An effective brand, identity and marketing strategy all work to build confidence in the eyes of your customers. A few “must haves” needed to create an effective marketing strategy and brand profile include:
Tagline
A tagline provides a quick concept of what you do, even if you don’t use it in your marketing collateral. It’s a clear way to describe in a few words what makes you special and allows your customers to understand how you can make their lives better.
Logo
A logo will be a key feature of your brand, the recognisable icon to easily identify your business should be used across the majority of your marketing. A logo is not your brand (See – Developing your business brand)
Start building your profile
It’s true “Content is King”, one of the best ways to start building your profile is through your content. This strengthens and supports everything you do, you don’t need a lot but it should be clear concise and of value to the person receiving it. Quality is always better than quantity.
Get your content out there
Get your content in front of your potential customers, none of this work is any good if nobody is seeing or hearing your message. Start advertising, write articles of value, get some PR, create brochures, start promoting on social media. Be careful with social media, your message and voice are important and can backfire if executed poorly . Build a list of email contacts who are willing to receive Newsletters or Electronic Direct Mail (EDM).
Website
A website is the easiest way to provide access to your content in one place! Whether it’s an online brochure or it serves a function such as selling products or tickets to events or simply for people to enquire directly to you.
Your website will be the first real assessment a potential customer will make of your business so you need to present your business inline with your brand. With smartphones anyone can access your information if they have your website address, just make sure your website is optimised and provides a user friendly and responsive layout for mobiles devices.
Promote your website
This is the same as getting your content out there, having a website isn’t much good if nobody’s seeing it. There are proven ways to promote your business but you need to do this better than your competitors. The more businesses invest in their marketing strategies the better results they will likely return but if you’re not in the race it’s pretty hard to compete.
Some of the better promotional techniques include:
- Search Engine Optimisation
Provide search engine friendly content, this is content specifically created, written and formatted in a way for search engines to have a high chance of finding you organically. So when consumers type in a particular phrase you’ll show up in the search engine results pages (SERPs). - Paid online advertising
- Get your website listed in online directories
- Write helpful articles about your specialist area and share this content with links back to your website.
Understand your point of difference from your customers
When it comes to purchasing a product or engaging a service most people, even you will do your research before committing. You’ll want a clear understanding of what the business does, what are the key offerings and makes this business different to it’s competitors?
Back up your referrals with your professional image your quality customer service
For many businesses, leads comes may from your networks, referrals, who you know, who knows you and what you offer. However this may simply provide you with a lead, it doesn’t mean you have a new customer, at least not yet.
Consider the above marketing tips to strengthen your business profile and opportunities.
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