Let's Talk The art of marketing your company is one of the most powerful skills you can equip your business with. Strong branding with clean messaging makes for an unstoppable presence.
How many times have you caught yourself selecting between two different items in a store? Both are extremely similar products, and sure – price factors in… but nine times out of ten you find yourself opting for the slightly more expensive item. Why? This is because subconsciously we perceive that because the branding is on point this must mean it is the superior product.
The same principles apply in almost every aspect of business. The better you market yourself, the better chance you’ll be chosen over someone else.
When put like that, it seems simple but how many of us follow through with this when it comes to our own company image? Most of the time, this is because people don’t know where to start. The whole process can seem daunting and way above our heads. But the best advice of all is to just begin. Once you start, you’ll find the rest snowballs into overdrive.
Here’s a great place to begin:
Start with a clean, sharp logo
Pay for a quality graphic designer to design a logo and style guide that represents your company in its entirety. You want to make sure you stand out from the crowd but that it’s not too busy to remember – less is often best. Your logo is the first thing to be seen, making sure it has an impact will allow people to remember who you are. Think of all the big brands you know, usually the logo is simple and effective – easy to remember and impossible to forget.
If you’ve got a logo now but it doesn’t currently meet the brief, it may be time to ask yourself if it’s time for a refresh?
Standardised documentation
Once you have your logo sorted, all of your documentation should follow. That’s everything from your letter heads, email signatures, through to invoicing.
These seem like basic principles and something that probably doesn’t matter too much today, but as you get bigger you will want the style you have worked hard to select to flow through to all aspects of the business.
Implement a process so that nothing goes out without being uniform.
Company appearance
Have a look at your business through the eyes of your customer. From the moment you drive into your business premises to the initial feeling when you walk into reception. Is it clean, is there rubbish floating around in the carpark, should the bins be moved out of sight or hidden to the side – are the vehicles tidy – have the staff left enough room for customers to park comfortably with easy access to the front reception, is the warehouse tidy, is the stock neatly put away? What your customer sees each time they drive to your premises paints a picture of the quality service and product, they will receive so you want to leave them with a positive experience every single time.
Keeping up to date with technology
In this day and age, technology is everything. Even though we come from a very traditional industry, the need to stay up to date with technology is massive.
Social media, paid google searches, remarketing adverts that follow potential customers around as they jump from web page to web page, all play a massive part in brand awareness and will in time help you to covert new customers and leads. The need for a well thought out website, that follows the same principles of clean and not too busy, with a simple easy to find what you need process will lead you to success.
If you haven’t done anything with google ad words, this is a great place to start to boost your sites presence. You want to appear on the first page of googles searches as much as possible because this will generate enquiries which ultimately lead to new business. If you’re on page 3 or even page 2, chances are you’ve missed out on what could be ongoing new customer leads.
Use experts where needed
When you’re going through this process it’s also important to remember this isn’t your area of expertise so don’t lumber yourself with the responsibility or think you should have skills that have taken someone years to perfect – graphic designers, website creators, SEO specialists and content creators are experts for a reason.
These are just a couple of basic points when it comes to marketing and how you can use it to your advantage. Keep an eye out for our upcoming article on how you can take your marketing to the next level!
