Other businesses might look good on social media, but your business gets the work done. If you’ve been struggling to find the right angle of marketing a boring business, it’s time to take a different approach. Learn how to build your marketing fundamentals and avoid time and money pits from fruitlessly chasing marketing trends. Today we talk about 3 do’s and don’ts of marketing when it comes to the unglamorous industries.
Marketing to Embrace for Your Boring Business
Just like with your work, your marketing needs to focus on putting in the hard work and focusing on your strengths. It’s about building an online presence so people can find you, know you’re worth it, and buy your products and services.
Do Have a Great Website
Some brands can do their heavy lifting outside of their website, such as on social media or other third-party websites. You don’t have this luxury. So instead, you should embrace it. Your current website might need a refresh or a complete overhaul (see our post, Do You Need a Better Website for Your Customers?, for details). You may need pages specific to your industry or if you plan to run ads.
Do Appear Where Your Clients Look
Do you know where your clients work and live online? If you’re not sure, the first step is to answer that question with some market research on your clients. Next, think about having a presence on:
- Google Business Profile: Google’s handy summation of your business online, including location and helpful links. Make sure you own it and update it.
- Social Media Sites: If your customers are active on social media, they may also look for your business there. That doesn’t mean you have to post every day, but you can post occasionally (especially with expert content like below).
- Listing & Reputation Sites: If your industry has dedicated listing websites (such as Angi) or reputation sites (like Yelp or TripAdvisor), make sure you’re on there and monitoring them for leads or reviews you need to respond to.
Do Show Expertise Through Education
One major reason a business can be boring is that it is poorly understood. The more complicated a business and its services/products are, the more opaque they are to the general public—including potential clients and customers. Providing information and education via content like blogs is a great way to both show expertise and have material for search engines and social media alike.
Marketing to Avoid for Unglamorous Industries
Many businesses make the mistake of thinking all types of marketing can apply to them, especially anything popular. This results in marketing that doesn’t produce results and wastes time and money spent throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.
Don’t Chase Marketing Trends
A new marketing craze? A surge of interest in a social media or reputation platform? A “marketing guru” on TikTok who has the one sure-fire way to improve your marketing? Without an understanding of marketing fundamentals, it’s almost impossible to tell whether a marketing trend will work for you.
Don’t Try to Go Viral on Social Media
Many businesses dream of going viral on social media, but it doesn’t work that way. Viral content is almost always unpolished, authentic content that strikes a chord with people, not something forced. Trying to force it generally produces poor content that can often alienate your current user base.
Don’t Go Into Ads Without Market Research
Paid online advertising, especially platforms like Google Ads, can provide a steady stream of users to your websites and leads to your sales team. But to turn that “can” into a “will,” you’ve got to do your research beforehand, especially when it comes to targeting your ads.
When it comes to finding the right marketing for your boring business, don’t go with the marketing agency with the one-solution-for-all plan; go with the one that says “it depends.” That’s the promise from Vision: marketing tailored to your business, from boring insurance to unglamourous waste management. Contact us today to learn more. Want more advice? Check out the rest of our Vision blogs, our enVisioning Success podcast, and our downloadable Marketing Strategies Playbook.
