How to Spread the Word about Your Business

So, you would like to know how to spread the word about your business?

You might have just started your business.

Perhaps, you already have regular customers and a stable return on investment.

Maybe your usual clients are already bringing in new prospects just by word of mouth.

You are thinking, if all is going well, why should you still spend time, money, and effort on spreading the word about your business?

The answer is simple.

You need to know how to promote your business because it’s not enough that your company exists and survives.

You should be able to tell more people about your products. Otherwise, you’ll be closing shop soon.

The best way to spread the word is through business marketing and advertising.

What Is Marketing?

You must have heard all the marketing jargons like branding, social media, and advertising, to name a few.

All those terms fall under the umbrella of marketing.

Marketing is how you see your business and how you want your target market to see what your company is all about.

It encompasses all the processes you do from coming up with the idea of a product until you make a sale.

It should communicate the vision and core values of your company to the public.

Also, it should cause the end user to remember what your business is all about.

Advertising is about the actions you take to implement your marketing strategies.

It’s a marketing tool used in selling or promoting a product or service.

This includes billboards, newspaper, and social media, to name a few.

Branding is how others perceive you.

Your marketing strategy should include your personal brand.

Branding involves elements such as the logo, colors, copy, and slogan.

These become part of your website, letterhead, brochures, and business card, among others.

The Goal Of Advertising

In discussing how to spread the word about your business, we’ll focus on where all the action takes place – advertising.

They say that only 3 out of 10 businesses are able to keep on running for more than 10 years.

Most fail during the initial years of their business.

The goal of advertising is to keep your company running by effectively connecting you to your target audience.

Advertising allows you to accomplish the following:

Raise awareness about your product or service.
Give you means to persuade your target audience that what you offer is best for them.
Boost your brand.
Develop a desire in your target audience for what you offer.
Generate demands for your product or service.
Provide a channel to announce new products or services.
Get the customers’ attention.
Boost your sales.
Provide a means to prove how you’re better than your competitor.

Types Of Advertising Strategies

In learning how to spread the word about your business, the goal is geared towards engaging and maintaining your customers.

Here are some of the most effective strategies that you could use:

Attract The Right Clients

Attracting clients doesn’t only mean getting the attention of every person on the street.

It means finding who your targeted market is. Doing so would save you from wasting efforts on the wrong people.

Whom are your products for?

Is it for a family?

Does it apply for men only?

Is it for working mothers?

Once you’ve identified your target market, you can create a plan on how they can find your business.

Eventually, they’ll be interested to learn more about it and avail of your products or service.

Part of knowing how to spread the word about your business is to create an effective marketing message that will inspire them to buy from you.

This might hit a panic button for people who think they aren’t creative enough to make a powerful message.

Ask yourself, “Why do I believe in my product or service?” If you can’t convince yourself with your product, you won’t be able to motivate others to be interested in your business.

Assess If Your Advertising Is Effective Enough.

Another part of learning how to spread the word about your business is to assess yourself.

If you’re doing online advertising through Facebook and Google AdWords, these platforms are able to provide you with statistics about your ads.

The statistics will help you determine your advertising strengths and weaknesses.

Otherwise, you can try more traditional means such as setting up an email address or phone number where people can contact you.

This will help you determine how your leads know about your business.

Choose The Perfect Time To Advertise.

You can advertise all-year-round if you already have an established business.

Also, regular advertising is fine if you’re able to increase sales through such marketing activities.

But if you’re a start-up business, it might be best to be strategic when you advertise.

If you have seasonal products, advertise closer to your peak seasons.

Peak seasons may include Christmas and Black Friday, depending on your product.

Also, closely monitor your competitors’ promotions.

This will enable you to plan strategically how to spread the word about your business or even how to outdo them.

Create a Brand That Will Help Your Business.

When learning how to spread the word about your business, the goal is for your target audience to be able to recognize your ads based on your copy, imagery, logo or the other small details of your brand.

Take Advantage Of Available Resources

Make use of Google AdWords and Bing Ads if you don’t have the resources to write website content regularly to help boost your ranking organically.

Spend Your Advertising Money Where It Matters

Do a research on the websites your target audience usually visit, the books they read, or TV and radio shows that they follow.

You can do this by giving a quick survey checklist that your target audience can just tick off or answer easily.

Once you have the information, you’ll have an idea on which advertising tools to prioritize.

There’s lots of information on the various types of advertising strategy online.

The bottom line is to find the ones that you could apply to your business and that would give you positive results.

Types Of Advertising Channels

Promoting a new business or product was initially done through word of mouth or through newspapers, posters, and magazines.

It was only in the 20th century that advertising used direct mail, television, radio, the Internet, social media advertising, and mobile devices.

The ways to market your business depends on what type of business you run.

It also depends on how much funds you have for advertising and the media channels that your target clients are able to access.

Traditional And New Media

One way how to spread the word about your business is through media.

Traditional advertising communicates to the buyers through one-way communication through mass media.

Examples of this are television, print, radio, billboards, mail order advertisements, and banner ads.

The new media or digital/online advertising enables you to communicate with your target audience in an interactive way.

Through digital advertising, you’ll be able to reach more people all over the world.

You’ll also be able to track your clients and assess how they purchase.

Doing so will give you an idea on the best ways on how to advertise your business to them.

Examples of new media include online streaming, email marketing, social media advertising, and mobile app advertising.

How To Spread Word About Your Business

Here are some ways to market your business:

Develop a Personal Brand And Logo

As mentioned earlier, the brand is how others perceive you.

It’s how your target audience sees your company.

Starting off with a brand is very important especially if you’re promoting a new business.

A useful exercise in coming up with ideas for your logo would be making a list of what your business is all about.

Then, make another list describing your target audience.

This will help narrow down the things that should be emphasized in your brand identity.

Put your logo on your company stationery, business cards, brochures, signs, and website so people will be familiar with it.

Set Up a Website

You only have 10 seconds to get someone interested in your website before they click on the “x” button and close the tab.

Thus, you need to make sure that your website is appealing and updated.

Also, consumers should be able to navigate your website smoothly using their laptops, tablets, phones, or computers.

There are available website services online that are affordable and user-friendly.

You can try them out to get you started with your website when you still have a low budget.

Check out the websites of your competitors and other major companies and see what features they have on their websites that you can implement in yours.

Have Social Media Presence

Still on learning how to spread the word about your business, ensure you have a social media presence.

Create your business profile on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Youtube, or Instagram.

Make sure to link your profile to your website.

Participate in groups and conversations that are similar to what you offer but try not to oversell your product or service.

Remember, spamming is unethical.

Create instructional videos or infographics and post them to your social media account to make your brand more visible online.

Have An Email List

Having followers on social media is great but they would only be your followers for as long as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram are still running.

Having an email list will allow you to have your own list of contacts that don’t depend on any social media.

You can start by setting up a sign-up form on your website.

Next, look for a trusted email marketing platform that will help you send emails to your target audience.

Create a Blog

Having a regularly updated blog will allow you to effectively communicate with your customers.

Through your blogs, you’ll be able to update your clients about your business. It would also help your search engine presence.

Create a Mobile App

We’re in an era where people are always looking at their phones.

Apart from having a mobile-friendly website, creating an app where customers are able to interact with you better will be helpful for your business.

This is another important tool for how to spread the word about your business.

Send Out a Press Release

If your target audience includes elderly people, it would be best to advertise your business through newspapers, magazines, and radio stations.

Advertising to them through social media may not be effective especially if they’re not social media savvy.

Network with other business professionals to let people from the business community know you and your company better.

Doing so will also give you an opportunity to reach more customers and learn best practices from other entrepreneurs.

Offer giveaways such as mugs, car shades, or pens that have your logo on them.

You can offer them during meetings, trade shows, or community events.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Organize activities that show how your company puts efforts in improving the society.

Try not to do it for show off but mean it.

You can host a party for residents of a retirement home or kids in an orphanage.

You can donate money or goods. Or, you may implement clean-up drives.

Let all your stakeholders know about your CSR activities so they’ll be able to participate.

Build Personal Relationships With Your Customers.

This could be the most effective way to advertise.

Strong customer relationships may result in loyal consumers, sales increase, and good word of mouth.

Carefully observe and analyze how customers are assisted when they enter your store or checked out your web page or made contact to your company through phone or chat.

Realize That First Impressions Last; Even In Business.

This is why you need to train your team on the value of your business and how your product or service is the best in the market.

In fact, you’ll need to sell your product to your team first.

Unless they believe in your company, in your product or service, and especially in you, it would be difficult for them to sell your product to the next person who steps in your store.

Have you ever experienced walking in a store only to talk to a salesperson who doesn’t have a clue about the product he or she is selling?

Isn’t that experience quite annoying?

What your company is all about is shown from the moment a prospective buyer has contacted your business and your staff.

You need to make sure that your salesperson doesn’t only know which shelf a particular product is located.

He or she should be able to tell what your product is all about, what makes it different from other products, what makes it special, etc.

Set up an effective tracking system that will allow you to contact customers or potential clients after they contacted you.

Once a customer buys from you, it would be easier for you to sell to them again since they already have an idea about you.

You may also ask them for feedback or review on how you can improve your product or service.

This will make them feel valued.

Where Should You Start?

Promoting your business requires hard work as much as any other part of your business.

You can start by evaluating your time, the information you have and the funds you have available.

Time

Creating an advertising program is a time-consuming endeavor.

It involves a lot of details and it requires constant changes to keep up with the trend.

But, once you’ve accepted it as part of your job description and your routine, it would be less challenging.

You may opt to hire someone to do this for you as well.

Information

When creating a marketing plan, put in all the information that you can.

Realize that there is no right or wrong information.

The more detailed you are, the better.

Include a full list of your product or service and a list of your target clients.

Add in your organizational chart with a job description, if possible.

Include details about your competitors, types of buyers you have, market trends, among others.

Ask your salespersons about important points that they think should be included in the plan.

If you’re the business owner, know that there is no one who is more passionate about the details of your business as you.

You may be able to hire a marketing person who will put everything necessary for an effective advertising program but without your passionate inputs, it won’t be anything special.