How to Learn to Do Business Marketing
Many people think that business marketing is a bit like winning the lottery, or that they need to prepare large amounts of working capital for advertising and marketing. These are all misunderstandings.
Find Your Marketing Strategy
Make sure you have a website. Having a website is crucial for most websites these days, so you need to prepare one. No other form of advertising has as wide an audience as a website. Moreover, a website is relatively cheap and can make your business appear reasonable and legitimate. You can use the website to announce the basic information of your business (working hours, address, contact information, etc.), and sometimes, you can even use it to do business and sell your products and services to people all over the world!
- If you want to save yourself the hassle of processing orders and shipping, you can connect your website to e-commerce sites like Amazon to sell your products.
- Be sure to do Search Engine Optimization (SEO) well to ensure that people online can find you!
Try social media. This is a great marketing tool. You can spread information about your company through your contacts on platforms such as Weibo, Twitter, and Facebook; you can also use ads within social media, such as Facebook-sponsored ads.
Try online advertising. Online banner ads are also a great marketing tool. Depending on your budget and target audience, these ads can appear at the top, sides, or bottom of the page, bringing traffic to your website so you can introduce your business to your potential customers.
- Be sure to use a reliable service for online advertising! Don’t invest too much, and don’t get scammed. Services like Project Wonderful are well-known and affordable.
Try email marketing. If you have a website, consider email marketing. Send a well-written email to your subscribers, introducing them to your business, where to find it, and giving them a little enticement (such as a promotion). However, don’t spam or you’ll drive away business!
- Try collecting the email addresses of people you do business with. This would be a good starting point.
Try digital or paper coupons. Coupons and promotions are both great ways to attract first-time customers. Show them how great your business is and they’ll come back again. You can use QR codes, alphanumeric codes, or traditional paper coupons.
Try flyers, brochures, and postcards. There is nothing wrong with traditional corporate marketing methods, but remember that these methods only apply to local marketing. Make sure the materials you send out are easy to understand, engaging enough, and give customers a reason to come back.
Try print advertising. You can also advertise in print media such as local newspapers. It’s easy: Whether you want to place an ad in a newspaper, a phone book, or another publication, you just need to contact the advertising department of the respective production company.
Try a TV commercial. Television is great for advertising to a wide audience, but you first have to have enough money to create a good ad. This method is best used for advertising local businesses, where your options may only be local channels and daytime slots, as the rest of the options are expensive.
Try co-marketing. If your company falls into a specific category, you might consider running a joint marketing campaign with a complementary business. For example, if you own a restaurant near a theater, consider forming an alliance with that theater and offering a discount to customers who dine at your restaurant after a movie. This approach will bring business to your business.
Brand Building and Graphic Design
Find a graphic designer. Unless you have extensive design experience, don’t consider designing corporate advertising and logos yourself. You want your branding and design to be perfect and look professional, so leave it to the professionals. Hire a graphic designer to design it for you. You can find a low-cost graphic designer by asking around at local art schools.
Design a trademark, logo, and all necessary visual accessories. If you don’t have a corporate logo yet, prepare one. Make sure it is easy to print, easy to identify, and memorable. You may also need to prepare logos, menus, brochures, and other visual accessories. These packages should also be easy to read, beautiful, and memorable.
Stay stylish. Make sure all your designs are up to date. A computer store whose logo is still in the style of the 1980s, or a website that looks like it was popular in 1996, may have a hard time attracting customers.
Shape Your Business
Do your research. Research your market, find out who to advertise to, and study how your competitors operate. Don’t assume that just because you make a product that’s slightly different from other companies, you’re the only one in the market. For various reasons, customers tend to overlook these subtle differences. You have to make the best choice for your customers.
- Once you have some basic ideas, feel free to test your marketing strategy. If it doesn’t look perfect, tweak it!
Craft your business for the market. Customers can easily turn around and go to other businesses, so they are always right. By the same token, if you receive some advice, you’d better obey the will of the market, otherwise, it may be difficult for your business to succeed.
Watch your budget! Consider how much money you have available to market your business from the beginning. Your marketing budget determines the outlines of your initial marketing. Find a balance between your marketing budget and a solid sales and business plan. It may take you a while to carefully find this balance, but investors are unlikely to consider your business until you have all your budgets in place.
Don’t neglect public relations. Public Relations (PR) is an essential part of business operations. You want people to hear only the good things about your business. Negative public relations may be good for some people, but you’re not one of those people: you want people to trust your business, trust you as a good person, and bring you business. This is how to create loyal customers.
To establish good public relations, always put customers first, solve problems quickly, and make a name for yourself in the community by doing some charity and organizing other public welfare activities.
Interact with your customers. A great way to build a loyal customer base is to make your customers feel like your business is part of their family. Whether in person or online, answer customer questions quickly and ensure frequent conversations with customers to build interactive relationships.
Tips
- Catering to your customers’ emotions is a great way to market. Find a suitable emotion to cut through, such as the customer’s love for family time, and design a marketing plan around this emotion.
- Don’t get too hung up on the ideas you come up with. Your customers may have better ideas, and if you can’t change yourself to accommodate them, your business will slip. Think of Microsoft and their Xbox One.