As a business, you’re never really selling a product – what you’re selling is an idea. This means that when asking the question of what you need to do in order to make it in the business world, you might want to direct this question to the expert idea sellers – the marketing veterans. Here are the five tips that they had to offer, which are meant to guarantee your success in the business world and help your business expand more reliably and quickly than you would have expected.
1. Get the most out of your social media
The biggest mistake that a lot of people make when it comes to social media marketing is the fact that they limit their use only to the most basic of functions. Instead of just sharing your content and publishing things, what you can also use it for is to monitor the landscape for social media mentions, respond to customers in the comment section and even create meaningful one-on-one relations through DM. Still, in order to do this right, you need to fully commit to the task at hand and learn as much as you can about it. If you have no time, knowledge, or will to do so, it might be for the best to hire some help.
2. Content marketing humanizes your business
The first idea that a lot of people have when it comes to the very idea of a business is an entity that’s there’s to sell them a product/service. A customer may often feel like a number or even see themselves as completely unimportant and irrelevant. It’s up to your content marketing to persuade them otherwise. Offer them something of value. Give them advice, educate them or entertain them. Most importantly, do this for free. This way, you’ll get to show your business as a much more caring (even humane) entity.
3. Different steals the spotlight
When it comes to the way in which you do things, it’s not even that important that your business does everything better. Sometimes, it’s enough just that you’re different enough to steal the spotlight. For instance, instead of going for digital marketing only, you can opt for old-school marketing and try out various promotional materials. You can even play around and try out different things in a short time-span. With agencies that specialize in fast printing, you can pitch an idea and have the material printed the very same day.
4. Guerilla marketing is the best of both worlds
The next thing you need to hear is the fact that street art or the so-called guerilla marketing definitely gives you the best of both worlds. From the real-world marketing perspective, it’s bound to drive some attention your way. As for the digital footprint, interesting examples of street art are quite shareable. This means that people will not only take photos of your street art but also post it online for everyone to see and even tag/hashtag you, thus driving traffic your way. Some of these ideas are incredibly low-cost.
5. Don’t focus on yourself
The last thing you need to keep in mind is the fact that people are, by nature, egocentric. This means that they’re primarily interested in what they want to hear, not what you are interested in. So, when telling the story of your business and forming the narrative, make sure that you use an average customer as the protagonist. In this whole story, your business is merely an agent (a tool) that they use in order to resolve the problem that they have or get what they need.
Conclusion
In the end, what you need to understand is the fact that when running a small business, you can’t hope to outcompete others in the industry by relying on anything other than your own ingenuity. The above-listed five tips can allow you to do just that. Start small, try to draw some attention and establish a relationship. From there, you can take whatever direction you want.
