18 Ways To Market Your Business, Stay On Your Toes and Avoid Social Distraction

Let's admit it, social media marketing is fun! It is an instant high to get feedback on your product or service in a post. People either like it or ignore it and that tells you whether you're doing a good job selling yourself to your customers right? Wrong!!!

Social media is only one of many ways to reach your target customer and sell your stuff. So why is it that so many entrepreneurs and communications teams spend all of their time on social media marketing? Businesses forget that selling is a multi-dimensional practice. You need to stay on your toes and be in as many places as your customer wants you to be at once. You can't have only one conversation with potential customers and expect them to convert.

Sales is about telling the same story in a different way over and over again.

You have to talk to your customer, demonstrate the product, put it in their hands, make them feel like they are part of a community of other enthusiastic customers and more!

If you are a business owner, marketer or communications professional and you find yourself getting stuck on social media marketing as 80% or more of your outreach strategy you need to diversify. Don't claw back your social media efforts, that area still requires work! Take a few of the following marketing ideas and amplify your other marketing opportunities. Engaging with your customers in multiple ways will gain you a following you will really like. 👍❤

Here are 18 ways to market your business: 

1. Social media:

Outreach through a platform where your target customer checks in multiple times a day ensures that they will see you and the content you provide. Choose your content and your platform well.

2. Influencer outreach:

Collaborate with people with powerful voices in your niche market. Don't only think of sponsored posts, think sponsored events, a book where your brand is mentioned and more. There are a myriad of ways someone who is trusted in a very specific field can lend their voice to promoting your business.

3. Thank you cards and personal notes:

A personal touch transforms your business from a faceless company to a individual your customer can trust. Spend the extra time to write a personal note or include a letter and picture of the CEO in your newsletter. Put a human face to your brand.

4. Direct mail:

Send a coupon, a letter, a special offer or just an introduction of your service directly to your customer's door. 

5. Door to door:

Meet and greet people face-to-face for a conversation about what you can do for them. Don't make them come to you, you go to them. 

6. Social responsibility:

Sponsor a team in your community, donate to a local charity, give back on behalf of your company. Customers (especially Millennials) appreciate a company that is socially responsible. Show them that your company has a conscience and a cause it cares about that customers also care about. When you have caring in common people can feel good when doing business with you.

7. Promotional events:

Create a time and space to put your company on display and your product to the test. Show customers what your brand is about by giving them an opportunity to interact with you, your employees, your product or your brand message. This can be a product demonstration, a party, a networking event or a sponsored performance.

9.  Giveaways and contests:

Get customers excited about what you're selling by giving it away! Whether winners have to complete a challenge to win or just enter their name in a draw they are demonstrating their interest in what you do. Once you have their attention, and you know they would like to receive it for free the door is open for you to convince them to pay for it later. 

10. Email:

Subscribers to email lists boast higher engagement rates than any social channels. In other words more people read email and click on a link, enter information, forward it, save it or do what the company asks than any follower on your social media pages. Starting, growing and maintaining a list of active email subscribers for your business or brand gives you an excellent return on your investment.

11. Tradeshows and conferences:

Rent a booth at a tradeshow or conference where your customers will be in attendance. Potential customers will be delighted to meet and speak to a real person in your business so they can comparison shop with your competitors at the same event, in the same venue in real time.

12. Traditional advertising:

Buy advertising space in a newspaper, in a bus or on a mall billboard. Place your business logo, tagline and product picture in a place where your public must see it.

13. Join a directory:

When customers are ready to buy make sure you are top of mind. Join a directory of products and services your customer may be looking for to make sure they find you. Are you a black-owned business? Join a black business directory. Is your store in the Mississauga area? Join a list of businesses with your specialty in the Mississauga area. Be specific and be easy to find. 

14. Seasonal sales:

Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, Easter and more. There is a reason to offer your business for a special seasonal price every month of the year.

15. Pubic relations campaign:

Solicit a journalist, blogger or person who communicates with your public to write a story, shoot a video or talk about your business. Although all publicity is not good publicity, attention is the oxygen of marketing your business. While you are seeking attention for your business just remember that attention is not the end goal, the sale is! Once you gain your customer's attention you have to reel them in and make the sale. 

16. Website:

Your potential customers now have the ability to research your business in seconds through the internet and they are doing it in record numbers. Court your savvy consumer by presenting your business from your point of view. It is most likely that previous customers are talking about you in online reviews, but it is best if you join the conversation already happening and talk about your business in the way you would like for it to be remembered. Present yourself with high quality images, considered copy and positive customer testimonials that tell the story of what you business is about and how you serve your customers in a unique way.

17. Certificates:

Validate that you provide a quality product or service with a certification that proves you're able to meet a standard. Obtain certification in an area that your potential customer care about. Having a certification and telling your customers about it might be the final confirmation a customer needs to buy from you. 

18. Awards:

Let other organizations tell your customers you are the best in the business by winning an award. The first step to winning is submitting an application. You'll never know if you don't try so find the awards in your industry, study what it takes to win and apply, apply, apply.

These are just a few ideas to diversify your marketing approach beyond just social media. How many of these 18 methods are you using to promote your business? Tell us in the comments below.