Marketing Misconception
For a small business, the term marketing may be intimidating. You may be thinking of the expensive TV commercials or massive billboards that large businesses purchase. For most small businesses, this is not a feasible way to get their business seen. However, that does not mean your business cannot afford any marketing whatsoever. Here are some free, or inexpensive ways to get your small business noticed:
Social Media
It’s 2019, every business should be on social media. There is really no reason to not be. The major social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all free. These 3 platforms alone have approximately 4 billion combined users. Obviously, not all of these users are within your target audience, but this illustrates how big social media is today. Each site offers something different, and depending on the type of business you have, one site may work better for you than another. For example: Instagram is a great way to advertise a restaurant, as you can post mouthwatering photos of your dishes that will make potential customers hungry for your business. It’s also useful because you can tag the location of your restaurant in the post, so customers can find you on a map without even visiting your page. These platforms are very user friendly, so it does not take a technology wiz to figure them out. They also offer inexpensive advertising and promotion directly through the app that is fairly easy to use.
Website
Having a website, a good website, nowadays is very important for almost all businesses. It is an opportunity to showcase your business to potential customers and provide vital information that they may be looking for. Some information may include service offerings, hours, location, contact information, menu, pricing and so much more. Depending on what kind of business you have, you can even sell products directly off your website. You can also upload videos and photos to give customers a preview of your facilities. You can customize your website to cater to your business. You can build your own site through websites such as Wix or WordPress for under $300, but that can be quite the task for someone who is not tech savvy. Either way, having a website for your business in this day and age is essential.
Store Layout
Obviously, this only applies to brick and mortar businesses. The layout of your store is often overlooked, but is extremely important. Things like traffic flow, product placement, spacing and check out points all have a direct impact on your in-store sales. Sometimes the best option is to hire a professional to come in and evaluate your store. They will then sit down with you and discuss what changes you should implement to optimize your in-store performance. However, if you don’t want to spend the money on a professional, you can most likely do some research on your own.
Branding
Having a strong, consistent brand across all elements of your business is crucial. Your brand is what will be recognized by customers, so you want it to be strong, consistent and easily recognizable. McDonalds is a great example of a business that has amazing branding. The Golden Arches are recognized around the world as the logo of McDonalds. They do not even need to write the name “McDonalds” on their store fronts because the logo is synonymous with the name. They also use yellow and red as the primary colours used in their logo, stores, online and all business elements. This reaffirms the brands identity, and helps customers with brand recognition. However, there is more to building a brand than just logos and colours. Your brand identity is what consumers think about when they think about your business. When people think about what McDonalds provides, they may think of them as an affordable, fast food restaurant with locations all across the world. That is part of the brand identity. Another part of brand identity is communicating what your brand represents. This should be clear through your businesses mission statement as well as your actions and implementation. To summarize, your brand is all of the combined elements that people think of when thinking about your business. It is important that this be consistent and easily recognizable. If you’re struggling to build a strong brand, there is branding experts available for hire. Once again though, the internet is a wonderful resource and will provide you with plenty of great information about building a brand.
SEO
For those not familiar with this term, SEO stands for search engine optimization. SEO is the process of getting traffic to your website and social media through search engines like Google and Yahoo. In other words, it is the process of improving your business’s online presence. Most people who will be looking up your business online will do it through a search engine like Google. Therefore, it is crucial that when they enter that search, they can easily find you. Ideally, you want to be the first result that appears. By improving your SEO, your customers will be able find your business online, leading to a more successful business.
Some things that contribute to your SEO success include:
- The quality of the content on your website
- The amount of relevant content on your website
- How well your website abides by the search engines SEO guidelines
- Your websites analytical performance
- The frequency and amount of posts on your social media
- The number of followers and interactions on your social media
Following our consistent theme, the best way to improve your business’s SEO is by hiring a professional. However, if you are not willing or able to spend the money on a SEO professional, you can do your own search engine research by utilizing the many search engines that are at your fingertips.
Making the Effort is the First Step Towards Success
By investing in these areas, your business is guaranteed to see results. Making the effort is your first step towards success. Hopefully this blog has helped shed some light on how to make your business stand out. If you have any questions on how to grow your business, head to our contact page and reach out! We will be happy to assist you.