Having great products and services without a plan to market them to the world is like lighting a lamp and putting it under the table—no one would see it.
To introduce your business to the world, you must engage in marketing activities to tell people what you offer.
Marketing activities are processes engaged by brands to create awareness about their products and increase sales.
Marketing is crucial to the survival of small businesses and startups. In simple terms, marketing is the activity that promotes the products and services of an organization.
The purpose of marketing activities for startups are:
- Get the attention of potential customers — With trillions of content on the internet, people only click on those that grab their attention. If you have great content that cannot capture the attention of a potential audience, then no one will see it.
- Inform potential customers — People are looking for solutions to their everyday problems. If your marketing strategy is not providing those solutions, people will simply go to your competition that offers them more value.
- Convert potential customers to paying customers — The last thing marketing strategy does is help potential customers make an informed decision and take the next step in the buying process.
If you are looking for ways to give your business a boost without putting a hole in your pocket, below are five design and marketing activities you can do yourself.
#1. Write a Catchy Slogan
Slogans are those simple, catchy, short, and colorful words used by business owners to get the attention of potential customers.
We all know some great slogans that have become synonymous with successful brands. The very few words in a slogan can effectively capture the spirit of a business.
Writing a good slogan is something you can do yourself. All you have to do is continuously work at it until you achieve the impact you want.
For your slogan to have the intended impact and grab people’s attention, it must capture who you are and what you do.
So why do some slogans capture and hold our attention while we barely notice others? The following are the features of a great slogan:
- It must be unique — A unique slogan is distinctive, less common, and more memorable.
- It must be concise — A good business slogan is short. They, however, properly define a brand’s value.
- It must be relevant — Your slogan must capture the values and messages synonymous with your line of business.
- It must be memorable — To make your slogan memorable, you must appeal to people’s emotions.
- It must not exaggerate — Exaggeration in your business slogan can make people view your brand with suspicion.
Experts believe people relate to good slogans better than brand names because they convey what the business stands for.
#2. Use Email Marketing
Email marketing has come a long way as a business marketing strategy. Unlike other old marketing strategies, it is still one of the best ways to engage your customers and market your brand to them.
One advantage of email marketing is that it is a free and easy-to-use strategy for engaging your old and prospective customers.
Fortunately, many tools can help you automate your business process, including email marketing. These automated email marketing tools come with well-designed templates that will grab the attention of your audience.
If you are one of those who are yet to try it, the following are some reasons to use email marketing today:
Huge return on investment
According to research by OptinMonster, on average, email marketing has a 4400 percent return on investment.
Reach a targeted audience
People need different messages depending on where they are in their customer journey. Email is a great marketing tool that allows you to send targeted messages to different audiences.
Better customer engagement
Research suggests that when you engage your customers, they will become more loyal to your brand.
Increase sales
Customers often react to emails by making positive commitments to your goods and services.
Promotes your brand
You can promote your brand image by connecting with your audience through email marketing.
Cheap
For businesses with little or no budget, emails can reach thousands of potential customers at little cost.
#3. Blog
A survey conducted by HubSpot in 2020 revealed that about 89% of content marketers use blog posts in their content marketing strategy.
Blogging is one content marketing strategy to promote your business online. Many startups have increased their sales by supplying vital information through blogging to their audience.
Many people searching for things online are yet to make a purchasing decision. To help people make that decision, experienced marketers use blogging to establish credibility in their business area.
Blogging will help boost your business in the following ways:
Increase traffic to your business
There are billions of internet users searching for solutions to their problems every day. To have a chance of being found by these searchers, your brand must show up on search engine pages.
One way to appear on search engine pages is to blog constantly. Each time you create and publish content, the search engines will index it on their pages, which will drive traffic to your business.
Build trust
You build trust with your customers by creating quality and relevant content for your target audience. When you gain the trust of your audience, it will inspire loyalty, which will help your brand gain visibility and stand out from your competition.
Convert traffic into customers
While increasing traffic to your business website is good, converting some of them into paying customers is even better.
Every business owner must devise a way of generating new leads. One of the best ways is to infuse your content with call-to-action strategies.
Creates brand awareness
It is common knowledge now that if your business is not on the internet, then your brand probably does not exist. When you blog regularly about issues regarding your business, it increases your visibility.
As a startup, the first step to generating leads and increasing sales is to create brand awareness. When you make more people aware of your brand, you have better chances of increasing conversions for your business.
Provides an advertising platform
Nothing sells itself like good content. Research has shown that when you create good content on your blog, people are more likely to share it with others.
Startups can take advantage of this human need to share with others. When more people share your content, it gives your business and brand more exposure than you would ordinarily get.
Become an authority
So many bloggers are competing for the attention of the same audience. How can one gain more credibility than others?
What will set you apart from the rest of the pack is consistently providing quality and relevant content to your target audience. Although becoming an authority in your area of business requires hard work, reaching that point will translate into more recognition for your brand.
#4. Use marketing automation tools
Running a business, especially as a startup, can be overwhelming. That’s why automating your business activities is good.
Marketing automation tools can help small businesses carry out repetitive tasks to generate more leads and sales.
Instead of handling several tasks, projects, and deadlines, automation tools can carry out these processes with little or no effort.
The benefits of using automation tools in your marketing strategy include:
- Saves time and energy — A lot of time and energy goes into marketing a brand. Engaging your audience requires that you devote constant time and attention to the process. Fortunately, with automation tools, startups can save the time spent on repetitive marketing tasks.
- Gives startups a competitive edge — With limited resources, automation marketing tools can reduce costs and give startups some competitive edge to compete with big firms.
- Increase conversion — Automated marketing tools can help startups convert more of their potential leads into paying customers by leveraging the search history of their audience.
- Shows customer intent — Marketers who know what their audience needs have a significant advantage over others. Automation tools can provide insights into what people want so you can target them with your content.
Startups must, therefore, learn how to leverage technologies in marketing their brands to the rest of the world.
#5. Design a Logo
A logo is your business identity. It is the first thing most people notice on a product even before they have the opportunity of reading anything on it.
Facebook, Twitter, Walmart, Google, Amazon, Apple, and Nike all have easily identifiable logos on all their products.
Great logos have some features that make them stand out from the crowd. Some features that will set your brand apart from others include:
- It must be unique.
- It must be identifiable.
- Easy to work with.
- Simple.
A business logo is a great marketing tool and is usually the first thing people notice when they come across your products.
If you are wondering what a business logo can do for your brand, here are some benefits:
- Shows professionalism — Having a business logo has become the accepted standard professional business practice.
- Easier brand recognition — A logo makes it easier for people to recognize your brand.
- Increases brand loyalty — There is an increase in brand loyalty when your customers relate to your business logo.
- Builds trust — Your logo is your business identity. People learn to trust businesses with identifiable logos, more than those without one.
Finally
Startups usually have an uphill task competing against already established companies for limited potential customers.
While established companies and large corporations have vast resources to market their brands, startups are not so endowed.
Fortunately, the five design and marketing activities discussed above are things small business owners can do by themselves to take their brands to the next level.
About the Author!
Andreyana Kulina is a Digital Marketing Specialist at Brosix, specializing in Content marketing and outreach strategies. Besides her passion for digital marketing, she likes hiking and mountain-biking.
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