The competition for customer attention is now even tighter than ever. Businesses are under so much pressure to make their mark in the sector their business belongs to. Most aptly so, the process of making that mark is all a part of growing your business. After all, there won’t be growth when your target customers don’t even know you exist.
That said, could that be one of the reasons that brings you here today? You’ve worked tirelessly to grow your shop that offers embroidery in Portland Oregon, or whatever other business it may be. Now that growth is visible, you’re on the lookout for strategies you can implement to promote your growing business.
Done well, the right promotion strategies can increase your traffic and bring new customers, which, in turn, increase your sales. If you’re up for the challenge, your business will soon be able to enjoy those benefits. Here are six things you can try out to promote your growing business.
1. Build Brand Awareness
Brand awareness refers to how well consumers remember and recognize your business. The greater your brand awareness is, the better. This means that consumers are familiar with your logo, products, and brand name.
Brand awareness means everything, especially now that your business is growing. If the public doesn’t know about your business, they’re never going to become your customers. That fact also speaks a lot about how a lack of brand awareness might hurt the growth of your business. Now that you’ve just started growing, keep that momentum going!
Thanks to advancements in technology, there are now so many ways a growing business like you, can offer discounts, deals, newsletters, and promo codes to your clients via email directly in their inbox. You may rely on SaleHunter to get pre-designed templates to use. Here are some other most effective ways, however, include the following.
- Create infographics. Infographics are images that help simplify what would’ve otherwise been complicated text, details, and information to understand. Just be sure that the infographics you create are coherent with your brand’s theme, tone, and colors, so you can avoid any confusion.
- Start a customer referral program. This still stands as one of the most popular ways to promote your business. Starting a customer referral works because the ones making the referrals are your existing customers. This means that those they refer your business to already take your word for it. For the customers, there’s no better return than to receive a small gift of appreciation for the referral they made. This strategy works especially well if you’re in a B2B business model, where your clients are also other businesses.
- Start a podcast. In case you missed it, podcasts are soaring in popularity. These are great for those who love to read books, but don’t have the time to. With smartphones, people now listen to podcasts while they’re commuting, out and about doing errands, chores, and whatnot.
Why not start a podcast for your brand? You can talk about anything related to the niche your business belongs to. Don’t bore your audience out by hard-selling or your products. Talk about the problems your products solve. For example, if you’re in the beauty industry, start a podcast that talks about make up tips or skin care. Make a reference to of your beauty products, if any of them relate to the topic at hand.
2. Join Facebook Groups
There’s a good chance that your business already has a Facebook page. After all, Facebook still stands as one of the most popular social media platforms of today. You can use this to your advantage by joining Facebook groups.
What niche does your business belong to? Run a quick search on Facebook, and you might just come across numerous groups which are within your niche. You can use those discussion groups to write posts and open forums so you, too, can promote your products and services. Take note that some Facebook groups allow business pages to directly join the group, while others are exclusive to personal accounts.
3. Take Advantage Of Online Directories Or Listing Services
The top three online listing services are Google Places, Bing, and Yahoo! Local. Have you signed up your business to those platforms already? If you haven’t, you’re missing out, but it’s not too late. Head on over to those sites now and register your business. Those online listing services allow you to register for free. All you have to do is register, then have your business verified through their confirmation process.
Once your account is set up, your business will be present on those listing sites. This can significantly increase your online reach and presence. Remember that most people tend to run an online search before visiting certain business sites. This is especially true for businesses like restaurants or hotels. If you don’t have good Internet visibility through those directories, then you could be losing potential customers in favor of the competition.
4. Provide Good Customer Support
Thanks to advancements in communication technology, there are now so many ways your business can provide good customer support. This fourth tip is something you shouldn’t neglect, given how important customer support and customer service are. Happy customers keep businesses going, and that’s exactly what you’ll need to keep your growth strong.
If you’ve previously only been focused on your hotlines, now’s the time to upgrade. You can use your social media sites and websites to provide good customer support. You can develop an image as a caring and responsive business when you offer support through those various social media channels.
Here’s how you can get started:
- Should there be any negative comment or problem discussed publicly on your comments section, refrain from opening up a longer discussion right there and then. Rather, divert the concern through your private message channel instead. This creates and maintains your image and professionalism, without starting up more unnecessary chatter and negative gossip on your public, comments section.
- Create a system for tracking messages and comments on your social media channels, so you can be certain that those are addressed and replied to as soon as possible.
- Listen to criticism by responding politely. Don’t ignore anything – good or bad comment, alike.
5. Keep A Strong Presence On Social Media
Keep your social media profile updated. If it’s outdated, or if you haven’t posted recently, then that’s just as bad as not having a social media account at all. Social media keeps people entertained and busy nowadays. With everyone using smartphones, it’s almost close to impossible for anyone to not open their social media account once a day. During those idle moments, you want your account to be one of those social media accounts your target market follows.
The only catch to grabbing the general public’s attention, however, is that you have to learn how to optimize your use of social media. If not, then you’re still not able to make social media work for your benefit. To give you that boost, here are surefire social media marketing tips, to skyrocket your growing business to greater heights:
- Make a list of upcoming festivals and special days throughout the year so you’re sure to have new and related posts during those special occasions.
- Humanize your brand by posting photos and videos of your employees and team, or the work they do to come up with your products and services.
- Optimize your post frequency, ideally not beyond one post per day.
- Share quality photos all the time.
- Invest in video content, particularly on Instagram stories, IGTV, and YouTube.
6. Try Out Facebook Live
Facebook Live is one of the newest features of the most popular social media platform today. As its name implies, it refers to going live on your Facebook account, so you can have real-time interactions with your followers or viewers. Many businesses today are making use of this feature to have a stronger and more profound engagement with their customers.
For some businesses, Facebook Live is a means for them to sell their products. But, that’s not the only thing Facebook Live can do for you. In fact, you don’t necessarily have to sell anything. Even the mere act of hosting a one-on-one forum or live chat with your followers is already a strong enough promotional strategy.
To be successful at this, be sure to announce your streams ahead of time. Consider that announcement as your invitation to your followers. That way, they’ll be more likely to mark that event on their calendar. If you still need more convincing that Facebook Live is actually a bulletproof promotional strategy? Here are a couple of its key benefits:
- It encourages engagement, simply because you’re directly interacting with your followers and viewers.
- It’s cost effective, as in fact hosting a Facebook Live session is free. The only expense you’ll spend for are the crew you hire to set up your station. If you have an in-house team with that, then that’s even going to be cheaper.
Final Thoughts
In the fast-paced world businesses are moving in today, promoting your business is always a top priority. If you don’t promote, then it’ll only be harder for your business to keep its growth stable. It’s a good enough start that you’re actually seeing growth in your business. After all, that’s one of the primary goals of many businesses. Don’t halt that growth. Keep it going with some of the smartest ways to promote your business, as discussed above.
Also Read: How To Promote Your Food Business Online
