For a business to be successful, it needs to be visible. Not to just a few people either, but to as many people as possible.

It’s very easy, however, for a small business to get lost. But it is possible to stand out, no matter the size of your business or your budget.

Raise your online profile

Online is where everything is happening. It’s changing the way people interact, shop and live, on a daily basis. To compete in this space, your first step is establishing a website. No business can be without one, really.

Building is a website is not a task you want to tackle yourself. It’s best to enlist the services of an SEO agency to assist you with such a project. A reputable company would be able to design an effective website and get your website, and thus business, ranking on Google with carefully selected keywords.

You should also create profiles for your business on social media channels, like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Keep in mind that the channels you use should suit your business. A plumbing business, for instance, might not get much value from Facebook. Your SEO agency should be able to advise you on this too.

Once your website is up and running, add the URL to business cards and marketing material. The next step would be an electronic newsletter. Add a ‘share’ function, so that your customers can easily forward it to friends. This is an affordable and effective way to introduce your business to people.

The final bit of strategy would be to start a blog on your website. Articles should be relevant, insightful, and/or helpful. Content that provides all three has the best chance of getting shared.

Don’t forget offline

There is definitely still value in offline strategies, or efforts in the ‘real world’. And they could in fact be even more affordable than online strategies.

Here are some strategies you can consider:

Become an exhibitor. Research upcoming exhibits and expos in your area and get involved. You can set up a stall and man it yourself to meet new and potential customers in person. Exhibiting is also a great way to network with others in your industry.

Sponsor a community event. This will put your business front-and-centre in the area it serves. More than this, it will establish your company as a business that cares. This will do wonders for your brand.

Signage. Your business should have at least one sign, but how visible is it? And could you perhaps add more commercial signage to make your business more visible? Don’t forget moving signage in the form of vehicle branding. If you drive a lot, this is an excellent advertising option.

Be sure to keep your customer and their needs and preferences in mind, no matter which effort you decide on. It’s vital to contact them, and thus become visible, in ways that resonate with them.

An essential part of your business is visibility. Businesses without clients are much like cities without citizens: pointless and a waste of time. People need to know about what you do in order to acquire your services and products in the first place. And bringing your business to the attention of a potential customer market is the entire point of marketing. Yet, marketing is made in different ways and, in order to be noticed above others, you must consider interesting kinds of marketing others perhaps aren’t using as much.

Why cars are ideal

The most obvious area of marketing today is the internet. To not have a digital presence is, basically, not to have a presence at all. Try name a company that doesn’t have a website and you’ll either be unable to or recognise it’s probably not a million-dollar place. The internet is ideal because so many people use or are connected, all the time. It’s never a place bereft of attention.

However, by focusing all your attention on only this area you might forget there are alternatives that (1) can drive potential customers to your website and (2) in themselves get you potential customers. The internet may be the most important tool for marketing, right now, but that doesn’t mean forgetting, smart and additional alternatives.

Just as everyone uses the internet, so everyone also uses cars. Cars have long been used as a form of advertisement. There are several reasons why you should consider them and why they are a good contrast to the internet itself.

Mobile

First, of course, is cars are mobile. This means they get to areas and reach potential clients you otherwise might not have. This is ideal as it expands your potential customer database. This is an incentive to make your logo and colours noticeable; keeping your name and slogan catchy, so that a quick Google search will immediately locate you.

Seen widely

Second, cars are of course seen by many people. Aside from being in many locations, the sheer size of the car and its existence on the road means lots of people will see it.

Interactive

Like the internet, the car is also interactive. It has sound and sight and motion; it’s not merely a static ad displaying directly into someone and forcing them to notice. This is an opportunity to be creative with the car – for example, getting creative hooters, fancy lights, or other noticeable additions.

Useful for not just advertising

And, finally, like the internet, the car isn’t solely about advertisement. Cars primarily function for transportation – of goods and people. This means that you’re not failing just because the ad you put on isn’t the main thrust – this means less worry about investment, since cars are almost always useful to people. You probably won’t need the top of the line car, so consider used cars for sale that can serve the necessary function of being an advertising machine.

Malls really aren’t just four walls that are housing different shops. It is usually a massive area containing multiple shopping outlets and franchises. But, things aren’t that simple as malls require shoppers to purchase as much as possible in as short a space a time. How they manipulate shoppers is worth investigating, so that we can combat it in ourselves and perhaps use it in our businesses.

Music

We tend to use our senses in a complicated way: for example, we don’t just decide we want food based on taste alone. Something can look appetising but taste awful and something can look awful but be delicious. Similarly, we associate positive sense engagement with whatever caused it and other things closely associate with it. This is why malls play positive music that makes us feel comfortable. This way, we associate nice music with nice things. Our rational faculties are lowered a bit, meaning we’re more likely to think something is a good deal when it’s actually normally-priced; we think that we need a product, when we really don’t, due it being so “nice”.

Signage

As signage manufacturers, in South Africa, New York, Hong Kong, will tell you, the most important element of signage is the property of being memorable and functional. Thus, signs that are big don’t necessarily mean they will be remembered: they will just be big. Smart designs and spacing in malls means we learnt to associate particular colours and fonts and smells with particular elements of the mall. Even the spacing of the mall means we keep travelling further to obtain a sign and direction: meaning we pass shops we other might not have in order to acquire a sense of direction of where we are. Thus, one clever way malls do this is to occasionally and unequally space out maps and directions, meaning you’re forced to wander, increasing your chance of buying.

Lighting

You can put things in a better light, literally. Even making them shiny can, for example, slow people down which gives you more time to sell products and increases the chances of customers buying things from you store. People also believe shiny cars drive better, despite the fact that a clean car has little to do with a car’s interior – by definition.

Bigger numbers

If you put $200 next to $400, the former looks better. Indeed, if you priced a tie for $200 by itself, it might look crazy. But put it next to a $400 tie and suddenly it looks amazing and obvious as a purchase. This is known as anchoring, where we pin a specific measurement against a figure provided: in this case it would be in the high triple digits. This is a smart way to get people to pay unnecessary amounts where they otherwise would not have.

All of these are methods malls use that we should watch out for but also utilise in our own attempts to sell and get more customers for our businesses.