Small Business Marketing Ideas and Tips

Does the brand of your business need a makeover? We see makeover shows all the time on reality TV. There are shows on making over houses, making over young people, old people, in between people, making over restaurants, making over hotels, making over hairdressers. The person or home or business looks tired & drab and, voila, when the makeover is complete what a difference. People have more of a spring in their step, business can have more money in the till, houses become more like homes.

The ‘brand’ of your business can also use a makeover. There is so much change going on, social media is on the rise, websites now need mobile versions as well there’s Google +, QR codes. If our brand is looking old the perception could be that it is past it’s use by date. It’s so hard to stop & look at our business brand with a critical eye. We must step back & view at our brand with a fresh look to see if our image is still relevant to our market.

How do we know? Ask. Ask friends, family, employees, customers, business advisers. What do they think when looking at our store, website, flyer’s, emails, business cards. Do these convey the message of what our business stands for. Look at your successful competitors, what message are they conveying about their image? How can we highlight what we do better than them, what better service we provide, are these messages getting through?

Again we must do this with our target market in mind. We must speak their language. If we are targeting the over 60’s then our brand should look & feel different to businesses that are targeting teenagers.

How can we makeover the brand of our small business?

Well there are basically 2 options, pay or not pay. If you have time on your hands then you can spend hours searching on the internet, magazine or books for ideas. This depends on where your precious time is best used. If you are the main sales person for your business then you may be better off selling. If you are the finance person, then your time could be best used there. This could be a time where you are better off to pay the professionals as often here the first cost is the last cost. Though if choosing this path then the more information you can provide them on what you want & were you want to head with your brand the better.

Food for thought 🙂

Flickr is another tool in the small business marketing armoury. Adding photos and videos to your website is proven to increase rankings in Google.Here are some tips for using Flickr on your website, written by Kim Bhasin on the AMEX open forum.

Source Flicr.com

Tell your company’s story, through pictures

Every brand has a story. Flickr presents an opportunity to share it with your customers, and more importantly, you can give them a chance to be a part of it. Flickr is particularly strong at telling stories visually. Use compelling photos that represent the identity of your company, where its roots are and where it’s headed.

And be sure to get your customers directly involved with, and be able to affect, that storyline. Have them submit their pictures interacting with your brand, and encourage them to talk to each other—and you—about it. And remember, in order for people to talk to your brand, you have to make things personal. Your voice must be real, and human.

Always avoid the hard sell

Never, ever, post anything that looks or feels like an advertisement. That’s not the point of Flickr, or any other social network. You’re trying to find ways to get closer to your customers, not scare them away with annoying advertising. This holds true for both comment sections, and photo captions. It’s not an online store.

That doesn’t mean to separate your products completely from your Flickr account. When there’s a launch coming up, use the platform to get customers involved. But base it around their experience, not your own marketing.

Integrate Flickr into everything you’re doing on the Web

To get all the value you can out of Flickr, use it to connect with your other platforms. Make sure each part of your digital network is linked, from your Web page to your blog to Facebook to Flickr. Tell your customers that these places exist, and how to get there. Then they can decide which ones they want to interact with.

At the same time, make sure that you’re using each social network for its strength. For example, if you have both a YouTube channel and Flickr page, it’s okay to post videos on Flickr, but keep it primarily focused on photos because that’s the reason people will be going to your page. Beyond that, you can use Flickr as a resource for your other sites. There are tons of Creative Commons-licensed photos available for use.

Allow and encourage others to share your content

It’s a photo sharing platform, so treat it like one. You could be hosting your photos anywhere on the Web, but you’ve picked Flickr because of its users, and the site’s social features that better allow you to connect with those users.

Since you want exposure, don’t be hyper-protective with your content on Flickr. Allow sharing, and don’t limit what folks can do with your content. The whole point of a business being on the site is to let people interact with the content that you put up.

Also, upload your photos on a Creative Commons license so that people can use them. You’re probably not a professional photography company that has to protect its valuable pictures. Every time someone shares your content, that’s a plus for you. If you’re particularly concerned about people stealing your work, use small watermarks.

Join relevant groups and participate in the community

Groups are an integral part of the user experience on Flickr, and your business should be a part of that. There’s a group for pretty much any topic on Flickr, and finding some that are relevant to your business can pay off. Be active in comments, even if they may not be directly related to your business. Also, add people’s photos to your business’ ‘favorites’ stream.

Again, it comes down to being human. So get off the sidelines and participate in the community like any regular user. Fortunately, this is one major advantage small businesses have over the big boys. You don’t have that initial stigma of being a bloated corporation, so it’s usually easier for folks to relate with your brand.

When on Flickr.com the photos and videos get shared around the community. Remember again, this is not the place for the hard sell. It is to build awareness about your brand, creating discussion and driving more people to the business end, your website.

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Small Business Brand Makeover?

Small Business Marketing – Tips on using Flickr