Over the years, we’ve had had the opportunity of printing marketing materials for small business owners. During these interactions, we’ve come to understand that the hardest thing for them is attracting their first set of customers.
We of course know how hard this can be, and this was what prompted us into putting together these seven tips every small business (irrespective of the market) will find really helpful when religiously adhered to.
1. Sell Value, Avoid Comparison
Clients need to know what your business brings to the table and why they need to switch from current source to you. Convince them by focusing on your value propositions, this can be done through simple items like snapper frame (if you run a physical office), or even your business cards and social media and web pages.
2. Listen To Your Customer
This famous saying is not just a normal business slogan but the only way to survive, do surveys, call clients, visit them and get feedback. This is how you improve to serve them better. Always remember that it’s not by what you want but what they need. Just so you know, Apple coasted to a $1 Trillion company using this tactic.
3. Market Product Before Launch
Best way to get customers ready and raise awareness of your brand is to begin promotional activities and get customers psyched up before the launch of a new product launch. Hollywood has mastered this act with perfection, if you can get customers waiting in line for your product you can literally set the price.
4. Test fast. Fail fast.
Marketing that you can’t measure is failed marketing. Test EVERYTHING and MEASURE EVERYTHING, that way you can quickly understand your traction channels and steps taken to achieve that traction, analyse and repeat.
5. Advertise using omni marketing channels
It’s good to test multiple marketing channels and ideas to see what works best. Marketing is part time science and analytics, you conduct experiments daily via A/B Testing to ensure the right words, colours, pictures, messages, fonts, ideas, strategy are communicated to different multi-faceted customer segments and database and see what works and what doesn’t, and repeat.
6. PR is Gold
When you do PR, it’s brand building and endorsement, it’s good to get heard in the news especially from credible sources which lends credibility , this days it is easy to get in the news, just do something newsworthy.
7. Get customers talking about you
Good or bad, you want to know what your customers are saying. If you don’t provide your customers with a place to complain or praise you, it makes it look like their thoughts and opinions don’t matter, you learn from bad issues and get better with the positives, everything is geared to improve your business. Though you can’t control what people say about you, you can control what you want people to know about you. Ever heard about the blind men and the elephant?
8. Reward Loyalty
Word-of-mouth testimonials and customers who are brand advocates are better than any sales team you could put together so ensure you can at every time know your most loyal customers, ensure you build customer segmentation from Day 1 and reward your best and longest time customers continually, they will sell you.
As earlier stated, these tips will cost you little to nothing to start implementing. Remember, no matter how beautiful the product or service you produce is, it won’t attain the desired height without proper marketing strategies.
Have you any questions or contributions? please feel free to drop them in the comment section. We’s be happy to hear from you.
