As a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), you can’t do everything. To be competitive, it’s best to focus your attention on lower-cost strategies that have been proven to work, such as paid ads or email marketing. With so much hype surrounding online marketing channels, however, some SMEs overlook the importance of offline marketing. To be successful, SMEs should have a good balance of online and offline branding strategies that connect with each other.
Whether it’s your website, social media or promotional products, it’s important to utilize all of the available marketing strategies to get your business seen and heard. Let’s check out the top branding strategies that are effective for SMEs.
Target Your Audience
Online advertising allows you to target specific groups of people, so use the tools wisely. Based on the data you’ve collected, you should be able to create an accurate buyer persona. Some of the basic information to know about your target buyer includes their age, location, interests and shopping habits. As you create marketing campaigns, make sure that you are always speaking to this audience.
Measure and Track Your Marketing
Many small businesses have no clue as to whether or not their advertising is working. Don’t be one of them. With platforms such as Google Adwords and Facebook Ads, you can determine what is working and what is not. This helps you make faster decisions that your audience better responds to. For offline advertising, you’ll need to set up specific emails or phone numbers to better understand how leads are finding you.
Be Smart About Advertising
You don’t need to budget the same each month. Pay attention to the best times to promote your product and invest more budget into these high-performing opportunities. For instance, do you sell seasonal products? Are your products in demand on Black Friday or Cyber Monday? If you’re not sure, pay attention to what your competitors are doing.
Develop a Consistent Brand
Your logo, colors and imagery should all point back to your brand. Ideally, consumers should be able to look at something of yours and know that it belongs to you. Avoid the temptation to create new designs when launching offline or online campaigns. For instance, if you plan on handing out promotional items at a trade show, they should follow the same color scheme, font, messaging, etc. as your website, blog and paid ads.
Use Your Resources Wisely
Some of your best resources can be found online, but others can be found offline. Leverage these resources so that you can develop a consistent brand image. Let’s say you hand out a promotional magnet at your next trade show. The magnet has your URL and a promo code for a free trial of your product. You can then track the code to see how much traffic was brought in through your promotion. Here, you’re using your resources while making smart use of your budget.
The world can feel big when you’re a small or medium-sized business. Don’t be discouraged. With the right mix of online and offline marketing, you can launch a successful business that competes with the biggest competitors.
