5 Must-Do's For Beginners When Marketing A Small Business From Home
Technology is growing in quantity, and quality. With the new age of technology, has given many businesses the ability to fully operate from a computer or smartphone. Convenience has become a luxury we all expect. Individuals across the nation are creating small businesses from home, and promoting it on all social media platforms. Products are getting sold, more and more people quit their jobs to end up making more money from home. Scroll through a feed and you will see advertisements for products you have specific interest in. Humans are influenced by what they are surrounded with, products will sell if you can get an advertisement or your product in the face of many. Marketing is how the word gets out and more profits flow into the business.
"Flashforward to 2021... the average person is now estimated to encounter between 6,000 to 10,000 ads every single day."
These are my 5 must-do's to begin marketing a small business from home:
1. Understand the audience/consumer and build
When creating a product, there is a lot of time and energy that goes into the specifics. Such as, the color, the shape, the dimensions, ect. In this decision making process, odds are you have a good idea of who will be interested in shopping for said product. This is the target audience that you will want to focus on when creating a marketing plan. Demographics play a huge roll in posting to Facebook and Instagram. Knowing the age range, gender, and social class can allow platforms to advertise your product to consumers that would be interested in pressing "add to cart". Understanding who is browsing your website will also influence your internet presence and guide format decisions. Social media platforms and the businesses website should reflect the aesthetic of your brand and lay the intentions out on the table for viewers. There is no physical store to shop in, (if the business is all online) so this makes it essential to be clear in what consumer you attract.
When beginning Protect Your Peace I had to understand the target audience and do research on how to execute. Shay makes clay earrings and had a vision for the brand, I am in charge of all marketing content. The clay earrings have sold mainly to females ages 16-65. This leaves a wide range of people to please and try to pull in with advertisements and posts, but it gives me an idea of where to start. Knowing the target audience of females young to elder, put me on Facebook, Instagram, and shopify for creating the website. I suggest creating a single platform first, where products and or services are listed as well as information on how to purchase. Building one solid platform then venturing out has been successful with Protect Your Peace and can feel way less hectic.
2. Creating brand recognition is necessary
Consumers will buy what they know and what they love. Creating a brand that is recognizable, persuades the human mind to lean into the more comfortable option. Humans pick where to eat based on recognizing the big "C" on the side of the road as tasty chicken with great customer service. Brains programmed this way, are easy to influence over social media marketing or digital marketing. Logos are the faces of businesses, so creating an eye catching logo or brand name is a key factor. Once the brand is on the screens of consumers, their train of thought and attention is now with you. Paying attention to where the logo is placed is important as well as making sure the placement is not overwhelming or too much.
Brand creation is a time consuming process and takes a lot of planning. In this process the best advice I can give, is do not steal other people's artwork for your logo, and be simple. A little goes a long way, this is a true statement especially with trends as of now. A logo should be straight to the point, contain a picture, word, and or representation of which the brand will be known by. Making the brand colorful, eye catching and easy to talk about will only boost the possibilities of more people utilizing the brand in their day to day.
3. Adventure outside of the house when marketing at home
Hypocritical in a sense but getting out of the house will only do good for the business. Taking a step outside of the house with business cards handy, samples, and or free stuff for people to take home will get the word around. This will give an opportunity to create relationships with people that were not connected with on social media platforms. Tangible items to hand out, such as a business card gives individuals something visual in that moment to remember the brand and face of whoever handed it to them. It takes effort to grow a business and as easy as it can be to start from home, getting out can only increase awareness and profits overtime.
Recently, Shay expressed interest in wholesaling her clay earrings to boutiques in town and possibly growing to other towns in the future. As the marketing guru, I went to local shops with a business card handy and explained her desires. This gave the boutiques enough information to think it over and get back to me with a size of their first order. I was also able to create relationships with individuals throughout the town, for personal purchase. Word of mouth can be a strong way to market, especially if previous customers are aiding in this.
4. Stay consistent with social media interactions
Digital marketing is an avenue of its own. Uploading a picture once a week with a catchy caption will not suffice. This avenue is as tedious as it gets, when it comes to the energy put into social media posts, stories, reels, lives, and ads. The more content put onto the internet, the higher chances of more people seeing what your brand has to offer. Consistency with interactions on social media platforms will keep followers and potential customers viewing and clicking. Clicks and views are what drive in the money when utilizing digital marketing.
Nike, a well known brand that has been around for years and increases profits daily posts almost everyday on Instagram. Either to their story, making a reel, or posting to the feed, Nike makes sure individuals see a Nike swoosh throughout their day. This is extremely successful not only to sell tennis shoes, but in brand placement for other companies to say, we want Nike to do x y and z for us. The aesthetic and brand representation should be identical on all platforms as well, this will increase consistency throughout.
5. Pay for the advertisement, money will come back
Facebook, Instagram, and many other platforms will give the user an option to "boost" or "promote" the content being posted. The action of boosting a post or promoting it, will increase the number of people that are seeing your products and other content. Facebook allows the user to boost the post and select the demographic that it will be advertised to. The cost can range from $5-$1,000. Depending on how much is spent, will determine how many people it will reach in the set amount of days selected. Essential to spreading the word, digital marketing aides in exposure of small businesses. The Facebook and Instagram promotions are an example of where money can be well spent.
Utilizing this tool has only brought positive outcomes during the beginning process. Facebook has reached 3,000 individuals that would not have known what Protect Your Peace was, unless that $15 was spent to run the ad. Instagram promoted Protect Your Peace t-shirts and reached over 500 people, spending $7. Two platforms that have helped grow the brand in very simple ways. One must spend money to make money and in this scenario, it is a highly profitable decision.
Starting a business is time consuming and energy draining. Marketing a business along with everything else that must be done is a full time job within itself. Digital marketing has given us the opportunity to make it quick and convenient to spread awareness of small businesses everywhere. Social media has made it possible to find an audience and connect with them daily. All tools that will increase sales overtime, mixed with patience. Small business life is stressful and more time consuming than advertised but get out, meet people and advertise your passions. Only good can come from consistent work of the individual.