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Top Small Business Branded Merch Ideas in 2021

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Branded Merch|Top Small Business Branded Merch Ideas in 2021It’s not just big companies that need to prioritize a branding strategy. Branding is one of the best marketing areas to focus on simply because it brings with it so many advantages. From standing out in a competitive environment to being the first company that customers think of when they need what you sell, branding is just as vital for a small business as it is for a globe-spanning corporation. All companies must take the time to develop a strong brand, with consistency and adaptability at its heart. There are so many branded merchandise options to consider that it can be hard to narrow down what’s best for you. Here are some ideas that are well worth considering.

Clothing

Branded clothing is always a popular option when it comes to merch. You could have branded hats that your team members wear or hand them out as part of an after-sales process. The best thing about branded clothes is that they get seen. If you have customers that wear a sweatshirt branded with your company logo, name, and contact details, then those customers will advertise your business wherever they go. When it comes to extending your brand reach, branded clothing is always an option worth considering.

Stationary

It’s easy to overlook branded stationary. Whether it’s a corporate gift or a treat for customers, those branded pens and notepads might have a lot more value than you think. That’s because those items will be used, and every time that someone writes with your branded pen or scribbles an idea on your branded notebooks, they will see your company. The more that they get used, the more likely it is that those customers will think of you whenever they need you. Brand familiarity is a high-value marketing tool, and branded stationary has a lot of power.

Food

When it comes to corporate gifts, food is hard to beat. Whether it’s as part of an outreach strategy and introduction process, or a way of saying thank you to suppliers or high-value employees, there’s nothing quite like branded food gifts. When it comes to gifting food, you have to be careful. Some foods will spoil, so it’s always a smart idea to choose food items that will last a while. One of the best options to look at is corporate chocolate gifts because it’s very hard to find people who don’t like chocolate! High-quality chocolate is always a treat, so it’s particularly useful for brands that want to highlight their commitment to luxury.

Tech Accessories

Particularly good for tech startups and those businesses that sell any form of technology, branded tech accessories can be a pricey but high-impact option. Giving away a free branded keyboard or mouse that gets used every day has obvious value, but you need to be sure that those tech items will be used. It’s always a good idea to look at the technologies that will get seen by more than just the person receiving them. Branded USB memory sticks will get used on the go, as will branded Bluetooth speakers. Those items will get eyes on them, and your brand will get noticed by potential customers.

Branded merch should always be a marketing option, even for small, local businesses. No matter your industry, niche, or the products that you sell, match your branded merch to your brand voice, and you’ll have a marketing resource that’s hard to beat.

6 Ways You Can Market Yourself Effectively

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Market Yourself|6 Ways You Can Market Yourself EffectivelyA lot of marketing advice discusses ideas based on your business including how to maximize sales or get the most out of your employees. This advice is crucial, of course, especially for entrepreneurs who are always looking for more out of their professional endeavors. However, this big picture is not always where you should direct your focus. As much as improving your company is important, you’ve got to remember how essential marketing yourself is, too.

Marketing yourself will vastly improve your chances of finding the best business opportunities, which will help you grow your company in ways that everyday marketing can never live up to. If this sounds appealing, but you aren’t sure where to start, consider these ideas.

Know Your Worth

Finding your self-worth is one of the most challenging things, no matter how confident or successful you are. But, you will not be able to market yourself effectively if you do not understand what you can offer people in a professional and personal setting.

This is the first step you need to take when looking at ways to market yourself. If you know what you can offer by understanding what you are best at, you will be able to set yourself apart from others. Through this, you can push yourself ahead of the competition and make you the most appealing individual around.

Get to Know People

Networking is always a vital element of business success, and this is why getting to know people is more beneficial than you might believe. The problem here is that some people are not as outgoing as others, which could affect your chances of meeting the right people.

So what can you do? Swallowing any nervousness and acting as you belong in any scenario is useful, but it can be exhausting to keep up. Besides this, look for influential people who are similar to you, as this can make you feel more comfortable in their company.

Remember the Details

Marketing yourself is not always about how you speak or feel about yourself. You also need to consider the details. These details can apply to anything physical, whether your attire or holographic business cards rather than traditional but ultimately drab alternatives.

As you want to stand out in any situation, especially in competitive industries, these details could be the difference between winning promotions, new jobs, or increasing your influence. They will prove that you can match your substance with some style, and although you need substance over everything else, it’s always worth trying to impress others, as long as you don’t try too hard.

Trust Your Knowledge

Imposter syndrome can affect anybody. It’s easy to feel like you don’t belong and that you’ll be found out one day. But, you need to understand that you are much more capable than you give yourself credit for, and you can use this understanding to establish yourself as someone worth hiring.

While you needn’t spend all your time making bold but baseless claims about things you don’t know anything about, you can still trust what you know. If you want to be even more certain, make sure you prepare for interviews or casual meetings, as this will boost your confidence even further.

Put Your All Into Everything

If you want to build your reputation, you need to make sure you are someone who puts their all into everything, no matter how small a project might be. While it might feel like you’re doing too much, it demonstrates exceptional work ethic, and this will make people take notice.

It’s never a good look to merely go through the motions, especially if you want to increase your standing in the industry, and the harder you work now, the easier it will all be later.

Be Consistent

Consistency is key when it comes to finding success, and there are many aspects of consistency you need to remember. High-quality work is one area, but you should also remember that consistency across social media is an important tool for marketing yourself.

This means making the most of the platforms available to you. Use the same picture across your professional profiles so that people recognize you and develop a brand voice that ensures your audience knows who is talking.

Your Time

Marketing yourself is one of the most effective methods to increase your chances of finding new opportunities. Whether you want to grow your company or look for a new position in another industry, you will discover significant success by establishing what makes you a valuable asset to any company.

What Is the Value of Pop Up Shops?

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Pop Up Shops|What Is the Value of Pop Up Shops?Are you looking to grow your physical presence but can’t afford the cost or are not ready for the commitment that comes with the retail store? Pop up shops for rent may be the solution you need. Research shows 70% of all retail purchases take place offline. Pop up shops are an affordable way for businesses of all kinds to set up a physical presence that allows them to meet customers and put brands before customers.

This post looks into the value of pop up shops for rent to businesses and why you should consider running one. Let’s dive in:

Creating awareness and building a buzz

Let’s face it, there are too many businesses competing for the attention of customers. Therefore, you need to put some effort into promoting your brand or products to potential markets with the view of increasing brand awareness.

By setting up a pop up store, you will ride on scarcity, a sales tactic that often drives action by arousing customer’s desire to purchase limited or exclusive products. This is because the temporary nature of the pop up stores mean they only run for a definite period thus shoppers are encouraged to visit the store or ‘miss out’ on the discounts. This often creates a sense of urgency.

But that is not all, you must also invest in the promotion of the pop up to not only build a buzz but ensure that there will be people coming through the doors once you launch. This means promoting your store on various social media platforms and sending a broadcast to your subscribers. This way, you will get people talking about your brand thus increasing awareness.

Promoting an in-person connection with your customers

Most consumers prefer to make purchases after seeing and touching products. Consequently, most online purchases are preceded by physical interaction with products. The reality is that while ecommerce stores present convenience, they don’t come close to face to face interaction and in-person experiences shoppers have when they go to a physical store.

Having a pop up spacerent will enrich your omnichannel experience while allowing your customers and prospects to learn about your products at the store, on social media, in print media and through search engines as well as other channels in between. The offline experience will certainly complement your online experience thus helping you strengthen brand loyalty and customer engagement.

Driving more sales

Although you can open a pop up store at any time of the year, it is even more advantageous when you run a pop up store during busy seasons like holidays. Setting up a pop up store during the holiday season will particularly work for you when it comes to driving sales because this is a time when more people spend more than they normally would. Moreover, a 2017 Retail Dive report found that more than 84% of sales during holidays take place in-store.

But this does not end here. You will be surprised at how much sales your pop up shopt will drive long after the busy season is over. Moreover, you may also realize that you’re turning most seasonal shoppers into loyal long-term customers by simply having that in-person connection.

Testing new marketing and gaining traction within current markets

Before launching a new brick and mortar store, you will want to validate demand. This will only happen where there is money changing hands. This also applies when you want to launch a new product but want to test a new market.

You can manufacture a small batch of your products and bring it to the pop up as a way of validating customer demand before you can continue with mass production. This can work when you also want to launch a new collection and want to see if they will have traction.

The experience of selling your yet to be launched products in person often gives you the advantage of receiving direct feedback, seeing their reaction and knowing how much they are willing to spend on the product. In the case where your ecommerce store is already established and you have a thriving customer base within certain regions, you could use pop up stores to go where customers are or to target a new geographical area.

Pop up shops offer endless value for businesses that are seeking to expand their market and sales in general. However, you must be strategic to ensure that these shops help to consolidate your customer base without having to spend so much money on customer acquisition.

Five Ways To Make Your Brand Stand Out

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Make your brand stand out|Five Ways To Make Your Brand Stand OutIn today’s world dominated by the Internet and social media, brand image plays a big part in the outreach and success of your business. With so much competition in the market, first impressions are often lasting impressions. So whether it’s your brand logo or website or message, it needs to be smart, eye-catching and on-point. This blog shows you five ways to help make your brand stand out.

1. A Good-Looking Website

Every business/ company today must have a website (if you don’t, get cracking on it!) that gives potential customers all the information required. Of course, depending on the nature of the business, the website can be informational, technical, educational or entertaining. But if you want your brand to stand out, make sure you are on the world wide web!

If you aren’t familiar with web design or don’t know the technicalities of building a site that stands out, hire a web design agency to make your website. Their creative input also be of great benefit.

2. A Logo That Stands Out

What do companies like Amazon, Nike, Apple and Dominos have in common? A logo that is instantly recognized worldwide. Your brand’s logo is of prime importance if you want your business to be noticed. First and foremost it must be striking, but more importantly it has to be relevant to your niche/ brand. Putting images of flowers on a logo for a tech company will make no sense, and won’t be coherent. A picture speaks a thousand words, it is said, and that’s exactly what your logo should do!

3. Strong Social Media Presence

Social media accounts are like the appendages of a website and a business. Today, almost everyone has an account on Facebook/ Twitter/ Instagram/ Pinterest etc and if your business isn’t on social media, you are seriously missing out on exposure and thousands of potential customers/ clients.

Also, besides attracting new customers, social media helps you to stay connected to your existing customers, keeping them updated and informed about new developments in your business as well as keeping your brand constantly in their radar.

4. A Blog

Having a website is great for your business, but having a blog section in the website is fantastic. Today, every top notch business has a related blog on their website, which gives additional information and knowledge about the niche/ area of business through researched articles. You could choose to have an in-house writer/s or you could outsource the blog posts to freelancers. Whatever you choose, keep your blog updated and post articles regularly. Share them on your business’s social media pages. Keep your customers in the loop and interested at all times.

5. Advertising Options

Gone are the days of simple print advertisements in magazines or on hoardings. Nowadays, with so many multimedia options available, there are a range of ways you can advertise your business and be seen. Apart from print, television and radio, you can also place ads on websites or blogs and get other bloggers to write about your business and link to your website.

5 Incredible Benefits of Digital Marketing for Law Firms

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |digital marketing |5 Incredible Benefits of Digital Marketing for Law FirmsAre you looking for a passive and continual stream of new clients for your law firm? If so, then you need to utilize the power of digital marketing to improve your current lead generation strategy.

Don’t worry if you don’t understand digital marketing and how it can help you, we’ve got you covered. Keep reading to learn the top benefits of online marketing.

1. Improve Awareness Around Your Brand and Business

When your clients think of law firms, you want them to think of you. To do that you must be top of their mind. And digital marketing is the best way to stay in front of your audience so you can build awareness around your business and law firm.

2. Grow Your Audience With Social Media Ads

The fastest way to increase traffic to your website is through paid advertising. Historically, you might have taken an ad out in the paper or a local magazine. Today, online marketing gives you immediate access to your future clients.

You can’t afford to not be on every social media platform that your customers are frequently visiting. If paid advertising isn’t something you feel confident in, then partner with an expert to create a winning law firm PPC ad campaign.

3. Build Authority and Trust in Your Industry

Whether you focus on content marketing or social media marketing, you can use your digital marketing strategy to build authority in your industry. Write articles that answer the questions your clients are searching online. A quality digital marketing agency can tell you what topics you should be covering on your website.

Consider running a weekly question and answer feature either through a blog post or videos that you can showcase on your social media profiles. This will showcase your expertise and grow your brand at the same time.

4. Promote Your Name Within Your Local Community

Your online marketing strategy doesn’t end at your website and social media profile. You also need to win in the local SEO arena. To do that you need an optimized Google My Business profile.

So, if you haven’t uploaded anything more than your name, address, and phone number then you need to make your local digital marketing a priority for your firm.

5. Gain New Clients

At the heart of every marketing campaign, whether it is digital or traditional, your goal is always to gain more clients. Watch your business grow as your lead generation skyrockets with a winning online strategy.

As more future clients come into contact with your brand online, your firm will gain their trust and they will think of you the next time they need help from a lawyer.

Grow Your Business With Digital Marketing Today

Stop wondering, what is digital marketing? Now you can clearly see the many benefits that a powerful online marketing strategy can do for your law firm. Start building your online presence today and watch your lead generation grow every day.
For more great information on this and other topics check out the rest of our blog.