Kate Mills from Vidalux shares her 5 Awesome Marketing Tips that will help both established and new businesses make the most of the available customer base. Kate is a respected and expert voice in a plethora of subjects with more than 10 years’ writing experience.
Marketing is everything for a business – it can make you or break you. It doesn’t matter how great your product or service is if you can’t get your message out to potential customers. Before you launch or expand your business, you need to come up with a solid marketing strategy to help get your new business off to a running start.
These five awesome marketing tips will give you the boost you need to let people know why your business is better than your competition.
Know your audience
Obviously, the strategies you might use to appeal to older men are going to be very different from the techniques you’ll need to cater to young girls. When you’re launching a product or a service, spend some time thinking about who is going to pay for it – and determine some solid ways to target those specific groups. If you spend your valuable marketing dollars gearing your business to the right demographics, you’ll see much better, faster results.
Set the right prices
The way you price your product or service communicates an important message to your customer base and can influence the way your brand is perceived. Determine what kind of impression you want to make with your product or service – higher prices may influence consumers to see your product or service as “premium,” but will likely mean fewer individual sales, while lower prices can initially help your small business break into the market, but might not give customers the right impression of your brand.
Be good to your customers
Building a loyal customer base is one of the best marketing strategies available – and it’s usually free! Respond to requests promptly and politely, even when customers are making complaints, and incorporate incentives to encourage your customers to review and recommend your products and services. Don’t allow any customer to feel dissatisfied with your product, because a single negative experience could quickly get out of hand in this world of social media.
Maintain quality control
This doesn’t just refer to your products or services, although you should certainly ensure quality there, too. With so many ways to market yourself in this digital world, you need to set yourself apart. Use your blog to share interesting articles related to your industry, and share the links on social media websites like Facebook and Twitter to encourage interaction with your customer base. Post eye-catching photos on Instagram to inspire people to visit your website and see what your business has to offer. But make sure the things you’re sharing on social media is worth looking at – you’ll lose a potential customer’s attention fast if your post is boring or offensive.
Track your results
When you’re just starting out, it’s hard to know what kind of marketing is going to be effective for your target demographic. Test potential marketing concepts for a few weeks before you implement them long-term and use website trackers to monitor your traffic and sales. See what works best for you and for your customers, so you can ensure that every dollar you spend on your advertising and promotions will be put to the very best use – and provide you with optimal results.
These tips are just a start to help you on your way to developing your brand’s unique marketing strategy, but they’ll provide you with a solid foundation to build from. It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you’ve never dealt with marketing before, but think about it from the point of view you’re already familiar with – a consumer’s – and get your message out there!
