All types of businesses thrive at Heathhall Business Centre. But how do you best market your business? A good marketing strategy will raise awareness and generate a buzz around your brand, increase footfall, drive traffic to your website, boost revenues, and keep them coming back for more by creating a loyal customer base.
For small businesses, brick-and-mortar and online, there are creative ways to market what you do.
What’s the plan, Stan?
It’s all in the planning. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. These clichés ring in our ears but they also ring true in marketing. A scattergun approach is rarely effective.
You might want to start by brainstorming ideas around the type of message you’re hoping to broadcast in a way that your customers find relatable. Also think about the marketing channels – ads, print, and digital marketing like Google and Facebook ads plus social media too of course.
Consider brand identity and make sure that you’re happy with it and that it’s consistent across your physical store livery and all printed materials, plus your website and social media channels.
And finally, budget must also be a consideration at this stage.
What’s my brand?
With so much brand noise out there, standing out isn’t easy. But it’s doable once you think about what you bring that nobody else does. The more you personalise your marketing strategy, the more it’s likely to resonate with the right people, giving you a shot at the top spot in what is a crowded but not impenetrable marketplace.
What’s my target market?
Knowing your brand usually comes with an instinct about who makes up your target market rather than diluting it in an attempt at universal appeal. It’s about building a customer persona, made up of considerations like age group, profession, values, interests, income etc.
What’s my USP and brand identity?
Your USP or unique selling point (or proposition) is what truly marks you out from the competition. You’ve got to be able to know the answer to the question ‘Why should I choose you over x?’ and in a simple sentence ideally.
A brand identity often flowers from the USP and is more about the personality of your business which, again, should be a succinct phrase.
Publish blog posts
Just like you’re reading this blog post so will your customers read yours. Don’t underestimate the power of a regular blog, it should be a cornerstone of your marketing efforts. One blog a month is fine, and regularity is key otherwise it might look as if your online presence is stagnant.
Writing about stuff that your customers will be searching for and answering questions you anticipate they’re asking as well as other pertinent stuff to your business helps generate organic (i.e. free) traffic to your website.
Set up a Google My Business Account
You can Google how to set this up and it’s a good use of your time. It means that you have control over how your Google business listing appears. Plus you can add updates.
Online advertising
You might decide on the online advertising route, like with Google and Facebook ads perhaps? You can opt for the pay-per-click mode where you only pay for advertising that brings traffic to your site. But you should get somebody who knows what they’re doing to set this up for you.
Post regularly on social media
Social media is essentially a free advertising channel and a content plan is a good starting point with a couple of posts a week across each account, i.e. Facebook, Instagram, X, etc. People love seeing pictures of people, and videos, all with a splash of humour, plus it’s as much about monitoring and contributing to any conversations your posts generate afterwards. This is an effective way to build relationships and get to know your customers
Marketing isn’t all online
Not every marketing activity must happen online of course. How about hosting some events and seeing how effective a networking opportunity they turn out to be?
To wrap things up, this is quite a lot of information to absorb, but you can tackle it in manageable chunks and it still start to make a perceptible difference.