Thursday: Marketing Tips For Small Businesses
Introduce your business like a story
Small businesses do well for many reasons but one thing that can make you stand out, especially from your bigger business and chain counterparts, is individuality.
Every business has a story and when a customer decides to buy from you they want to hear it. To be clear, I don't mean write pages and pages about how you started out and what your values are. I'm talking about a concise, punchy, attention-grabbing description of your business. This can be used on all your online and printed material. Particularly your website, google business page and social media profiles. And I have a great strategy for doing it.
Actually, it's something we learnt at school when writing a story. Your reader needs to know five things about you:
What
Where
How
When
Why
Follow these steps and you'll be sure you've covered all that is necessary and hopefully, interesting. Check out the homepages of other businesses. You'll be shocked at how many don't cover these essentials.
Firstly, what does your business do? Make sure you explain this in a simple and clear way. Don't worry if it's not unique. When your potential customer finds you they only want to know immediately if they have come to the right place. Reassure them straight away and they'll keep reading.
Secondly, it can be useful to explain where you are based or let people know if your service is local, nationwide or worldwide.
'How' refers to how your customers can take advantage of your service or product. Do they order online, book, buy a ticket, subscribe? Again, make this simple. That's what people will want from your service so show them that they can take the next step without any hassle.
'When' is the only step in this list which some businesses may skip. It may or may not be relevant to your business. If you have a quick delivery time for items ordered then you might want to mention that. Or maybe your service or place of business is only open at certain times. Full details are not needed at this time but information such as 'here for you 24/7', 'next day delivery' or 'classes taught daily' can be selling points.
Lastly comes the most important. 'Why' should customers choose you. This can be difficult to put into words when it's your own business so try to step into your client’s shoes. Sometimes feedback and reviews you have received can assist with this. Or, you can ask yourself why you started the business. What did you hope to bring to the marketplace that you felt was lacking? This part is the clincher! What is going to persuade the reader to shop with you or use your services?
I'm hoping that this is useful to you and empowers you to write kick-ass content for your business. However, if you're not sure you can do it justice then plenty of businesses use a copywriter. Even great writers find it difficult to rave about or describe their business effectively because they're simply too close to it. I know the hardest copy I write is for my own business.
If you’re seeking a copywriter to create content for your online or print materials then Ms Marketing rates are very reasonable and I am highly skilled at adopting the right writing style for your brand. Find out more at https://www.msmarketing.co.uk/copywriting