3 Simple Things You Can Do Today to Build Your Brand
Here at Wildwood, we’re a believer in effective and practical marketing. The more engaged a business can be in their own marketing plan, the more they can engage with their customer base. While it’s true that we’re a full service digital agency, we support businesses using free or nearly-free methods for marketing. For the most part, they are simple, help get your message across, and can build a bedrock for your company’s voice in the community. Here are 3 simple things that you can do today as a company to build your brand:
Blog: So you’re a business owner and you’re an expert in your field. Let’s say for a moment that you open an heating and cooling (HVAC) company, and you have 20 years of experience. You know what a quality job looks like, you have a golden reputation in your community, and often you consult your customers on what to be weary of with newer companies. Google has 3.8 million searches per minute on average, most of which are consumers looking for information and companies in their time of need. If it’s July in Georgia, and a homeowner’s AC just went out - if they don’t already use a company, they will very likely do a search for businesses who can come out today (after all, who wants to be miserable in the heat?) Blogging helps search engines push your content to the top of user’s searches, and may eventually push you above your competition on organic search listings. That makes it more likely that a consumer will call you when their AC goes out, and costs virtually nothing but time to write. Concerned about your grammar skills? Use Grammarly, a free program that screens your writing and is incredibly useful.
Check your online listings for accuracy. With our digitally-connected world, consumers will look for your business online before they reach out to you directly. If you have a slow site, inaccurate listings, or an overall bad experience, chances are they will leave your site for your competition. Consumers expect to easily find your site, find the address, click a button to call or load your address into a map on their phone. They expect this information to be accurate on the first try, and easy to find. Check your listings for accuracy to make sure potential customers don’t show up at the storefront you were at three years ago which is now occupied by a completely different tenant. That consumer will likely never engage with your brand again. A simple search and correction of your information can ease the pain of your potential clients, and prevent losing valuable new customers.
Create a newsletter. Similar to blogging but different in concept and distribution, a newsletter helps to engage your customers and share your brand with the world. Not only can you share updates to your product offerings and staff expertise, you can create story-telling which people enjoy reading. Not sure where to start? Showcase an employee. Share a tip for a consumer shopping for your product. Share how your industry is changing. Do community projects as a team, take some pictures, and share what you learned. Ideally, you should already have an email distribution list to share your newsletter with; if not, take some simple steps to develop your list. If you already have a customer list, you can use email distribution software to send professional mass emails.
We hope that this content has been helpful to you. We believe in the power of sharing your brand with the world, and consistent messaging can be an effective, affordable way to stand out in your community. Not sure where to go from here? Drop us a line and we can point you to additional resources that we would recommend. Or, better yet, set up a free consultation with us to review your current marketing strategy and help you find ways to make it as effective as possible.