How to market your business effectively
As a design agency we are often asked; What is the best way to market my business? The answer to this is that, a marketing strategy that may work for another company may not work for you so you will need to do some research into your target audience and the best possible ways to reach them.
Marketing your business effectively
For instance, Circleline Design is a business to business organisation and the effective ways in which we market our business would be through social media (in particular Linkedin and Twitter more so then Facebook and Pinterest), networking and mailshots.
Below are the most common ways in which companies market their products and services, it’s all about what works best for your business.
Website
Your website is your online shop window so it will need to attract customers in the first instance, first impressions count. Keep them engaged with good and informative content, eye-catching images and easy navigation. Promote your products and change your content on a regular basis either through blogs, updated content or new pages.
Social Media Marketing
Overall, the reasons why small businesses choose to use Social Media as a marketing tool is it connects them with customers, it increases visibility and can be used as self promotion. Business to consumer companies tend to acquire more customers through Facebook then they do Twitter and vice-versa for business to business companies.
Networking
Word of mouth is still one of the best ways to get new business. Attend your local chamber of commerce meetings, go to exhibitions or exhibit at one yourself and join local groups. You will soon start to build up a nice network of business contacts and potential customers.
Email Marketing
Email is still an effective marketing tool and is very cost effective. If your email contains something that is of interest to the customer, it will get opened. First of all you will need a catchy subject line and content that is useful to them, try not to be too “salesy”. Emails can be easily measured via open, click through rates and conversion rates.
Mailshot
Your mailshot needs to stand out from all other post that land on your potential customer’s doormat. A mailshot is not very cost effective so you will need to spend time on getting it right. Research your target audience and carefully think about what you need to put in your introductory letter. If what you want to say in the letter can easily be explained in an email then we would suggest sending an email as it’s more cost effective. If however, you want to send out a brochure featuring your products to accompany the letter then a mailshot is recommended. Remember to ALWAYS follow up on your mailshots.
We have experience in both digital and print marketing, if you would like more help and advice please call us on 01502 712800.