- Marketing planning
Marketing entails finding your type of customer and sharing your message on how you will make their lives better. To achieve this, you need to research and identify your ideal market. Furthermore, decide how you want your business to stand out and develop a comprehensive plan. To develop a marketing plan, start by updating an existing one or creating a new marketing plan. Secondly, revise or start market research, refine your target audience and niche and write a selling proposition. Lastly, define the features and specifications of your product to be used in driving marketing messages.
- In-person networking
While it may seem impractical for online businesses, in-person networking can be a gem for small businesses if you know what you want. As a small business owner, always know that business success is about relationships. Therefore, networking allows you to build relationships with prospects that lead to sales and returning customers. These relationships also lead to referrals and growth. Establish new relationships by writing an elevator pitch that cannot be ignored, registering for conferences, planning workshops, joining a local chamber of commerce or renting a booth at a trade show.
- Use direct mails.
While direct mails can be expensive, they can be highly effective if you find a targeted list and send suitable irresistible offers. Compared to emails, direct mails result in five times more sales than emails. To achieve this, start a multipiece direct mail campaign, create different approaches and split-test the mailings to measure the impact. Include clear, enticing call-to-action messages to get their full attention.
- Advertise
Advertising and marketing are two different but often confusing things. While marketing involves all the aspects of getting your product or service to the market, advertising entails getting your message about the product or service to the markets. Methods of advertising that you should consider include radio, renting a billboard, advertising on publications, using stickers and using newspapers. Other options include using social media or TVs.
- Use social media marketing
A strong social media presence is not optional for small businesses. Most consumers expect to follow a company’s progress, get updates and make connections. All these are achievable through social media. Social media also allows you to define your image, promote products, build relationships with prospects, and gain long-term clients and profits, which can be expensive if you decide to use conventional methods. However, you need a robust social media strategy and a solid idea of the audience you want. After identifying this, find out the customers and think about how you want to talk to them. However, this is not the end, manage the social media handles you have by responding to the user comments and questions, and keep them abreast with the trends and the activities you are involved in. This will add you more customers and keep the existing ones satisfied.
