Business owners need to do everything in their power to pull customers towards their products and brand. And the best way to do so is advertising and marketing what your company stands for. Effective advertising techniques can change the way potential customers interact with your brand and increase its presence in the market.
Make Your Business Visible: Effective and Creative Advertising Techniques To Try
Marketing your product and business includes creating a company profile and informing potential customers that you exist. It involves showcasing your talents or services and how they are useful and resourceful. From creating a logo to investing in social media marketing, there is a range of advertising techniques you can experiment with to see which grabs the most attention.
1. Create a Business Profile and Brand it
Just having a name and website or storefront is not going to work. You need to create a brand, a story, a connection. Think: logo, tag line, backstory, images, merchandise, etc. Hire a graphic designer to help you out with designing a logo that represents what your company stands for. Additionally, write up a story that emphasizes how and why you started this business. Customers who can relate to your story or idea or struggle are already one step closer. Use compelling images to get the message across. Then, capitalize on all of these elements and advertise everywhere.
2. Develop Your Website
In this digital age, having a website for your company is a must. Yes, word-of-mouth advertising works, but there’s no harm in doing more. Most customers will first Google a service or product they need before deciding on where to get it. A simple website that only highlights the service or product won’t be enough. Showcase your brand, include old and current portfolio, maintain a blog with educational and informational articles that show your expertise. Let people know that you are legit and understand your industry. And so, if you have a website and are actively posting on it, there’s a good chance that these customers will come across it and open it. And based on your experience, skillset, and expertise may choose your services over others.
3. Get Social (with Social Media)
Similar to the need for websites, social media is a must for enticing digital shoppers. Post, tag, comment, interact with your target client base. Here too, you can demonstrate your experience, improve customer service, and draw attention with promotions or discounts. Active social media posting reaches customers much faster than any other means. You can also invest in social media marketing so that your ads and posts can be displayed as sponsored ads on target clients’ feeds.
4. Design for the Smartphone
This, too, is to satisfy your tech-savvy clients. Mobile-friendly websites or apps are easy and fun to use. If your website or app is lagging and not user-friendly, it could cause frustration and customers may head elsewhere for their needs. Make sure your website is responsive and not slow. Make information easy to locate. Buttons should be large enough to work on the phone without issues. And so on.
5. Include Humor: Be Funny
A little humor never hurt anyone. Don’t be afraid to lighten the tone by including various humorous elements such as funny graphics, GIFs, memes, puns, etc. Something that sticks out and is funny stays with people. And if you stay on their minds long enough, they’ll consider investing in your company. In other cases, a funny caption can attract attention for customers who weren’t even looking for your product. As a result, you can increase brand visibility this way too.
6. Swag Hurrah!
Everybody loves free stuff; that’s no surprise. So, swag is a great way to get the word out and to promote different products you offer. You can do this in a couple of different ways: offer free samples, free swag, merchandise, or swag at a discounted rate. The point is to get customers excited and curious about your service. So giving them a sneak peek along with goodies will definitely pique their interest.
7. Creative Business Cards
One of the most popular advertising techniques is designing and marketing digital business cards. It’s hard to imagine that a tiny business card can do so much. But, if designed well, you can increase your email and call list quickly. When creating your card, ensure you include your logo and tagline, use a legible font, and provide contact information (business number and email). Leave enough white space so that attention is drawn towards the brand. Additionally, the back of the card is also an opportunity to advertise your product or service. For example, if you are a photographer, include one of your best photos. Let’s them see what you are capable of.
8. Consider Advertising with an Annoying Jingle
We all hate those annoying commercials with jingles that stay ringing in our ears forever, and ever, and ever! But those are the brands you remember. You can have a jingle with words or taglines highlighting your product. Or, you can capitalize on holiday music or popular music that customers enjoy and relate to. For example, a lot of ads have separate commercials for the Christmas season with Christmas visuals and music. Some even change the words to popular Christmas songs. These are some ways you can customize your ad with music.
9. Visuals in Commercials
Depending on the size of your business and budget, you may also want to consider making a commercial. You can use this to provide information about your service or create an emotional appeal by sharing your company story and vision. Or, you could use humor and misdirection to surprise viewers. For example, you could have a commercial showing polar bears sweating to talk about climate change. Or, have a commercial filled with tens of cats running around to promote the need for a lint remover.
10. Emotional Appeal
Emotional appeal is also one of the most important advertising techniques. This is because most customers will look for a good reason to purchase your product. So, you need to give them as many reasons as you can. For example, a commercial about quitting smoking that shows lung cancer or the debilitating effects of emphysema is much stronger than a commercial that simply says “Don’t Smoke.” Similarly, an ad that establishes and discusses a problem and then offers a solution makes for an effective marketing technique.
11. Bribe Them (with Promotions and Discounts)
Give customers that extra push or nudge towards purchasing your service by offering promotions and discounts. First-time customers appreciate a “first-time user” discount so that they can test the service out. You could also have a loyalty program where customers who recommend your service to others get extra points or credit. Similarly, you could implement a membership program for returning customers to get more discounts on bigger purchases.
12. Highlight Facts, Statistics, and Customer Reviews
Prove that your service, system, or product works. Include statistics, facts, product reviews, customer reviews, and testimonials. Use evidence as well as customer opinions to drive your sales. Respond to bad reviews to show that you are open to feedback and criticism that will improve the service.
13. Consider Color Psychology
Effective visual advertising techniques boost the way viewers and recipients perceive and interact with your business. An important factor in visual advertising is color. Pay attention to the colors you use for your logo, text, photographs, and the background. The colors should blend together and not appear jarring or loud. Think about the color palette when designing your flyers, business cards, etc. Something as simple as choosing a bold or dark color on a call-to-action button like “Submit” or “Click here” can influence click-through-rates.
14. Balance the Composition
Similar to color, notice how you organize and compose your copy or advertisement. You can arrange items to draw attention to specific areas or elements Or you can just arrange them in the most eye-pleasing way keeping Gestalt principles like simplicity and synchrony in mind. These principles focus on perception and how we perceive and absorb information.
15. Track Eye Movement and Create Visual Paths
A visual path is a design technique used on the journey of the content, pulling attention to specific elements. In other words, it is how a person moves along the content on your page. For example, left to right, top to bottom, and so on. You can estimate the visual path to highlight elements that you want them to focus on more.
16. Appeal to the Search Engines
Optimize your website content by adopting search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to rank higher in search results. This way, when people search for services related to yours or include certain keywords that relate to your business, they will be able to find your website quickly. You can also look into Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. These are sponsored ads that appear on top of search results. And you only pay for them when a viewer clicks on the ad. These are some advertising techniques that have proven to be successful for many marketing campaigns.
Increase Familiarity and Comfort Through Effective Advertising
Advertising techniques that are transparent and don’t try to trick customers are highly appreciated. Customers don’t want to be bullied or manipulated, but they do want to be informed and surprised. Keep your marketing efforts simple, educational, and supportive. And soon, you’ll drive your sales higher!