Many small businesses handle their own marketing rather than hire a marketing staff or enlist the services of a large agency. While there may be a couple of things you’ll want to hire out to the pros, you can certainly put together a strategy to help get your business on the map. Irish Hills Regional Chamber of Commerce offers the following tips so you can get noticed.
Evaluate the Market
One of the first things to do prior to launching a marketing campaign is to conduct market research. It's important to understand who your competition is and how you can differentiate yourself from them, whether that's in different price points, products, services, or customer service. You'll also need to investigate your target demographic and how you can best reach them. You can do some of this on your own or you can use the services of a market research firm that can help you pinpoint target demographics and the appropriate corresponding channels.
Access Your Channels
When you hear the term, “marketing channels,” it's basically a reference to different avenues or mediums you can use to market your business. For example, you’ll want to use both online and offline avenues including everything from community bulletin boards and coffee shops, telephone pole poles, billboards, and potentially even print ads along with digital media. According to Social Media Today, having a robust social media campaign is one of the best ways to interact with your market, as is having a professionally designed website. Also, consider video marketing and creating a business blog.
Form Your Messaging
Messaging is essentially whatever you want your customers or potential customers to see and hear about your company that will help them make a decision to patronize your business. You might focus on quality, uniqueness, price points, or exceptional customer service. Once you have your message, you need to incorporate it into your brand so you're always putting out the same cohesive message.
It will take awhile to create effective marketing documents. You’ll likely need to revise your materials multiple times before they are ready to be shared. Many final materials will be in PDF form, but this formatting can provide limited editibility functions, which is why it can be helpful to convert to a doc or docx file for editing. You can convert from PDF to docx quickly using a conversion program. It only takes a few steps, including selecting the file, choosing PDF as your format, and saving. This process will allow you to edit with ease while sharing the more consistent PDF document with your clients.
Network
Don’t underestimate the power of networking to advance your business agenda - consider it the public engagement arm of marketing. Join industry associations like chambers of commerce, attend trade shows and business fairs, go to networking functions, and volunteer on industry and business boards. This will help people begin to recognize your name, and you may find opportunities for collaboration as well as sales. If you need to polish your people or speaking skills, an organization like Toastmasters can help you learn how to make effective small talk and be comfortable speaking in gatherings and crowds.
Is Your Marketing Working?
When you're first getting started, it may be to your benefit to try a number of different marketing channels to see what works best. To do this, you want to track where your customers are coming from. Hootsuite notes that you can use data analytics on your website and social media accounts to learn more about customer trafficking patterns. It's also wise to perform a cost-benefit analysis every few months to decide if some channels are producing better than others as a way to make informed decisions moving forward.
As you can see, there are many different ways to market your business. It’s important to do your research and determine your target market, as well as which marketing channels will be most effective. Networking is also key – the more people you know, the more opportunities will come your way. We hope these tips have been helpful and that you’ll continue to explore our website for more valuable information.
Curious what other local businesses are doing to stand out from the crowd? Learn this and more by joining your local Chamber of Commerce.
