If you’re starting a new business and want to know the best strategies for advertising it, you need to understand that print advertising, while still useful in certain times and places, is starting to go by the wayside. To get the most feet through your door you need to look to digital marketing strategies that can reach a broad audience, increase brand visibility and gets people familiar with your company and the services you offer. If you aren’t sure where to begin, never fear; try one or all of these cool and effective digital marketing strategies.
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A Logo To Wow The Masses
Since it acts as the symbol that represents your company as a whole, your logo is more than just pretty pictures and a few words. When thinking of what kind of logo you want to use, look to well-known companies for inspiration. Take a peek at them and dissect what they have in common and what separates them. What is it about Nike, Coca-Cola and Chanel’s logos that make them work so well? How can you duplicate these techniques into your own? Some tips might include:
- Clean, flowing lines that translate well to mobile devices
- Think like your target audience; that is, what motifs would appeal most to them?
- Be sure that your colors and typography work well together. Something that clashes can hurt the eyes and turn off potential customers.
If you aren’t an artist, that’s okay; there are logo maker services online that help you to stretch, pull, tweak and make your custom logo look incredible — and it’s a 100% original design! If you are on the fence you can certainly employ a graphic designer to help, but something that you’ve created yourself is more satisfying in the long run.
Your Website Is More Important Than You Think
If you think that building a website is too much time and energy and are considering skipping it altogether, don’t make that mistake. Think about your own shopping habits: If you want to learn more about a company or a product, where is the first place you go to check it out? Online, of course. Imagine your disappointment if you discovered that not only did the company have no website, but also no online presence at all. Would you question the legitimacy of the business?
A website doesn’t have to be award-winning to make an impression on people. In fact, including only a few key items on your site can make or break the user experience. What do you need to make sure is included?
- An About section. Yes, it’s true: Consumers want to know you and who you are, so use your About section to tell your story. Why were you inspired to start your business? What city was it founded in? Why is your product better than everyone else’s? A solid number of shoppers are influenced whether or not to do business with a company based on its values, so now’s your chance to lay them out for anyone looking.
- Contact information: A phone number, email address and any social media handles that your company uses. It’s aggravating when you have a burning question and can find nobody to speak to about it.
- Easy navigation. There are ways to make your website unique and stand out on its own, but remember that playing with the navigation menu can confuse people. Have you noticed that almost every website you visit has the navigation bar in the top center of the page? That’s the industry standard and it throws people for a loop when it’s located elsewhere.
SEO Can Be Your Best Friend
It seems like everyone is buzzing about SEO in the small business world, but if you aren’t sure what it is then you’re missing out on a valuable marketing tool. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a strategy that relies on search engines and specialized search terms to help link back to your company’s website. Have you ever noticed that certain results seem to magically float to the top of a Google search? That is not wizardry, it’s SEO done right. If this sounds confusing, never fear, here’s a simple example:
You run a business selling scented candles. What are some search terms that you might type into Google if you were searching for it? “Best scented candles, locally made candles, candles made from beeswax” might be some terms, so use those sporadically on your website to drive traffic there. Google, or your preferred search engine, will look for those terms and pull up results that contain them in sequence. The more you use those special keywords on your website the more likely you will be found on the first page of Google.
This does not mean that you meaninglessly stuff keywords everywhere you can without any context. People will notice and it will sound forced and robotic. Some clever ways to use SEO to your advantage without anyone noticing include:
- Blog posts
- Newsletters
- Articles
- Social media posts
Keep Content Fresh
And while we’re on the subject of SEO, remember that real-life people are behind every screen and are reading what you have to say. Content that is boring and irrelevant is a great way to lose people early, so keep it lively! Write posts that relate to the subject matter; e.g.: “How to clean up candle wax spilled on the carpet” or “the top 10 occasions to light candles.” Readers don’t want to see old, recycled content because chances are they’ve read it somewhere else already. If you’re not much of a writer, no problem! There are plenty of companies available whose specialty is hiring SEO content writers to write exactly these sorts of posts for you.
You have brand new sea legs and are learning how to use them on choppy, unknown waters. By using the latest marketing strategies to drive more traffic to your website and hopefully through your doors, you are reaching a wider audience and taking advantage of so many great and helpful resources.