Give your Business a Promotional Push in 2012
1. Write a plan
Now this may sound obvious, but it's surprising how many companies don't have a well thought-out marketing plan. There's nothing wrong with being spontaneous, but the lack of focus can often lead to mixed messages as well as blowing the budget within the first few weeks! Take the time to really think about what you want to achieve and explore all of the avenues you can take to do this.
2. What's your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?
You need to know what makes your product or service stand out from your competitor's. This may inevitably be the reason that a customer chooses YOUR business. Again, this may sound obvious...but get it down in writing so that everyone is aware of it.
3. Understand your customer
Who buys your product or service? You may have had an initial idea of who your target market was at the beginning, but have they evolved? There may be more than one category you can segment the market down to. Once you know this, you can easily tailor your marketing plan to capture each area and even target the segments in different ways.
4. Build a strong brand
Once you have a clear idea of your unique selling proposition and target market you need to determine your brand values and ensure they are kept consistent. Your identity, your staff, your advertising message and the product itself must reflect them. Building a brand can take time, but it will add value and recognition to your company.
5. Use different media effectively
Would your customer engage with an interactive email or would a personalised leaflet mailed to them be more appropriate? There are so many ways in which to inform potential customers of your business, it's just about getting a good balance and more importantly the most relevant for the target market.
6. Make sure you have a website and update it regularly
In today's culture, people like to be able to access information at any time of the day (or night). How can you expect potential customers to fully understand your company without having some form of internet presence. If you already have a site, you need to keep this updated so that returning visitors have something new to read and can engage in your company developments and up-coming events.
7. Ensure search engines know you're there
First and foremost, make sure you register your site with the popular search engine using their webmaster tools. This ensures that they know you are there and will add you to their index. You also need to make sure that all of your pages have correct and relevant content and that the key words from this are added to the background coding to help with searching. Finally, you need to sit and wait for a while as it can take up to ten weeks for your site to be trawled and ranked.
7. Try to use innovative advertising
It no longer pays to have a simple poster with your company name and contact information on... you need to really engage your client, their expectations and the environment in which the advert will sit. Having an innovative approach will help your marketing stand out. For example, if you know you are designing a billboard poster, try to utilise the surroundings of where it will be displayed.
9. Simply – be green
Everyone is very environmentally aware now-a-days and it pays to let your customers know how your company conserves resources and cuts down on waste (it can actually save you money too!)
Ideas like turning your equipment off when you're not using them, encouraging more internal communications by email (rather than leaving notes) and choosing suppliers and services with green credentials can all be beneficial.
10. Never underestimate word-of-mouth
Positive messages through word-of-mouth not only increases the reach of your marketing, but also builds upon your reputation and brand whilst being absolutely free! Clients will often refer their peers to a company who has shown them great service and this is no longer just by face-to-face or telephone. Social media has opened up a whole new scope of 24/7 conversations whereby messages can quickly be exchanged and company information sent at the click of a button!
Whether you are after a complete re-brand, a one-off marketing consultation, a brand new website or simply ideas on alternative ways you can use print then Apple Print and Creative are here to help! We have over 25 years of experience within the print, design and marketing industries and work with clients to understand their existing brand or offer innovative solutions.
We can help your company and brand get noticed and will make sure your message is simple and clear but delivered with a considered strategy.
We can help you make a measurable improvement to your business through web design, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and system integration and offer full business reporting and click-through feed-back to make the most of this resource.
We take our environmental responsibilities very seriously and are proud to be part of the 5% of UK printing companies to have the prestigious FSC® (Forest Stewardship Council) and PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) environmental accreditations.
If you are interested in speaking to one of the team about your next project, simply give us a call on 01635 521654, send an email to hello@appleprint.co.uk or visit our website www.appleprint.co.uk
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