The yuletide is once again around the corner! A time of frenetic excitement when urban and rural dwellers alike, would begin to hustle and bustle with Christmas shopping. Yes, I can feel the Xmas excitements; I can also perceive its aura! What's your feeling about this season? However, how would you get publicity for your business? Or, how would your customers get to know about your product/service that you want them to purchase, particularly in this season? One major ingredient for long-term survival and success of a business is publicity. No business can stand the test of time without being heard and recognized publicly.
What's Publicity?
Publicity is the means through which awareness is created about your business. It's a great way to spread the word about your business and the values it creates for the general public. Publicity helps people know about your business, helps your business expand. With publicity, you can increase the customer or revenue base, or both of your business. It's the lifeline of a profitable business. Many successful businesses have recorded huge success by simply creating awareness about what they do.
Following are some of the ways your business can be publicized:
1. Word-Of -Mouth
One great way to publicize your business is by telling people about the values it creates for them. Though, not very well liked by some people, but with great marketing skill, word- of- mouth can be all you need to create awareness about your business within your immediate neighborhood. Friends, relatives, co-workers, association members,etc are all waiting to know about that business as you tell them orally.
2. Complementary Cards/Fliers
Even though the use of complementary cards/fliers is limited in scope, it has great potential for creating awareness about your business offerings within your locality. Unlike the Word-Of-Mouth, this method saves time by giving prospect a graphic explanation about your business in minutes. It contains the name of your business, what it does, its address, contact information, etc. This method doesn't have wide audience.
3. Radio/Television
The mass media plays an important role in bringing to the notice of the public available products and services that are up for grabs. The cost of publicity here depends on the nature of business and the amount of time spent on the media. When your business is featured on the radio or television people tend to believe they can trust you and do business with you.
4. The Print
This refers to the newspapers and magazines. Here space is usually bought and sold. The amount paid depends on the size of space you intend to cover. The public have ample time at their disposal to read and consume whatever information they want to get about your business. Make sure you give out detailed information about your business, such as the ones on the complementary cards and the fliers. You may get your business featured in a story as a way to boost your credibility.
5. Seminars /Workshops
During seminars/workshops, some businesses either double their sales or even triple it! While this can be educative, it's also instructive to mention here that attendees have the opportunity to come face-face with your products/ services which they may want to buy from you. Most times, contacts are usually exchanged to further connect with one another, or between your business and them.
6. The Social Media
This is perhaps the fastest growing and the most effective way to get publicity for your business. The social media has changed the way we do business globally. At the click of a button on your computer, the public are aware about the kind of business you do. Examples of social media platforms are the Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, to mention a few. Folks who are on any or all of these platforms stand a better chance of knowing about your business when you make a post about it.
The level of interaction on the social media is overwhelming and it could be all you need to showcase your business to the entire globe without hassles. With a simple business blog or email, your business can go viral!
7. Promotion
This is a marketing method a business owner uses to let people know about their products/services. In other words, promotion is a communication tool a business owner uses for the purpose of providing information about his business. Promotion is one of the four basic elements of the marketing mix, which includes the 4P's of marketing namely price, product, promotion and place. Promotion can also be defined as one of the five pieces in the promotional mix. They're personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing and publicity.
There are three major objectives of promotion. They include presenting information to both new and existing customers, increase demand and product differentiation.
8. Business Blog
In this internet-driven age, more and more businesses are publicized through blogs or websites. This is one of the best things that has ever happened to them, because the internet has made the world a global village. If you still do business "as it was in the beginning" way, your business will phase out sooner or later due to fierce competition!
By writing and posting relevant and up-to-date information on your blog, your customers can learn a lot about your products/services, you can build good customer relation, gain traction with customers and industry experts who're in the same line of business with you. The blog provides you a good source of interaction with your prospects, distance notwithstanding.
The more you help your blog readers or customers meet their needs through relevant blog contents, the more trust you build, and the more likely your business can be patronized by those customers. If you're passionate about blogging in your own niche, doing so could be a better option. Alternatively, you can guess blog.
9. Quality Assurance
This way of getting publicity for your business has received the least attention ever. Quality assurance has the ability to keep you in business for as long as possible, and grow your business fast. The watch word is "high quality." Many businesses have disappeared into thin air within a short period of existence, as a result of substandard products/low quality services
Whatever your offerings, make sure they're of high quality. You can offer better than what your competitors are offering. If you sold a product or rendered a service for someone and they keep asking for you, would you like that? That's a big publicity for you and your business.
10. Ezine Articles
If you've a high quality business blog post you want to share with a large audience, EzineArticles.com is the best place for you. Here, Email newsletter publishers are looking for fresh contents they can mail out. If your article is selected at the end of the day, EzineArticles subscribers should come across yours. Remember to include a resource box at the end of your article with links back to your blog for further contact.
11. Give Free Stuff
Giving away samples of your products or a free service sometimes works like magic. The customer will be tempted to come back to get more of the free stuff in the future. Everyone likes a free stuff. If you've a large following on social media, for instance, you would understand better and appreciate the gesture as every customer counts. But you must apply caution in giving them out freely.
Whatever your offerings, creating public awareness for them is very important. No business ever grows under cover. Not at all! This is why no business owner who wants to succeed downplays the indispensability of publicity for his business. If you carefully apply the above strategies, you'll get good publicity for your business.
Reading this article with excitement can't guarantee you the desired result. Not in the least! It's your ability to get these 11 ways to publicize your business and match them with actions. Ideas practiced easily stick in the mind of people. Remember, ACTION is what defines and distinguishes a successful entrepreneur from others. Procrastination is the choice of a lazy man. Make your choice!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Entrepreneur, Freelance Writer and Blogger. Join me here, on www.clementnkem.blogspot.com and learn how to become a successful entrepreneur.
No comments:
Post a Comment