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Marketing your business
Being small does not have to be a barrier to success. In fact, it can be a strength. Large organisations may seemly have marketing prowess and advertising reach. But their one-size-fits-all approach is not for everyone. Customers are increasingly wanting greater personalisation and a genuine human interaction.
Your business's fingerprint
Much like a CV to a job seeker or a show reel to an actor, a marketing plan is the DNA of a small business. It’s what you can use to differentiate yourself from your competitors. With a strong marketing plan, your current and potential customers can understand who you are and what you offer.
A successful marketing plan consists of 3 steps:
- Initial plan: This is what you would like to cover in your first marketing plan, the various tools you will use and the timescales in which you will complete it.
- Execution: The physical implementation of the plan. What and where you will be advertising, posting and selling.
- Re-iteration: Markets change, products evolve and as a small business you’re always hustling, always pivoting. Your marketing plan should be renewed and reviewed often. Ideally, sanity check the plan once a quarter. Does your plan still allow you to reach your target audience? What new technology out there can give you the edge? Review and then repeat steps 1-2.
Getting your online presence fit-for-purpose
Having a polished and professional website is an essential in today’s world. You can build one using templates from platforms such as SquareSpace or WordPress. Ensure you explain your brand. What do you want customers to feel when interacting with your brand? What is special or different about your product or service?
For more information click here.
Social media is a cost-effective way of engaging customers. There’s a variety of platforms to choose from, you just need to work out which one(s) your customers are most likely to use
Tips
- Make sure you know who your audience is.
- Make sure your adverts and images are high quality and high resolution. If your design looks bad, it may give the wrong impression about your business.What are your competitors doing?
- Is there anything you might want to copy or do differently?
- How are you testing whether your advertising is working as well as it could be? Find, try and measure different ways to deliver your message so you can be confident you’ve found the best way to say it.
Search engine optimisation
Search engine optimisation or SEO is fine-tuning a website so that customers looking for businesses like yours can quickly find you on search engines.
Search engines index and rank websites according to content and the number of hits they get. A free technique you can try on your own website is modifying the content and structure of the text to match likely searched keywords.
It’s not just keywords that matter, though. Links are important too. Because search engines also look for words that match your website content, your website ranking may be disadvantaged if the content and links don’t match. To take an obvious example, if you’re selling shoes, it boosts your SEO to have links related to footwear. For more information click here.
The power of advertising
Social media platforms offer an ad service and pay-per-click service is used by many companies to successfully improve their visibility on the search engine. Some ads only require you to write text. Others allow images and/or graphics.
Promotion is two-fold. You need to think about all the different ways you can promote your business, e.g. where can you be seen and what you can feature on (often referred to as ‘brand awareness’). What incentives you can offer, e.g. discounts and exclusive previews? These will help people move from seeing to buying.
Tips
- Many websites allow you to advertise or list your business for free online.
- Making sure you’re featured in your local business listings. All three leading search engines have these.
Email marketing
Irrespective of whether you have started building an email list, here are some tips and tricks.
- Work out what might be seen as ‘spam’ by your customers and what will feel like valuable or useful information
- Aim to email your customer no more than once a month.
- Make sure you’re telling your customers something worth knowing. A new range, a time-sensitive offer or an upcoming event make it a useful interaction for them as well as you.
Snapshot
- Brand basics: Consider who you are, what you’re offering and how you’re different to your competitors. Once you establish this, it’ll be far easier to explain it to customers.
- Design assets: Ensure you have a logo and some basic design assets, so your brand is recognisable.
- Website: Build one using templates from platforms such as SquareSpace and WordPress. Ensure you explain your brand, product/features clearly.
- Social media: It’s cost-effective and a great way of engaging/targeting your customers. Work out which platform your customers are likely to use the most.
- Online adverts: Social media platforms offer an ad service and pay-per-click service can also improve search engine visibility.
- Promotion: Think about how you can promote your business through fliers, business cards, events etc.
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Toolkits, articles and recommendations are provided “AS IS” and intended for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for operational, marketing, legal, technical, tax, financial or other advice. See here [https://www.visa.ie/legal.html] for further legal conditions in relation to your use of the Visa Digital Business Kit.
Toolkits, articles and recommendations are provided “AS IS” and intended for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for operational, marketing, legal, technical, tax, financial or other advice. See here [https://www.visa.co.uk/legal.html] for further legal conditions in relation to your use of the Visa Digital Business Kit.