Have you ever been to a trade fair? Not the fancy rebranded ones called pop-ups, the actual trade fairs where there are no rules for how you attract customers to your business. You’d realize that most business owners explore all the tricks in and out of the book to ensure their businesses succeed. There is also the extra energy that comes to play when the business owners pay a lot more for their stands. Shouldn’t this be the daily activity of business owners who are looking to succeed in business?

As a business owner, your goal is to make money and grow your bottom line, but you also want to do it in a way that makes sure your customers and employees are happy. You’re not alone!
Here are some of the ways you can achieve this:

• Focus on the platforms that matter. Platforms are the means of communication for your business and its audience. The platforms you use to reach customers, clients, and potential partners should be peculiar to your business and industry. This can help you avoid wasting time or money on unimportant platforms that aren’t right for your brand or audience.
• Look at how responsive your social media followers are. What’s your platform growth rate? How responsive are your followers? If it’s low but still growing rapidly, then it might be worth exploring further; if not, then maybe pass over it altogether unless you find a better engagement strategy.
• Pay attention to your customers. Your customers (or potential customers) might be willing to talk publicly about how much they love your products or services. If this is true, then reach out through social media channels where potential customers will see it! And if someone posts something negative, offer an apology right away as a show of accountability and honesty in your business dealings.
• Learn from your competitors. Look at your competitors who have similar audiences and use similar strategies as yours. Pay attention to their results and how you can go up a notch to get better results.
• Be a part of the conversation in your industry. No man is an island, engage with the people with similar interests in your industry. Comment on posts and engage with your community, be a part of one and when you have capacity, build one. People buy products from people they trust.
  • When creating online content, here are other steps you can adopt that will set you apart from the crowd:
    Keep it short and sweet. You’re on your own when it comes to the length of your post. People will be scrolling through their feeds on Instagram and Twitter faster than they can read anything. The average person scrolling through social media has 5secs to take an interest in your content. That 500 word caption can be compressed into something short. Snag their attention quickly!
  • Social media platforms have now become search engines. Maximizing hashtags will help broaden your reach and introduce you to customers who are looking for you and your content. The right hashtag is crucial because it helps people find what they are looking for more easily (and only if they care enough about what you have written). Use hashtags that are relevant to your business, such as #business_tips, #Fashion, #Food or #socialmediamarketingtips .
  • Imagine dragging someone all the way to your shop and after you’ve introduced your products to them and you’ve piqued their interest, you let them walk out. That’d be wasteful, yes? That’s what it seems like every time you do not include a call to action in your piece of content. You should guide your audience to the line of action you want them to carry out by adding a call-to-action to your content, e.g., buy, subscribe, pay, etc.
  • Your audiences are likely to be more representative across all platforms. The younger audiences are on Snapchat, Tiktok, Instagram, and YouTube. Older audiences are on Facebook and LinkedIn. Business owners should be on all platforms in order to reach them. You can’t be everywhere at once; choose your platforms wisely so that you’re not wasting time on those who aren’t interested in what you have to say!

No one can make your noise better than your customers, and they are more likely to be your representatives across all platforms if you are able to reach them through multiple channels and in different ways. Communicate with your customers in the way and manner that they want, retain them with a loyalty program, and they will preach your gospel.