In today’s market, it is increasingly easier for businesses to be created. Once you have an idea, you can start planning and creating the business from scratch. A good business idea can sometimes be hard to find but here is a list of small business ideas for men technasite.com to help you get started. With the growth of the internet and social media, an entire business can be created, with nothing more than a laptop and an internet connection. However, with the rise of new businesses, how do existing businesses and even the new ones manage to acquire and retain a place of prominence in their industries?
This article is centered around how businesses can market themselves effectively to remain profitable in the long term. There are several methods that businesses from all over the world have been using to market themselves properly and while some methods are more expensive than others, they have proven to be quite effective. Today, you can begin implementing them in your business too. Here is a rundown of different methods you can use to promote your business today.
1. Word of Mouth Advertising.
The effectiveness of word-of-mouth as a marketing strategy can never be overemphasized. Ahead of any other method or tool for marketing a business, the benefits of word-of-mouth advertising that business can receive will be a huge determinant in how successful it will turn out to be.
Word-of-mouth advertising starts from you (the business owner) telling family, friends, associates or anybody you meet what your business is and what it does. Once you have acquired customers, providing an exceptional quality of service is key because satisfied customers will recommend your business to other people. This form of marketing is organic. This method of advertising is very delicate because if your business offers terrible services, the news spreads just as quickly as if you offered great services.
2. Social Media.
Social media (or social media marketing) is another very effective method of promoting your business. Facebook has 2.4 billion monthly active users, Twitter has 126 million, Instagram has 1 billion and WhatsApp has 1.5 billion. What these numbers mean is that you’re leaving a lot of money on the table if you’re not utilizing social media to promote your business. By engaging with social media users every day, you have the opportunity of putting your brand in front of more people than you would without doing so. However, you have to be strategic about your use of social media for promotion. Proper use of social media can turn your business into a goldmine quickly, especially if you can achieve virality.
If you run ads on social media, make sure you target the right audience at the right time. If you own a Jewelry shop, its probably a better idea to target women than men but if it is close to Valentine’s Day, then targeting men may not be a good idea because they will want to buy a gift for their partners. Having a strategic marketing plan is crucial.
3.Content Marketing.
I’m sure that you heard the phrase “content is king”. Yes, doling out content that is related to your business niche can be a very effective way to market your business. You can begin to write articles or publish videos, either through a blog, a YouTube channel, Quora or Pinterest account. However, you need to design your content in a way that differentiates you from your competition. Content can be informative or entertaining, as long as it points people in the direction and relates to your business. Also, remember to make sure your content is SEO optimized.
4. Influencer Marketing.
With the rise of social media, there has been recorded growth in the influencer marketing industry. Influencers are social media users who happen to be conversant in a particular niche and has a strong number of followers. Businesses can take advantage of influencers in their niches to market their products and services. The influencers will most likely charge a fixed fee for promoting your products to their followers but you can also negotiate a commission based payment structure with them.
5.Search Engine Marketing.
Using the right targeting measures, you can put your small business in front of more people using popular search engines like Google and Bing. Getting this right will make sure you appear at the top of the pack on the first result page when people search for keywords related to your business. The best thing about search engine marketing is the cost. With a shoestring budget, you can reach a lot more people that live around your business location who are more likely to be viable leads.
This can be done in two ways; the first way is to rank your website on search engines by optimizing your website for good rankings. The second way will be buying advertisement space directly at the search engine; this way you can appear at the top of the search engine results without spending countless hours trying to improve your rankings.
6. Freebies and Incentives.
Another way to get people to know your business and patronize it more often is by getting them to try out your product or service for free. Say you are a manufacturer of a home appliance and you wanted people to purchase a new model that was recently released, you can organize a free demonstration at a location where they are likely to buy it from, so they can use your product themselves and get a first-hand feel of its new features.
Another method is to offer extra value for a lower price through a promotion. Letting people know that they can get more for less on a particular product or service will make them go after your offer and this, in turn, will boost your business sales.
7. Email Marketing.
Email marketing is a goldmine when done right. It is not news that most of the people who will visit your website or social media page will not buy from you immediately. Getting their contact information for future marketing purposes is a strategy that will boost your presence and sales in unimaginable ways. All you have to do is give them a cogent reason to leave you with their contact details. Once this is done, you can encourage them to buy your products via email. This strategy is very good for those running on a tight budget.
Hopefully you learnt something new from this article. These are not the only marketing strategies you can use but I hope this is a good starting point for you.