The Locksmith Journal Nov-Dec 2016 - Issue 47 | Page 53

PROUD SPONSORS OF THIS PAGE
HINTS & TIPS • 53

How to improve your business visibility

»»
ARE YOU AN SME OR STARTup looking to grow your business rapidly , but limited by marketing budget ? There ’ s no need to compromise on your unquenchable ambition as there are lots of great , cheap and effective marketing tactics that you can employ to suit any level of budget . Below you ’ ll find a list of proven business generating techniques from www . PrintUK . com that could help to elevate your business sales and greatly improve your business visibility …
NEWSLETTER / E-MAIL
Email is a low-cost , highreturn way to enhance customer relationships and increase sales . The conversion rate of emails is historically low in comparison to other marketing mediums but it has a fantastic ability to increase brand awareness and improve upon your network . Email campaigns can be conducted for a fraction of the cost of other advertising and can be rolled out quickly by buying local data from other companies .
The key is to send an email out twice a month , but only to your internal list of registered members who have signed up to receive your email / newsletter . For prospective target customers keep it to only once per month .
Print your articles and create a printed newsletter that can be direct mailed to prospective clients to hit them at two different touch points , online and offline . Remember to write high quality content that is relevant and entertaining in order to see response rates climb .
PUBLIC RELATIONS ( PR )
In order to reap in the best results , tailor your articles to specific topics that are relevant and timely within your industry . Remember that PR not only promotes your business through the different distribution channels that pick it up , but when coupled with a hyperlink to your website it will help push up your ever important local and national google search rankings .
FLYER AND LEAFLET PRINTING High quality leaflet printing and distribution in your local and regional area can considerably increase your business sales and growth . Print media marketing holds the attention of prospective clients for a lot longer in comparison to its online alternatives , which allows you to go into more detail about your business and its products and services on your print media . Consider this in your leaflet design but keep the graphic design clean and professional .
NETWORKING EVENTS
One of the most important activities you can do to boost your business sales is to attend networking events . Networking events are a great way to meet potential customers , gain useful knowledge and insight into your industry and to boost your visibility . It is not enough just to turn up though : you need to go prepared ; otherwise you may find that you could lose out on important contacts and potential customers . Handing out business cards , printed leaflets or company brochures , will greatly improve your visibility and make full use of each and every networking event you attend .
‘ there are lots of great , cheap and effective marketing tactics that you can employ to suit any level of budget
ADVOCACY Word of mouth advocacy is often the most desirable form of marketing . This builds trust of your brand and when a recommendation comes from a personal or business contact then it is favoured in comparison to normal reviews . So how to build advocacy ? In order to get people talking about your business and build visibility they are a few low cost routes available i . e . run a contest , stage a local event , or contact influencers who have networks within your target market and send them samples of your product so they can share the brand with their contacts and naturally build advocacy . Create an exclusive club part of your business that gives its members benefits and slowly but surely advocacy will form and snowball , but remember that advocacy is a long term goal which won ’ t necessarily reap instant results .
SOCIAL MEDIA
Couple these low cost marketing tactics with social media marketing , which is free on the major platforms such as facebook and twitter , and your business will be off to a flying start , generating an increase of sales with your newly gained visibility whilst keeping within your marketing budget .
Source : www . PrintUK . com
LOCKSMITHJOURNAL . CO . UK | NOV / DEC 2016