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Knowing how to market your business in Toronto isn’t always easy. With most business niches saturated with competition, being heard over the noise can be challenging. According to SparkToro, 61.5% of desktop searches and 34.4% of mobile searches result in no clicks, indicating that simply showing your business location on Google Maps with a few testimonials is no longer sufficient. Fortunately, there are plenty of clever small business marketing options available to help you stand out.
“Business decision makers love online video because it gives them the most amount of information in the shortest amount of time.” – Robert Weiss
Making videos about your business or product, if done well, is a fantastic way to market your business in Toronto and around the world. According to Wyzowl, 82% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a video. The best part is it doesn’t take a lot of work to make a good one.
If you offer a service such as home repairs, rent, borrow or buy a mid-range video camera, spend a few hours learning how to use it. Then while on a job, with permission from the client, record yourself doing the job. Explain each step, move the camera to show some of the harder to see parts, speak loudly and make sure you have good lighting.
A bit of editing, to remove boring parts, fix the audio and lighting if you have to, add in some text and you’re ready to post it online. If you don’t have editing skills, there are plenty of people online who will do it for you, and it will cost less than fifty dollars.
For selling products, you can do a video review of a product, how to take care of the product, and hacks you can use to get the most out of it. Again make sure you have good lighting, speak loudly, and you’re good to go.
With fewer hands-on services, virtual assistants, accounting, coaching, tutoring and similar businesses, you can explain how to do something more easily, tips that people can use to avoid problems, or why they should hire an expert.
This can be as simple as having a talking head or creating a simple power point and talking as it shows. If you can’t make a PowerPoint presentation, you can hire someone online for as little as five dollars as long as you provide them with the information.
The best part about making a video is once you post it on YouTube, then to access that audience, you can embed it onto your website and Facebook page and put links on LinkedIn and Twitter, including forums related to your business.
“Don’t be afraid to get creative and experiment with your marketing.” – Mike Volpe
Craigslist, Kijiji, and even Backpages are viable means for small business marketing. While many people think that these ad sites are full of scammers and a waste of time, tens of thousands of Toronto residents use them everyday to find what they need. After a few hours of planning and writing your ads, you don’t need to spend more than ten or fifteen minutes a day keeping them updated.
When using these ad services, you want to write several ads that are about two to three hundred words at most. Explain what you have to offer, why people should go to you and how to contact you. Be sure to have an address or general area so you can show your business location on Google Maps. Customers like to have an idea of where you’re from even if they’ll never see you in person.
When preparing your ad, you can hire a copywriter to help with the ads or do it yourself. If you do it yourself, be sure to read some of the competition and see what works best. You’ll want at least six ads initially, so you can rotate the ads every day or two, keeping your name at the top of the list, and see what ads work best at drawing customers.
With Kijiji and Back Pages, you can spend some money to get special features such as links to your website, videos, prominent placing, and other things, you should consider this after you figure out what ads work best and then keep track of how much that helps your business.
“Content is the reason search began in the first place.” – Lee Odden
A blog is something you should seriously consider when thinking about how to market your business in Toronto. With the right articles you’ll get more people visiting your website, have search engines like Google sending people your way, and you can show off your experience making a great first impression.
With the blog, you need to remember that quality beats quantity. Having five top-notch, informative articles, beats having thirty short, useless articles that just say how great you are. The blog posts should be a lot like the videos mentioned above, explaining how to do something or reviewing a product. Rather than saying you can do something, show your clients you can do it. In fact when you make a video link it to your blog, and vice versa, you can kill two birds with one stone that way.
With blog articles, you don’t need to be a great writer, as long as the grammar and spelling are correct and the article is useful, people will read it. If you don’t trust yourself, you can hire a copywriter to write the articles for you, since you really only need five or ten good articles to get attention, this will hardly break the bank.
“Content is fire. Social media is gasoline.” – Jay Baer
You don’t need to be a media wizard to use social media like Facebook or Twitter. It’s actually really easy to keep an audience using these, and letting them know you have something to offer.
When posting you don’t want your social media to be all selling all the time, that will make people think it’s spam and who likes that? Instead, if you read an article related to your business that you think is good, bad, or hilarious, post a link to it and explain what you think.
Give people-friendly tips about how to use your product better, or how not to make a mistake. Link to your latest video or blog post, let them know if you’re hiring or if a long term employee is retiring. As people see you’re not just an annoying salesperson, you can let them know when you’re having a sale or special deal, and get a friendly reaction.
Marketing your business in Toronto doesn’t have to be hard, or cost lots of money, especially with the internet. For a small initial cost, some elbow grease, and a willingness to learn you can reach a huge audience easily, improving your business and expanding your client base. Try it today, what do you have to lose?
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