Every business or entrepreneur needs to possess a basic understanding of marketing or finding clientele. Otherwise, how are you going to successfully run a business? Without clients or customers, you probably aren’t! One amazingly useful way to generate interest and positive impressions among current and potential clients is to use promotional items, public relations, a web presence, and solid advertising to your advantage. Here are four promotional ideas to help you get your fledgling small business recognized in the world today.
1. Try Email Marketing Or A Newsletter
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Getting started with marketing for your business can be as simple as leveraging email and newsletters to get the ball rolling for you. Email marketing is a powerful tool in the world of business. Nearly everybody has access to email and probably checks it every day. If you can convince people to sign up for your email newsletter and provide them with quality content that isn’t just geared toward advertising, you can generate better impressions and potential leads that might eventually become conversions for your business. To get the best return on investment for your newsletter, you need to drive engagement through quality content and interaction with potential customers. Don’t spam them with unnecessary content or inundate their inbox with nonsense offers. It needs to be focused and valuable in order to drive a better marketing return.
2. Use Drinkware For Promotional Purposes
Water bottles are a sustainable and often eco-friendly option with a multitude of uses. Using drinkware for promotional use is nothing new. You can sell these, give them away, hand them out to friends and family to advertise your brand, include them with a promotion, and myriad other ways to get your name out there. Placing your logo and/or a custom message on the surface of the water bottle can provide additional advertising for your business. People like to use water bottles and take them everywhere they go most of the time. This ends up generating impressions of your business from people who might see the logo and be curious about checking you out.
Plastic – the least expensive option on the list, plastic bottles can be reused but don’t really keep beverages cold without some kind of refrigeration. They are also somewhere in the middle when it comes to durability. Plastic can be easily damaged but is not easily breakable. Marketing with custom water bottles is a great move for any business regardless of size. There are a few types of bottled to think about:
Aluminum – mostly durable, but can be easily dented. Relatively inexpensive and not very suitable for insulation.
Stainless Steel – great for sturdiness/durability. Perfect for insulation, which can keep a beverage hot or cold depending on user preference. These last a long time and are probably one of the more popular choices for water bottles.
Glass – very elegant and classy. Ideal for a collectible. Since it’s glass, it is a bit more breakable and fragile than other bottle types.
It’s always a great idea to offer different size bottles (16, 24, 32, and 64 oz are popular choices) and have some variety with lid types as well. These might be with a straw, wide mouth, sports bottle style, or simply have a standard bottle cap. Whatever way you choose to go, there is something for everybody when it comes to promotional drinkware.
3. Start A Customer Loyalty Program
Another fantastic marketing method is to start a customer loyalty program. It doesn’t have to be anything obtuse or overly complicated. Examples of both good and bad loyalty programs can be found throughout different businesses. Some customer loyalty programs are pretty ineffective, while others do much better. For your particular visit business, you’ll need to devise a program that will be functional/beneficial for both your customers and your organization. Don’t rely too much on a customer loyalty program to drive much business. It should be an added incentive rather than a crutch to bring people in from the outside. Do plenty of research on what’s working and what isn’t and devise a strategy based on what you discover as well as what you hope to accomplish.
4. Maintain A Website With Strong SEO
In today’s technology-driven world, one of the first places—aside from your social media accounts—potential customers will likely find you is at your website. Of course, they need to be able to find your website in the first place! Much of that can be accomplished with SEO optimization. By optimizing SEO for your website, it’ll rank higher in searches and more people will find it. That should help drive more leads and hopefully bring on more customers. It also helps if your website has a strong design, intuitive interface, and a way to interact with guests. It doesn’t need to be flashy or egregious, but it should at least look professional and be client ready.
Conclusion
When it all comes down to it, your marketing strategy can make or break a fledgling company. It can be helpful to explore different options and strategies as you establish yourself and build your client base. You also want to branch out and go with diverse types of advertising to maximize reach. If you pour too many resources into a single campaign or initiative that ends up failing, you won’t be very happy at the end of the day. Advertising should be on brand and communicate exactly what you want to your potential customers. Mixing the message or going off on tangents isn’t going to help. You need to have a focused marketing strategy in order to be successful. Honesty, integrity, credibility, and being friendly/likable toward your potential customers will go miles toward ensuring your marketing strategy’s success.