Running a company is challenging even in the best of times. No amount of business acumen, resources, ideal locations, or quality service is going to help you succeed without luring customers to your business. Devising a superb marketing strategy is critical under this light, especially when the company is just forming and hitting its stride. Enticing customers to become patrons can be readily accomplished with the right marketing strategy. In this article, we’ll discuss five robust marketing strategies utilizing customization as a means to generate leads and ultimately drive more conversions at your startup. Read it below.
Optimize Your Web Presence and SEO
Making the case for optimizing your web presence shouldn’t be too tough. The web—your website, your social media, your digital storefront—is most likely where people are going to be doing business with you. With the shift over the last few decades into predominantly e-commerce, it’s no surprise building a strong web presence is so crucial. The site should be easy to navigate and be incredibly user-friendly. People like to research before they patronize a business, so give them something with a veneer of quality. Connect with the visually, present accurate information, and help your customers along the conversion funnel without making the experience unpleasant. It’s also key to find interaction opportunities outside of the website, perhaps as communication through forms, contact pages, email, or even social media. SEO optimization is also critical for your website. Excellent SEO helps a business significantly. By going down the optimization path, you’ll be gaining better visibility online, leveraging organic traffic, and reaching a wider audience. Keywords—and choosing the right ones for your page—are the words or phrases people look for in search engines. That’s why strategically placing them within the context of a page helps drive searches that might lead to your page. It fills a need (providing the answer to a question) and is easy to implement. Backlinks are also important, as long as they lead to credible, reputable sources that are relevant to your business. The most vital part of your SEO is your content. Content should be natural, high-quality, and designed to engage potential customers. By optimizing your SEO, you set up your web presence—and your business—for success.
Run A Contest
If there’s one thing that drives engagement, it’s a fun contest! Contests can be a useful marketing strategy. People spend a great deal of time on social media. Therefore, it’s a great way to reach them! Make your social media contest engaging, interesting, and unique. The goal should be clear and somehow increase your brand awareness. Engaging with your community also grows your audience and customer base. Choose the platform you think will have the most reach, figure out the rules, and set the contest in motion. Then start interacting with your audience, provide any prizes, and measure the outcomes to help inform your next marketing strategy.
Solicit Real-Time Feedback Through Social Media
Feedback is a surprisingly robust source of development, inspiration, and running a better business. If you listen to your customers, that can lead to plenty of games down the line. Why is social media feedback so important? Because social media provides a direct line of communication with your customers and helps you develop ways to cater better to their interests. Surveys aren’t always a good way to gauge customer interest or obtain feedback. Most surveys are too long, offer little in terms of rewards, and go undone by their recipients. It’s better to encourage real-time feedback. This type of feedback—obtained via social media, direct contact, over the phone, etc.——supplies a direct line to customer engagement. Customers who feel engaged and know you value their opinion are appreciative. The feedback is more likely to be accurate and help you solve their issues without making things worse. Real-time feedback isn’t just a good practice to engage in; it’s essential for marketing your business. If you work it into your branding and marketing, customers will know and feel confident they can talk to you anytime.
Do A Giveaway
Do you want to build rapport, trust, and goodwill with your customers? Of course, you do! One of the best ways to accomplish this lofty goal is to do a giveaway. Customers love getting free stuff. If it’s got your logo and name on it, that’s an opportunity to get some advertising while simultaneously building a bit of brand loyalty. Choose affordable, nice-looking, and functional items. Try to avoid the pitfalls of doing promotional giveaways. Choose prizes people will want.
Some other great gifts to consider giving your customers as part of your promotion are pens, stationary, keychains, bottle openers, notebooks, and calendars. A few free items provided to your customers can mean the difference between returning patrons and less enthusiastic individuals.
Sell Custom Water Bottles
People really do love their water bottles. Promotional bottles serve a dual purpose: they advertise/build brand awareness and give the customer a useful tool. People tend to keep water bottles for a long time. Important things to consider with your custom water bottle are:
- The type of message
- Adding a custome logo
- Making it unique and interesting
- Providing insulated water bottles
- Bottle capacity
- Bottle materials – plastic, stainless steel, or aluminum
- Top of the water bottle – sports bottle, straw, flip top, spout, or other
Also consider tumblers and coffee mugs, as those are both popular drink containers that can really get you noticed. Leveraging the sale or promotional giveaway of your brand’s custom water bottles with logos are an exceptional marketing tool and should be part of your next campaign to improve your business.
