Attracting attention to your business is the first step in growing your sales. Sure, not everyone who hears about your business will buy from you/hire you, however, 10% of 100 people is 10 times less than 10% of 1,000 people. So, you definitely want attention but you also want the right kind of attention. You see how you attract attention is just as important as actually getting this attention. Here are a couple of tricks to help you make a good start.
Table of Contents
1. Build a strong online presence
The first thing you need is to put the word about your business out there. First, you need a great website, a decent blog, and some social media presence. Second, you need to register on various local business registries. Google My Business should be your first stop. Even those who want to place an order offline might check you out online (sometimes just so that they can get contact info). Failure to find you might result in them looking someplace else. In some scenarios, they will assume that you lack professionalism. All of this can be avoided by building a strong online presence.
2. Give and offer value
In order to get attention, you need to start out on the right foot. First, people are not interested in what they can do for you but what you can do for them. Therefore, you need to start working on your unique selling proposition. You must be aware of that one thing that you claim you do better than your competitors (higher quality, better prices, etc.). Try putting as much emphasis on this as possible. Second, you need to find a way to offer some value for free. If you’re selling a digital service, a demo might be a niche touch. Even without it, you can always make a great blog offering a couple of useful quotes and tips on a regular basis.
3. Old-school marketing is not dead
Distributing leaflets, flyers, and brochures is definitely a good idea to spread the word around. These printed formats are particularly good because they allow you to recycle previously used content formats (like infographics from your blog). Signs and posters can be just as effective, especially when put in light boxes to attract more attention. Other, traditional, forms of marketing like radio and TV ads, newspaper ads, and billboards won’t get out of style anytime soon. You can even take a new approach to old-school marketing and consider guerilla marketing for your business.
4. Give attention in order to get it
In order to attract attention, you must first learn how to give attention to your customers. This can be done rather directly on social media. You can follow back your own followers, write comments, like, and share their content. One of the best things that a brand can do for their audience (and their own reputation and performance) is learning how to actively listen. Moreover, you need to show that you’re listening even when they’re not speaking to you directly.
5. Take your business slowly
The next thing you need to understand is that it takes a lot of time for your business to get the attention it deserves. You see, there’s a difference between brand recognition and brand awareness. Brand recognition is merely people’s ability to recognize your brand’s logo, name, and products. Brand awareness, on the other hand, is their understanding of your business and what you stand for (values, mission, corporate culture, etc.). While the latter is clearly superior, you can’t skip brand recognition and go straight to brand awareness. You need to take this journey in steps (one stage at a time).
6. Focus on regular customers
Regular customers are in the customer lifecycle and there is a chance that some of them will eventually become brand ambassadors. Also, they’re the ones who are the most likely to rate your business online or write a positive review. Most important of all, regular customers will talk about your brand to their friends and family members. As a result, they will spread your company’s word of mouth (WOM) promotion. In the end, only 20% of regular customers make as much as 80% of all your profit.
In conclusion
In the end, you need to understand that attracting attention also serves as a great opportunity to paint yourself as different than the rest of the market. It allows you to make your first introduction a lot sooner but also to start the customer lifecycle on the right foot. Seeing as how a brand is the idea in the minds of your audience, you need to make this construct with every single new connection. This is an opportunity you can’t afford to miss out on.
