Different Types of Marketing to Engage With
There’s so much that every Small Business Owner has to bear in mind when it comes to launching and establishing their company and brand. It can often feel like there’s a never-ending list of things to do in order to get things up and running. But once you’ve ticked all of these tasks off your checklist and have successfully got your brand off the ground, the hard work isn’t over. In fact, you could say that it has only just begun! While your products and services may be on the market and available for people to buy, you need to work pretty hard to ensure that consumers are aware of their existence and encouraged to purchase them. At the end of the day, making sales needs to be your priority, as profit is the aim of the game and the only thing keeping your business afloat! So, to help you to achieve this, let’s take a look at one major aspect of product promotion that you should familiarise yourself with and use to your advantage: marketing.
What Is Marketing?
Marketing is an essential business practice with the main aim of getting consumers to purchase your products rather than a competitor’s products. This sounds pretty simple, but as you begin to engage with the consumer market, you’ll quickly grow to realise that the average consumer is relatively complex. While they are unlikely to spend money without being subtly encouraged to do so by the seller, they want to feel in complete control of every transaction and will be likely to reject a product if they feel that they are being actively pushed into purchasing it. Now, to completely understand your potential customer base, you’re going to have to carry out a whole lot of market research. This will alert you to their wants and needs. You can then use marketing to offer this to them. Now, there are various types of marketing that you might want to consider. So, let’s take a look at a few for you to try out!
Network Marketing
Network marketing is a brilliant and reliable way to establish a new brand and help to elevate it above its competitors without having to invest too much money. Otherwise known as multi level marketing (or MLM), network marketing involves allowing others to purchase some of your products which they can then sell on to their personal contacts, such as family and friends. Various huge brands work on this premise, including Avon and Tupperware, so you can see just how effective it can be. The best part? Not only does this benefit you (as more of your products sell to individuals who you might not have been able to reach or entice with other marketing methods), but it benefits the representatives of your brand who are working to sell your products too, as they will receive commission! If this sounds like something that might interest you, Brad K Russell has written some brilliant pieces on the concept, detailing how to make a success of network marketing ventures. Just remember to ensure that you regulate your network marketing effectively. There are certain rules that you will need to abide by. For example, you should ensure that representatives make the bulk of their money by selling your products rather than through payouts for recruitment. Network marketing schemes were pay primarily revolves around recruitment could quickly gain a reputation as illegal pyramid schemes.
Social Media Marketing
Thanks to the rise of smartphones and apps, the majority of us now engage with social media on a daily basis. The main three platforms that people tend to use at the moment are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. At the moment, Facebook is estimated to have over one billion active users, Instagram is said to be used by at least one hundred million individuals every single month, and Twitter has an average of three hundred and thirty million users online every month. Though you may initially think that social media is for purely personal use, any good business person will be able to tell you that you need to place yourself wherever the mass market are focusing their attention. So, it’s time to engage with social media if you aren’t already! Having social media profiles and a large social media presence can be extremely beneficial for your small business. While it may feel a little daunting setting business profiles up on each of these platforms, you should bear in mind that these platforms are designed to be user-friendly and extremely simple to use, as they are designed for ordinary members of the public who may not have extensive technological knowledge. So you should get to grips with how each works pretty quickly. Make use of options for business pages when setting up, as you will be granted access to special features, such as tagging products in your posts. Hopefully, your brand name will be free for a username, but if not remember that you can always incorporate dashes, underscores, or numbers into your username. Upload your branded logo as the page’s profile picture, link your website to the page, and you’re ready to start posting. A good approach when it comes to fuelling your site with content is to reuse many of the product photographs and feature photographs from your website. You should also consider sponsoring posts to expose them to as many people as possible. Thanks to the types of targeted advertising that many social media platforms use, your money should go far, as your ads will appear on the feeds of people who are already showing an active interest in the products you’re selling and competitor brands.
These are just two different types of marketing that you should consider investing your time and money in. They can prove extremely beneficial to your business, helping you to appeal to as many consumers as possible, which should encourage more sales and result in increased profit for you to take home at the end of the day!
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