You survive the first year of your new business. Things are looking great. Your inventory is full. Customers buying your products are all lined up for at least the next three months. You’ve added a couple of staff to your operations because you know that the demand is increasing and it’s going to continue to trend upward for the foreseeable future.
Your friends have told you that your product is excellent. They also said that you might be missing out on bigger potential earnings because you’re merely relying on word-of-mouth to create brand awareness. They are convinced that you can tap customers in Ogden in the north of Utah and to St. George in the south. You don’t even have a website. You finally decide to do something about it. But where should you start?
A Quick Review of Marketing
The main goal of marketing is to promote to customers your products and services through specific activities like advertising, creating a logo to represent your brand, or asking celebrities for endorsement. Marketing activities are designed to target specific demographical audiences. It can be single people ages 25 to 35.
These days, however, most traditional forms of marketing have been significantly overtaken by digital marketing. Hardline proponents even claim that the only way to do marketing is through digital marketing. Your approach would vary depending on your resources, your product, as well as your customer base.
Where to Start
Yours is a thriving small enterprise. It’s unlikely that you will get the endorsement of Kylie Jenner or Bradley Cooper, two of the top 50 celebrity endorsers according to Forbes magazine.
Creating an elevator pitch is one of the traditional approaches back in the day. You explain to potential customers the value of your product in just a few seconds. The idea is not obsolete, but the method by which it is applied is different. The Internet and digital marketing have changed all that. Today, your pitch is a 10-second video popping up on Facebook or Instagram.
Here are some ways to put your brand on the digital world:
- Build a website. Your online presence starts with your website. Make sure that you already bought a domain from a host seller. Your domain name or URL is like your business address on the internet. Popular host providers include GoDaddy and HostGator.
- Create your content. Your website is your vehicle, but your content is the one that’s going to drive your brand awareness. You must consider your audience and know what their needs are. For example, a stay-at-home mom would have a different routine than a single female office worker. Define clearly the set of information on your website, from your company history to the description of your products and services, to your blog posts. The clearer your messages, the more value you provide.
- Get on social media. You can create accounts for all the major social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Your goal is to be in front of everyone else by delivering value through your content. It takes time and effort to manage social media accounts. You need to know the best platform that gets your branding messages across. This means knowing where most of your customers hang-out. Do you have more likes on Facebook, or does your Instagram have more followers? How popular is your YouTube video? So you need to execute your social media efforts methodically.
These are three of the many steps that you can take to increase the fame of your products and services, which will eventually help boost your sales.
