Imagine this; you are a first-time business owner, and you want to open a coffee shop. But on your way to visit the location where you want to put your business, you saw 4 other coffee shops, including Starbucks.
Sounds intimidating, right? But as a person who already invested so much, what will you do??
Will you consider moving your business somewhere else? Or will you think of a game plan to make the consumers come to you?
If you chose the latter, congratulations! You're thinking like an entrepreneur. To help you get started, we created the four pillars of marketing strategies you can use for your business.
1. Word of mouth
This is the most traditional way of marketing strategy. There are many reasons why it's still useful.
It's simple; one person tells the next about their experience with a product, and the others follow suit.
Second, it's free of charge. It costs nothing to make a customer happy, and it is true that a happy customer talks.
Third, it's all about trust. As a customer, we trust the recommendations of other people. Why? Because they were able to experience the product. They have their share of opinions that would contribute to your decision to continue availing of the product.
Word of mouth isn't always verbal recommendations. It could be done through social media channels. This is also a smart strategy. It's still word of mouth but amplified.
So you need to be smart about how you want to present your business to your target audience. You want your business to be talked about? Give them something to talk about.
2. Paid advertising
You might ignore this second pillar because of the word "paid." Yes, as a business owner, you try to avoid any unnecessary expenses as much as possible. But trust me, paid advertising is what you need to jumpstart your business.
Even big companies do this. To think they already have a lot of customers and their brand is already famous. Why? Because they still need exposure. And so do you.
The most common paid advertising is social media marketing. For example, Facebook. 7 out of 10 social media users are active on this platform. You just need to pay a certain amount, and Facebook will flash your ads on its users' news feeds.
Not only will this increase your exposure. This also gives your business a chance to reach a larger audience and improve your sales in the long run.
3. Stealth marketing
Also known as undercover marketing. This marketing strategy helps you advertise your business without the consumers noticing they're being marketed to.
This is effective because, over the years, people are becoming more and more resistant to advertising. There are different types of customers.
Some people are open to recommendations. Some people already have a regular or favorite brand and are the most difficult to convince.
Stealth marketing strategy is proven to work on almost any customer type. Because you're not too evident in advertising your business, it gives consumers the feeling that they discovered a cool product or service.
Once they have this feeling, they can't stop talking about it. Making it an effective strategy for your business.
Example: Starbucks allegedly created a rumor about their Christmas tumbler collection. The story was that people don't like it and that it should be taken off their shelves.
It turns out nobody actually hated it, but it got people curious about the cup. As a result, it increased Starbucks' sales. Pretty smart, right?
Conclusion:
There are hundreds of ways to effectively advertise your business. You can check every link you see about marketing strategies, but it all boils down to what game plan you already have. These are only tips on how to tweak your strategy.
At the end of the day, it's you who knows your business from inside out.
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