People often start a business because they are capable, competent, or even brilliant at that first part. They know their industry and they are able to supply what people want.
The second part is where things get tricky. How do you get your offer in front of the right people? Or in other words, how do you promote your brand?
Today, we’re going to be looking at incredibly simple yet highly effective ways to promote your brand or business. You can implement all of these quickly without needing special expertise or significant investment.
Branding is all about fostering an identity for your company.
Here are foolproof methods on how to promote your brand or business.
1. Create a brand & logo
Don’t be fooled by how simplistic this first tip may seem. Widespread brand recognition is your ultimate goal, and your business needs to inspire credibility and persuade others to spread the word about your work.
You need to create a brand you can build on from the start. Start by taking inventory of your business’ unique value proposition, its personality, and the values that define it. Then you can start to think about your visual brand.
Hiring a design firm may be costly, but there are popular crowdsourced design services on the web, such as crowdspring, that provide a selection of custom logo designs for your brand, and at an affordable price. Your visual brand may evolve with your business, but you need to start with something on which you can build your business’ reputation.
Research what other niche-related brands are doing
They say that imitation is the best form of flattery. But when you’re trying to make a mark in the cut-throat business world, you’re not going to survive merely by imitating what others are doing.
Instead, you can learn a lot by researching what other brands have done well in the past.
Your goal is to differentiate your brand from the competition and not be a cheap replica of someone else. Study how other brands built their identity and see how you can improve on their methods or techniques. At the end of the day, you need to convince your target audience to choose you over them.
When it comes to researching the competitors, you can use Mention to monitor them online. Check out their sentiments on social media and keep track of their mentions on blogs.
Your brand must appeal to people intellectually
Entrepreneur Magazine notes that if you want to broaden your appeal as a small business, it’s best to appeal to people on an intellectual level. Think about specific questions people might have about your business and how you can provide logical honest answers. Ask yourself questions like the following:
- What sets you apart from your competitors?
- How does the community perceive you
- Do you have unique opinions and ideas to share with the world?
Consumers today are smart, and they want to be treated with respect. Win people’s brains in addition to their hearts.
Promote your brand content on social media
Social media is obviously a great tool for branding your business. In addition to using the sites for straightforward promotional messages, you can also utilize social media for promoting interesting content that might not have a hard sell, but still has something interesting to say about your industry. If your social media accounts share information that’s relevant and compelling, people will follow you, and in turn, more people will become loyal to your business. This is a very slow process, but over time, it works.
5. Unique Brand
One could say that no brand can be unique anymore due to the influx of information that has bombarded the web world. To an extent, this can be viewed as accurate. However, no person will be able to fully replicate your unique brand identity –especially if you’re fun, outspoken, outrageous, or charming. This combination of factors, or adjectives, is what makes your brand memorable.
Take, for example, Old Spice. While perfumes and body sprays have been around for a long time, this brand injects humour and personality into commercials. For this reason, people can visually recreate when and where they’ve heard or seen the label.
6. Tell a Story
This point goes hand-in-hand with the previous one. In order to engage your online audience, get personal. It’s well known that customers respond to emotions, be it admiration, surprise, or anger. Thus, connect with your target audience, and that’s because people buy from people.
0. Monitor and respond to reviews
Many online directories allow anyone to add a listing, so even if you didn’t list your business, it may still be on there, collecting reviews. Be sure to claim your listings wherever possible, and monitor these sites frequently. This way you can respond to reviews—which is another great way to promote your business. Not only can you resolve (and even reverse) negative reviews, but the way you answer reviews (positive and negative) can reveal your brand’s values and give potential customers an idea of what it’s like to do business with you.
4. Engage with Google
Google has some smart tools to help promote your business. You can create an account on Google Business and Google Places. More people search for businesses online than anywhere else, and adding your website and company information to Google’s business directory can be helpful.
Most importantly, it’s free and straightforward, so there’s no reason not to. You can also manage your listing information, including business description, product or service details, pictures, videos and offers. Being listed in local directories can also increase the number of trusted inbound links to your website.
12. Ask for reviews
Most local and national sites and directories allow customer reviews. Encourage your customers to write reviews about your products or services. Whether good or bad, reviews make your business more credible to future customers and can be lessons learned for you.
You can ask for reviews on the website by leaving a comment section, include a review link in your email marketing or even add a Pop-Up on your website to encourage people to leave feedback. Be sure to record customer feedback somewhere prominent on your site, so that others can find and read the results.
22. Don’t ignore the power of videos
Videos are very popular with today’s consumers and offer an excellent way to market your business. Displaying videos showing your product, or publishing instructional videos is a very effective way to increase your customer base.
There are many ways a small business can use videos as part of their marketing strategy. Being active on YouTube is one of them: YouTube is the most widely used video platform on the web. Building a YouTube presence is fantastic exposure for your business. A popular channel can attract enormous passive footfall and ultimately attract new customers. Commenting on videos relevant to your niche is another way to engage with users and increase your brand visibility.
In case you didn’t notice, building a brand is no joke.
Composed of different moving parts, getting lost in developing your brand is easy. One false step that your entire plan will come crashing down.
As a small business, you cannot afford making mistakes with your branding. It is the only thing that differentiates you from the sea of competitors.
This reason is exactly why you need to tap into local customers first. They are the low-hanging fruits of your business. Your proximity between each other is a selling point enough to convince them to try out your brand.
Thinking small, in this case, is starting with acquiring and retaining local customers. By following the tips here, you prepare your business for greater pastures in the process