The top 10 business promotional tools

Every business should have a carefully-selected arsenal of promotional tools at their disposal. Investigating and researching each one is just one way of creating a smart and savvy marketing strategy that is tailored around their business’s needs. Some might be suitable for one business, whereas others may be completely redundant – and might even form a bit of stumbling block in their overall marketing strategy. With this is in mind, here are the best promotional tools to consider for your company.

SEO

Now infamously used to boost web pages up Google’s rankings, SEO is a technique that prioritizes relevant words (keywords) and links to similar pages (link building) to promote a website’s credibility. However, the playing field has gotten a little tougher over the years as Google has clamped down on pages that misuse these techniques. Using a company with expertise, such as this SEO provider will help you to avoid being penalized for overusing common SEO techniques.

Twitter

Twitter is a great middle-ground for businesses of all types: it’s a little bit creative, a little bit topical and its use of hashtags makes it ideal for promotion. If you’re looking to create a specific tone of voice for your business, using emojis and GIFs are a great way of adding humor and color to your page. It’s also a great way to conduct polls and interact with clients and customers to show a little bit of customer service.

Instagram

If you have physical products to offer or create eye-catching campaigns or designs, then you should absolutely be advertising your business on Instagram. In fact, the site claims that 60% of people discover a brand new product using their platform. Be sure to bring your A-game when it comes to high-resolution images: low-quality content will not get your business noticed for the right reasons.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is built for businesses and online networking, and so it really is worth putting your business on there to connect with other people in your industry. Not only that, but if you have job vacancies, you can use this platform to promote the job advert from in-house, so it will be seen by potential enthusiastic employees. However, just because it’s a business social media site doesn’t mean that your page should be uniform and basic. Make sure you fill your profile with videos, blogs, relevant content and update your picture and banner to branded imagery.

Facebook

If you have a physical shop of premises with opening hours, then you would be missing out on a trick by not using Facebook’s business page tools. Not only does it showcase your opening hours, but it also uses a messenger function to pre-empt frequently asked questions. It’s worth also noting that the Facebook algorithm prioritizes posts with numerous likes and comments – so encourage your visitors and followers to like and share.

Word of mouth

Never forget the old methods of promotion: good word of mouth. Your business should aim to be the ‘have you seen’ or ‘have you heard of’ on everyone’s lips. Offering customers a ‘recommend to a friend’ discount is just one way to encourage word of mouth, on top of delivering an excellent quality of service.

Networking

Yet another traditional method of promotion, networking works by offering a genuine personal touch. In the same way that many people would prefer to be called or visited rather than emailed, going out to trade fairs or out into the community to chat to like-minded customers or professionals adds a personal touch to your company’s name, stopping you from being just a faceless brand.

Customer service

Customer service should be in every business’s promotional armory, and yet it’s so often neglected. There’s nothing that damages a business’s credibility more than the knowledge that they handle customer queries and complaints poorly. Training your customer service team and anyone who might be answering phone calls to interact with customers efficiently and with a friendly manor will do wonders for the aforementioned positive word of mouth. At the very least, perhaps installing a chatbot to your website will give the illusion of a full customer service team, as it will answer any queries that visitors may have.

A good website

Having a website that’s poorly maintained or clunky to use is like inviting a visitor into a messy building. Nowadays people exist more virtually than ever, which means that your website should uphold your business’s image and branding just as much as your premises would. Investing in a web designer to create aesthetically pleasing page furniture, a site map and an appealing and helpful ‘about’ section will be brilliant for visitors who want to know a little bit more about what you have to offer. As with any social media page, it should be full of eye-catching imagery and interesting content about what you have to offer. If you have the capacity to do so, it might be wise to upload a video about your business using Make Web Video, and maybe introduce the team who are behind it.

Also be sure to make sure your website is optimized for mobile use. Most online users browse the web using their smartphones, which means a clunky and PC-only website will make your business look out of date, as well as inaccessible.

A blog

If you want to show your expertise and passion as a business, then a blog is a great place to start. Writing regular industry posts will showcase your knowledge as a brand, and prove your ability to deliver accurate information about your profession. Not only that, but high-quality content is far more likely to get shared by online users, which means your company will get a big promotion in the process.

Not all of these promotional tools will be suitable for your business – after all, if you are starting up an accountancy firm, why would you use Instagram? Being selective and doing your research on your industry will ensure that any platforms or methods you take full advantage of will be used to the best of their ability.