimizing a site is a daunting task which is best left to the experts. Enlisting the help of marketing consultants can go a long way in helping you achieve this goal.
• Social Media Marketing
Another form of digital marketing is advertising your products and services on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You should also capitalize on the live streaming features of these sites, as they are bound to be a big thing this year.
2. Use Your Premises
Another innovative way to increase brand awareness is to use your premises as a marketing channel. You can place stickers that promote your products on the walls, sidewalks and stairs of your building. Make sure they are attractive and short so as to relay the required message to everyone who reads them. If you have company vehicles, consider putting stickers on them too. they can increase your outreach several fold.
3. Take Care of Your Customers
It is harder to acquire new customers than it is to keep your old ones. If you treat them like royalty, they will certainly reward you with loyalty. And better yet, they won’t hesitate to recommend your company to their family and friends.
You can reward their loyalty through discounts, special gifts or even dinners arranged specifically for them. You should also ask them for feedback on your business, and be sure to act on it. Over time, word about your excellent customer service will spread and you will earn yourself more customers.
4. Maximize on Public Relations
One way to increase your visibility is to exploit to the fullest any story about your business that gets to the media. There is no denying that getting a journalist’s attention may be quite hard, but there are a few things you can do to improve your chances of getting it. Journalists like stories that are attention demanding because well, that is what sells for them. If you can get them such a story, say about an innovative solution that your product offers, it can work wonders for your sales.
5. Brand Ambassadors
This might not be the most conventional way of marketing, but it is one that has been shown to work exceedingly well. A brand ambassador is a social media user with a huge following, of at least 100,000 followers, who preferably shouldn’t be a celebrity. Find someone that your target market can identify with. They should then subtly promote your products on their social media accounts for an agreed amount of money. This method works well owing to the influence that such people have on their followers, especially regarding the products they use.
Conclusion
Marketing can be a hard task. Nevertheless, it is one that you cannot do without. Although it often costs some money, it really doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Try some of the unique marketing techniques discussed above and watch them transform your business for the better.
