So, you’ve hit a snag in growing your company and spreading its influence. No business is safe from slumps, especially in today’s competitive market. With progress constantly marching ahead a lack of inventive marketing can become a death sentence for a struggling business. Here are a some easy tips on how to jumpstart your market presence and get the much needed boost.
- The Name’s The Same
While your enterprise may expand, grow, include new ideas and services, your name and image will remain a solid point for customers and investor to latch on to. Expanding your brand and keeping it on everyone’s mind is essential if you want sustainable growth. Get your name out there whether by drumming up social media presence, making noise with unusual campaigns, or even by persistently placing it on every single thing associated with your company, be it a product, a website, a twitter handle, or even a business card. Remember, we trust established and widely known brands and customers are more likely to be lenient when everybody and their dog knows who you are, what you sell, and how your logo looks.
- Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth
Getting your brand out there will require some strategies that may seem tacky but if it works – it works. Because, let’s be fair, we all love free things, no matter how insignificant they are. Print company t-shirts with logos on them, give out cards at every presentation, get a CD printing machine and create a bunch of promotional/educational materials on what you do and why you do it best. In fact, use gift USB drives with your logo engraved on them and give those out to customers, potential investors, and colleagues at conferences. Even a pen, used everyday and barely given a second thought, can become a useful tool in spreading your brand image if you have hundreds of them distributed to every supplier, partner, and client.
- I’ll Try Anything Once
It may be risky to branch off into new services or trying to establish partnerships in industries that you’ve never ventured into. But business isn’t a safe playground, “evolve or die” is very much the core principle and you need to be ready for innovation. See if you can find new supply routes, more reliable investors, or even shake up the creative structure a bit. Don’t be afraid to get a little experimental if money is on the line. Think of it that way: either you do nothing and set yourself up for failure or you try a new approach and have a shot at becoming a household name.
- Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
After a while, running an enterprise may become disenchanting but if you’re going to get your business out of a rut, you need to believe. And that means more than just doing team building exercises or putting in a few more hours at the office. In the world of business, trust is shown with your wallet. Invest into new developments, route funding to prospective exciting ideas, try not to funnel your profits into the same old systems. Rejuvenating your company means rebuilding the way you think and the way you move in the industry. Being a penny pincher is no way to get ahead and you’ll need to grit your teeth and bear it if you want your company to rise in the ranks.
- Love Thy Neighbor, Watch Thy Neighbor
Sure, we’re paraphrasing here, but the Good Book has it right. If you want to survive in a competitive field, you may need to embrace your competition a bit. Take a look at what your biggest rivals are doing and see if that knowledge can be sued for your own benefit. The company that’s beating you in all demographics just launched a Youtube channel with instructional videos about their products? Well, guess what, you should be launching one too. It may feel embarrassing to follow the leader but what’s so wrong with using the example of the greats? You shouldn’t be blindly copying your rivals, sure, but taking a page out of their playbook may be a pretty effective way to boost your profits and market presence.
- It’s All in the Words
Engaging clientele isn’t a one-sided affair and you don’t have to constantly push a product on them to retain attention. As social media sucks in more and more people around the world, the power of a simple blog post has become much more apparent. Whether you’re writing about how your successful business functions, giving a small virtual tour through the headquarters, or talking about the fresh ways of innovation that helped you achieve success, there will always be an audience. Use this to your advantage and cultivate a following for a small blog or newsreel on your site, gaining people that will tune in regularly to hear what you have to say while you’re also subtly marketing your services. And don’t forget to put in “Share this” buttons so your readers can spread the cool information while, again, making others hear about who you are and what you’re selling.
