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Do you know all the ways of getting your name out there?
Once upon a time, marketing was simple. Get listed in the yellow pages, put some ads in the newspaper, maybe put some flyers out in mail boxes. Done. Now in this digital age the range of options is so much more, and more confusing too.
So you have spent the time and money getting a really effective flyer designed. It’s packed to the edges with loads of attention grabbing information that you know your clients will respond to. Question is, how do you get that flyer out there for people to see? Social media post, email, mail box drop, shipping packs out to places of interest? Well we are going to look at every option and discuss their advantages, disadvantages, and what that option would be best suited for.
Everyone needs to have a website. That’s how people find your business. End of story. Now how do you make it into a marketing tool is where you hire companies like Copy Express to help. The goal is to make sure you appear in the first five entries in google search results. You also need to make sure that you’ve got all the right metadata, active content, landing pages, links to customer reviews, social media content, and so on. It takes time and some effort but in the end it’s likely the most effective way to be found and to get business.
Yes I realise that a printing company listing email as their second type of marketing is something that isn’t printed. Well we know that most companies now use email as the first line of marketing distribution, we use it ourselves, but there are some very good reasons why you shouldn’t rely on it as your only means of advertising. It is cheap and simple to do, especially with systems like Mailchimp that can automate almost all of the process. The downside is that you are limited to only your existing customer base and it has a very low response rate. Let’s face it, how many email marketing messages do you get in a week that you delete without reading more than the subject line. Also many businesses make the mistake of spamming their clients inbox with too many messages every month leading to the clients just blocking it and putting the company in a bad light. If you think adding yourself to one of those email marketing companies will get your name out there to new customers, don’t. Most of the cheap ones are very questionable, almost all of them end up on spam black lists fairly quickly, and to be honest the chance of getting interested replies to their mail out is so low as to make it pointless. Email works best for where you are offering exclusive or very time limited offers to your existing customers.
We all see social media advertising, where a funny or thought provoking item draws people into the deal the business is offering. I’ve talked about it here and when it’s done right it can really draw new clients in thanks to the power of viral trends. The challenge is that you have to spend a lot of time and money to get one of those viral hits, so for most businesses social media marketing becomes more of a post on their site that’s only seen by their existing followers. The alternative is to pay the social media companies to put your marketing out to their customers, using the same methods as the mailbox marketing company, allowing you to target based on various demographics. All of this costs, and from my observation, unless you’re a big company it doesn’t seem very effective. This doesn’t mean you should ignore it, just accept that it is a low cost, low response rate method, just like email. Social media works best when you have a more generalised offer that people may be willing to pass on to their friends, especially if there is a time or number limits to it.
Technically this isn’t a marketing service, but Review Sites will directly affect your reach to customers. One effect that google will often pull in information from review sites as part of its data aggregation to position on the search results. Review sites are also the go to for most people when checking on the business as it gives a feel about customer service that the business provides. Even a negative review can be an opportunity for you to do marketing, by turning that negative into a positive with some great customer service as you put things right.
Remember when every few days your mailbox was stuffed full of flyers. Well it still happens occasionally and even the smallest of businesses can target a large number of households fairly simply. With this you pick the suburbs you want to target, and if it’s homes or business then you get a number of flyers needed from the distribution company. The printing company, like us Copy Express, will organize the practical side, so all you have to think about is what you are going to be slipping in everyone’s mailbox that doesn’t have a ‘No Junk Mail’ sign. Now you have to be aware that the smallest of these types of runs are over 5000 addresses and depending on the size and number of suburbs you are targeting, may require tens of thousands of printed flyers. You also have to allow the fact that it can take two or more weeks from the initial suburb quote to the marketing enduring in mail boxes so this is not the choice of the instant special that digital systems allow you. Again there is a low response rate to the number of flyers you send out, but trends point to it being much bigger than the digital formats if you offer a range of specials over just one or two.
I talk about it more here but in a nutshell, you have the option of directly reaching people through mailing lists compiled by specialized research companies. Depending on how ‘focused’ you want the list to be, you can be just as simple as all business of a certain type or households in a given area to very detailed social graphical information (Households with two or more adults and children of ages 0 to 13 years, with combined earning over $ amount, with more than 1 car, etc). You do have to pay for this information, depending who provides it and what you want, it can cost you hundreds of dollars. In return you have a much smaller pool of potential clients where you can smartly tailor your marketing to get a much higher response rate. So this type of marketing is best for high premium services and products.
This covers everything from signs you put on a fence of a house a builder is working on, through to the cards stuck in the stands at supermarkets, to the big animated billboards on the sides of buildings. This is your passive form of marketing, where you’re just got your name out there to be seen. I think it works best in situations where you’re demonstrating your services, such as the sign on the lawn of a house being renovated. Unless you’re paying for billboards or other commercial signage, the costs are relatively low and you can take them with you as you move locations. Don’t forget that company vehicles and work clothing also make for great public displays.
Are you an on site business, such as a plumber, it’s a quiet time and you have workers doing little but getting paid anyway. This is a good time to get out there with some spot marketing. With a smartly designed flyer you can just walk around the houses or businesses on the street and drop in a personalised flyer talking about what you are doing right now and what services you are offering the business/home you are standing in front of. Have a pad of them in the ute/van at all times and get out there with personalized marketing when you can. Sure like all advertising it won’t guarantee a response, but it does put your name out there and shows you are thinking about their needs, which is great for building a link of your name with that service, so when they do need it yours is the name they think of.
One thing I don’t see too many businesses doing is cross promotion. While it can be tricky to set up, the benefit of sharing potential customer pools can be advantageous to compatible businesses. For example a hair salon might cross-promote with a beauty salon as they handle different areas of the same market space. The only risk is that one business’s reputation might become tarnished if the other starts giving a poor customer experience. Being members of the local chamber of commerce is often a worthwhile investment for the membership cost. Not only do you have a pool of other businesses you can work with, but the chamber can help you in doing various promotional activities, such as hosting training events.
For the sole traders, small to medium sized businesses, these two formats of marketing are quickly falling out of favour with search engines and websites replacing them wholesale. They still have a place but very much at the bottom of the list. Local papers advertising still has a place for targeting a local area where you get your most business from. Treat it as the same as putting out a sign on the street there for brand recognition more than directly generating customer interest.
Being a member of a trade association is another ‘not really marketing’ marketing situation. Yes in many professions being a member of an accredited trade association is vital to being able to operate, it also still serves a marketing function. Many associations have rankings or ratings, so having a top or near top rating will make your business stand out over the competition.
Everything from the discount vouchers on the back of supermarket receipts to flyers slipped into a customer’s paper bag at the till are part of this method. Now this is the easiest way to do it as you already have a customer in your store, but it’s the type of marketing you use that matters. The best kind of marketing material is a discount voucher for future purchases that either relate to the product just brought (oil for a lawnmower for example), or encourages the client to refer or bring their friends. They do have a better response rate over things like a social media post, but it is very dependent on what is being advertised. You are also targeting existing customers, so it’s not expanding your market share which is vital for growing your business long term.
Not sure what method you should use for your next marketing push? Don’t know if the product/service you have chosen to promote works for the way you are getting it out there? Why not book a meeting with Copy Express. Our independent viewpoint will help you pick the right methods to get your promotion out there and our design experience can help you ensure that it says just the right things to make sure it gets noticed.