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Congratulations! You are operating a Micro/Small business and you are ready to take your business to the next level but where to start?

Lets have a closer look at branding. The aim is to make your branding a household name with a good reputation.

To achieve that, we first have to analyse who are our main customer/clients. Millennials are now the largest living group, according to the Census Bureau. Due of the quantity of Millennials are in charge of buying decisions, the world is changing, and business trends will have to cater for a consumer that craves success and technology.

Millennials absolutely do not like the hard sale, however what is working with the largest group of consumers is connecting through apps and services that connect people.

In the 4IR it is vital to have a strong online presence. If a company doesn’t have a presence, or show no activity on social media or worse, their website is outdated; customers will not engage with that business.

However, there is more to online branding. It is a way to get more exposure for your products/services on all levels of online marketing, especially with search engines and on social media platforms. Here are some handy tips on how to build your online branding:

Make it ridiculously easy for your customers to purchase your product or service
As a consumer myself, I am getting frustrated by long and difficult ways to make me purchase a product or service. During the long process, I am losing faith in the company and often opt out of the purchasing process. A lot of customers are impulse driven, which means you will require a very simple and quick way for somebody to purchase your product. Simplicity is the key to success!

Know your numbers
If you don’t know, how much it costs you to generate leads and sales, you will crash and burn. That’s where cost-per-lead (CPL) comes in. You need to know how much it costs to generate every form of lead, from email submits to phone calls.

Seek out media exposure
Getting yourself and your brand out there is crucial. There are plenty of opportunities to score free media exposure if you are willing to put in a little time and work.

Understand where you sit in the market and innovate
Research your competitors to discover where your business sits in terms of price and offerings. Learn about the type of customer that is most likely to find value in your product and tailor your marketing to appeal to that specific group.

Maintain a consistent social media branding
Social media is such a powerful branding tool, and it’s important that you think about the big picture when establishing social accounts for your business.

Cross Promote
You should also be cross-promoting your social media accounts in an effort to get your audience connected on as many platforms as possible. Someone following your brand on Twitter might not be connected on Facebook, which could be his or her preferred social network. A simple “Make sure to connect with us on Facebook” tweet could get people to like your Facebook page.

Keep the search engines happy
Google is one of the leading search engines and due to that, businesses should be optimising their websites to cater for their search requirements. Search engines love superb textual content along with captivating images and videos, all which attracts new traffic.

Conclusion
Operating your own business in a world where we have to adapt to changes very fast is challenging. While the 4IR requires to change our view on how we interact with our customers/clients, it also provides us with superb online platforms to reach out to more

Consumers we ever thought we could.

Not sure where to begin? Don’t worry, nothing is as complicated as it looks like.

Work With Me or drop me a line hello@ilonasolinska.com.