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No matter how great your product or service is, your business will not make any money unless customers are willing to buy them. It’s simple, no customers, no business. However, many startups experience hard times or even fail, not because customers don’t want their product but because customers don’t even know that their products/services exist in the first place.
For many businesses marketing and advertising is a big problem. Here, we look at some of the keys ways you can drive customers to your start up.
Word of mouth
This is the oldest trick in the book when it comes to marketing and advertising and one that has been used by businesses for years. While it’s a slower from of communication compared to radio and television or digital marketing nowadays, it still works just as well. These days many people are becoming increasingly suspicious of paid advertising, and so word of mouth remains as one of the most trusted methods of marketing yourself to this day.
When someone is happy and satisfied with a service or product, their initial reaction is to share this experience with their friends, family or colleagues. It’s amazing how many of your satisfied customers will go to great lengths to promote, convince and defend your business.
Word of mouth is so effective and powerful that many businesses rely on it as their top method of advertising.
Print and distribute flyers
Flyers remain a simple yet effective way to publish and advertise your business. They work best for smaller businesses who are looking to target customers within a particular area. For this method you don’t need to invest in expensive flyers if your funds are limited, it’s best you focus more so on the message you want to deliver than the pictures graphics or colours.
Have an office
Whether you conduct your business in a physical store or online, building your own space to work in and allow customers to visit is a great contributor towards good relationships. Having an office is a great way for you to engage in management activities, whether it’s just you or a team full of people, you can improve the business by training, evaluating and planning within a functioning working environment.
A website
If you don’t have a website, then this could be where you’re going wrong. Thanks to the internet our world has become more connected than ever before as most people use it to find a product or service they want. Owning your own website is no longer a luxury for big companies, it’s now possible for everyone to enjoy the opportunity of being found via the web.
You can put together your own website for free nowadays, take a look here at some businesses top favourites. Having your own website is like having your own newspaper advert or billboard with a description of your business, products and services. Getting your start-up represented this way will benefit you greatly.
Social media
Social media is changing the way business is done, and now with several media platforms across the world, it’s never been easier to spread the word about your business. Popular social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter are some of the top places where your potential customers will be, so it makes perfect sense to register your business on there too. Social media makes it very easy for people to talk about your business, share tweets about your services and allow you to easily engage with them.
While some methods might not work for every business, you will not lose anything by trying them out and seeing which ones work best for you.
