By Mashum Mollah
If your business is still starting out, you will find that even though cash flow can be limited, there are many things demanding your time, money, and attention. First-time business owners can often feel really overwhelmed when considering how to market their business. After all, successful marketing attracts customers, and a large, steady customer base is what will drive the success of your business. Fortunately, creating a cheap, simple, and effective marketing plan is not as hard as it seems. Keep on reading to find out how:
Here are 5 Ways to Promote Your Trade Business:
1. Website
Your customer’s first impression of your business usually comes through your websites. With an increasingly busy marketplace, it’s important that your website stands out from the others, and provides potential customers with all the information that they need and nothing more. You want the website to be modern, professional, and simple to use. You also you’re your contact information to be easily accessible. These days, you don’t even have to drop dollars on hiring a web developer. Using platforms such as Wix or WordPress, you can create your website for free. These platforms are user friendly enough that pretty much anyone can navigate them. And if you are having trouble, you can always look at YouTube tutorials or hire a freelancer on a freelance website such as Upwork to complete your website.
2. Insurance
Having great insurance isn’t necessarily the best way to promote your business, but it’s certainly the best way to ensure that things don’t go bottoms up should the worst happen. Should the worst happen, a business insurance policy can cover your property, premises against any harm or financial damage caused by insured events. Your insurance can also protect you against the financial and public relations ramifications of a liability claim against your business. You don’t have to spend hours on the phone to a broker and pay a bucket load. An online insurance company like BizCover allows you to compare quotes instantly online or over the phone. Once purchased, the policy will arrive in your inbox within minutes.
3. Online listings
When people need a job done, the most common way that they chose a trade is by searching for one on their phone or computer. And people most commonly click on the top few results that Google comes up with, ignoring subsequent results further down the page. That’s why it is so important that your business ranks well. To make sure of this, you can claim your business’s Google business listing. This is free and very easy to do. Also, make sure that you are listed and reviewed in as many business directories as possible. Some great places to list yourself include Bing Places for Business, Yelp, Yellow Pages, True Local, and Hotfrog.
4. Social media
Almost every business around today uses social media as part of their marketing strategy. In fact, if you don’t have active, relevant social media accounts, you are putting your business at a severe disadvantage. You want your business to be ‘top-of-mind’ for customers so that when they need a service, they think of you. To make sure that your social media accounts are constantly popping up, be sure to regularly share good-quality, shareable content at peak times. These include when people are going to work (8-9 am) and after 7 pm. Social media consumption also increases on the weekend. The most popular format types are video, polls, questions, and photos. Be sure to invest a little bit of time in capturing high-quality content, and you will be rewarded. A great way to help people identify with your brand is to show behind the scenes footage and DIY tutorials.
4. Word of mouth
It’s not enough to promote yourself heavily on search engines and social media. Positive word of mouth reviews will always remain a vital way to attract and retain customers. Ensure that your work is thorough, efficient, and reasonably priced, and make sure that your attitude is friendly and accommodating. This simple formula will generate word-of-mouth referrals without you even having to ask. You can also gently prompt your customers to write testimonials, refer friends, or fill in questionnaires. You can incentivize your customers to do so by offering them discounts or special promotions. They get a perk, and you drum up more business for yourself. Win-win!
Read Also:
