While running any business can be a challenge, especially in crowded industries, the good news is that there are still ways for your company, your business, to stand apart from your competitors. While you may have been pondering one or two ideas of your own, consider implementing one of the items from this sampling of suggestions or incorporating their ideas into your own marketing campaign.
Produce a “Thing”
Any business can succeed with a sensible business plan based on customer needs, market share, and a good reputation, but that approach can be improved upon with a “thing.” This “thing” can be a catchy jingle, a company practice, or even a physical product that helps customers or clients remember your business. The beauty of the “thing” is that it doesn’t necessarily have to have a strong connection to your products or services. Some good examples of this concept are the Easy Button from Staples, the Lexus holiday jingle, or Chik-fil-A employees saying “my pleasure” whenever you say “thank you.” Your company can benefit from this kind of subtle brand recognition if it is well orchestrated. After all, if someone near you says “I’m lovin’ it,” what do you think of?
Commission a Mural
Look into hiring a local artist to draw a mural promoting your company’s products or services, ideally on a large exterior wall attached to your business. Alternatively, you might look into having the mural made on a wall attached to a friendly neighbor of your business, or even a business whose offers complement your own and whose operators will permit it. For example, your butcher shop may not have the real estate necessary to host a promotional mural, but a neighboring bakery might be more than amenable to lending one of its walls to your mural; after all, bread is necessary when grilling hamburgers and hot dogs.
Having a Custom Domain Extension
Have you recently begun to notice websites whose domain names end in .biz, .awesome and so on? In February of 2015, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, broadened the allowable range of “generic Top-Level Domains,” or “gTLDs,” by more than 500 words. One of the most concrete ways by which you can market your company is to acquire a custom gTLD from a provider like Dominion Domains that fits with your company identity. If your business involves watercraft, you might consider buying “.boats;” if your business involves pianos, you might consider “.keys” and so on. You want a domain that places your company in the forefront of potential customers’ minds.
Use Social Media with Personality
While social media is a necessity in this day and age, the tone and voice of your company’s social media pages can do wonders for staying memorable and interesting to current and potential customers. One need only look at the Twitter pages for Arby’s and Wendy’s to see how much this can drum up interest in a company. While Wendy’s’ Twitter has become infamous for its sassy, roasting responses to tweets and its digs at its fast food rivals, Arby’s, who happens to be the silent owner of Wendy’s, has garnered a reputation for using its food and packaging to reference various elements of pop culture. Figure out a social voice that complements your business’ personality and run with it.
In case you have been racking your brain trying to come up with ways to promote your company, make sure you have considered promotional art displays, purchasing a gTLD or giving your company’s social media accounts a personality. One of these ideas is bound to boost interest and visibility in your company.
