Essential Tools to Get Your Brand Out There

Whether your company is new, or you are trying fresh strategies to promote your existing brand, it’s important to take a look at the essential marketing tools at your disposal. While it’s true that many of these tools today revolve around digital approaches, there’s real value in some older, tried-and-true tools, such as custom business cards. To be sure you know the best way to create yours, check out this article.

Marketing Tools at Your Disposal

There are 2 basic approaches to promoting your brand throughout your community – online / digital, and traditional. Depending on your company and your industry, a healthy mix of both could be included into your small business’s best marketing strategy. Most of these essential tools for marketing can be managed by your virtual assistant.

• Direct Mail & Newsletter Emails –  The goal of both of these essential tools is to make sure people new to the neighborhood find out that your business exists, while keeping your brand at the top of the  minds of current residents. In both cases, getting street and email addresses from local directories of new home buyers, people in a certain age range, or from your school district could be helpful. Update lists as you go to develop a valuable client list over time.

• Ads from TV, Radio, Print and Social Media –  Ads for local cable and radio might get a little pricey, butcould also be the best way to connect with older-aged customers. The large generation of Boomers retiring now prefer low-tech methods to get their news and entertainment. Retirement homes, life insurance, vacation destinations and health alert devices certainly benefit from the traditional marketing avenues. By adding social media ads, businesses have the potential to reach a wider variety of age groups. Ads on social media are also less expensive.

• Websites and Social Media Profiles –  Your business website is not only your home-base of operations on the internet but allows your business to come up in searches like Google. Additionally, your website tells your business story where customers can check out prior jobs you’ve done, products you sell, read testimonials and find contact info. Your social medial accounts can develop your brand further by linking your interesting content from your website. Over time your followers can get to know you as the area expert in your field, the company they can turn to when they need your products or services.

• Local Networking –  Join local expos, business chamber and otherwise connect with area businesses to reach out in marketing, community and charity events. Become active in food drives and anything else that supports your community interests, while sharing photos and articles about these events on your website and social media. Allow followers to post photos of themselves on your site and pages, thus creating more original content at no cost to you.  

photo credit: le-topographe