Although Commerce Express, Inc. conducts our business activities in the industry of freight forwarding, we have been in the game of marketing and brand building for over 20 years. After 20+ years of reading about and testing nearly every popular marketing and sales tactic out there, we wanted to give you a list of some of the most crucial pieces to include in your marketing and sales strategy. Despite what industry you work in, defining what your goals are and implementing these techniques is a good way to ensure that your business continues to grow.
How to Market Your Business
Marketing doesn’t need to be a daunting task. Sure, you could take it as far as you would like, but starting out doesn’t mean hours of devotion to brand building, web design, social media marketing, and content development. Take baby steps to grow the public’s awareness of your company. If you don’t know where to start, here is a list of a few crucial steps you can take to start growing your business:
- Focus On Your Website
Whether or not you recognize the gravity of it, your website exemplifies your business and what it will be like to work with you. If your website looks outdated, inconsistent, disorganized, or lacking in features, your potential customers will assume your business operates in a similar manner. Updating your website can improve you company’s search engine optimization (SEO), create and market your brand image, and increase the public’s perception of your company’s industry leadership.
- Develop A Content Strategy
It may require some thinking, but creating original content materials can grandly increase your website traffic and brand awareness. The reason is simple; you’re an expert in your industry and people who aren’t experts what to hear what you have to say (if you give them a reason to.) Research reports that businesses who release content (blogs, articles, white papers, webinars, videos, etc.) on a regular basis receive 4.5X the leads of those who don’t publish anything. Whether it means jotting down the thoughts yourself, contracting it out, or hiring a new marketing employee to create the contents for you, using your website and social media pages as a host for good industry-related content can grandly increase your sales.
- Use Social Media
You should be aware of the fact that clients, potential customers, competitors, and recruiters are all looking at your social media pages. If your business doesn’t have a social media account (especially on Facebook and LinkedIn), or isn’t actively utilizing your current accounts, it’s time to up your game. Updating your business’s social media pages is incredibly simple and doesn’t require a team of dedicated staff members to monitor it. First of all, social media can serve as a brand reinforcement tool, so make sure that your company’s pages are consistent with the images, layout and wording of your website. Second, begin posting your content on your company social media pages and sharing it on your personal accounts as well. This ensures that as many people as possible are redirected through your company’s social media page and – if you provide links – to your website.
- Expand Your Email Marketing
As a profitable business, there’s no doubt that you already have an email list built. Whether they are current clients, potential customers, or partnering businesses, you can use that list far beyond simple business transactions. Continue building that list to use as a platform for distributing your content, marketing materials, promotions, and anything else you’d like potential customers to know about. Email marketing is one of the most common forms of marketing and sales, so finding some programs like InfusionSoft, Mail Chimp, or Constant Contact and learning how to use them is a great idea for bettering your company’s marketing and sales process.
- Talk with Others in Your Industry
When most people realize they want improve their marketing, they generally resort to one of two ideas: 1) Google search a couple marketing ideas, or, 2) Hire a marketing employee/contractor. While these are effective methods for learning more and implementing marketing tactics, one of the most helpful avenues to take is to speak with other businesses in your industry about their sales and marketing processes. If you’ve run out of luck in this area, reach out to Commerce Express, Inc. We’d be happy to help.
Conclusion
With the amount of competition that exists in any industry today, there is simply no way a business can thrive (or even survive) without a marketing strategy. Spend time with your team developing a specific list of steps to begin marketing your business. Start small and work from there. Websites don’t need to be functional – they can be filled with well-designed static content. You don’t need to post on social media every day, but take baby steps and get content in front of your viewers.
If you need help with marketing your business and would like to talk to someone, call a member at Commerce Express, Inc. and we would be happy to help you!
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