Growing your business is one of the most important, yet also the most difficult aspects of being an entrepreneur. While creating amazing products and offering outstanding services is certainly the first step to business growth, it’s just the beginning. In fact, even the best products won’t sell well if you don’t get them in front of the right people. That’s why it’s vital that you have strong marketing strategies for all of your products and services. Without these strategies, your business will never grow. Here are a few tips that will help you refine your marketing strategies and grow your business.
Create Social Media Profiles
While it may seem like everyone’s answer to “how do I market my business” these days is social media, it is true that joining sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn do help get your name out there. Social media shouldn’t be the beginning and the end of your marketing strategy, of course, but it is a low-cost way connecting with potential customers, interacting with current customers, and sharing your new products and services. Some sites even allow you to sell products directly through your social media profile.
Write a Blog
Blogs are another form of social media, though they actually pre-date the term. While people have been writing company blogs about their products and services for years, it’s still an effective way to reach an audience. You can post your blog on your website and then link to it from all of your social media pages, drawing traffic to your site. Blogs are also a great place to offer customers very useful content that is not only informative but also draws the attention of search engines.
Create Videos
Today’s content has gone beyond text and simple images. It now includes videos, and you should certainly consider making videos that cover your products, services, and other information. These videos give customers and potential customers a better look at the personalities behind your company, allowing them to connect to you on a more personal level.
Videos are a great place to show off products, but they’re also very useful for showing customers how to use, maintain, or even repair your products. You can showcase some of the lesser-known uses of your products, too.
Harness SEO
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is how search engines find your website. Without a good SEO plan, you won’t rank very highly in search results, leading to a few people finding your website. You can find a number of different online courses in SEO, some of which are even free. However, you likely don’t have time to become an SEO master. Fortunately, there are experts out there you can hire to handle your SEO. There’s more to it than just coming up with a few keywords related to your business, so this is one area where it’s definitely not a bad idea to seek professional assistance.
Plan a Conference
Hosting a conference can be a good way of bringing in people from your region or even from around the country to your company. You can find a few industry experts to serve as your keynote conference speakers, which can capture the attention of industry publications and the local news. In addition to listening to these speakers, you can use this opportunity to get your products and services in front of others.
Know the Four P’s
Understanding and focusing on the four P’s in your marketing strategy is also a key factor in how successful that strategy is. These four P’s are Price, Produce, Promotion, and Place.
Price, of course, is important because you want to make certain that you sell your products/services at a price that allows you to recoup all of your expenses plus make a profit. However, you have to make certain you’re not pricing yourself out of the market by trying to make too large of a profit. Another factor to consider here is when to offer discounts, sales, and other promotions.
It may seem like you can create a marketing strategy around any product, and while that’s true to some extent, it’s also true that it’s much easier to market some products than others. Products that have a use, are trendy or are new lend themselves to easier marketing strategies. Keep this in mind when determining what products you’re going to offer.
Promoting your products is the next step. You need to make sure people understand what it is you offer and why they need it. While it may seem like this is the main focus of a marketing strategy, your pricing, offered products, and even the location are all also important factors.
Offering your product in the right place can also have a major impact on your marketing strategies and business growth. Some products are naturally going to be easier to sell in certain locations. For example, winter sports gear is much easier to sell in parts of the world where winters are longer and colder than in tropical locations. You want to take the time to do market research and determine what your audience wants. Finding the right place and the right people to market to is essential.
Offer Rewards to Loyal Customers
While growing your business via new customers is certainly a worthwhile aim, you also want to make sure you’re not losing current customers. Otherwise, your net gain may be small or even negative. Creating a customer loyalty program can help retain your customers and give them incentives to purchase more of your products. Rewarding them with coupons, special discounts, or even free products will also give them a positive opinion of your company, improving your word-of-mouth marketing.
These are just a few basic marketing strategies you can employ to help grow your business. Remember that marketing isn’t something that’s truly ever finished, so always continue your market research and launch new marketing campaigns regularly. By doing so, you’ll be able to refine your marketing plans and get your company name in front of the right people.