5 Marketing Musts for Small Businesses

At Pulse we know how difficult it is to get a small business on its feet. When you’re first starting out, marketing details might be the least of your worries, but with a strong start, you can make a real difference in the way your small business is perceived by the public. Here are five marketing musts for small businesses that you should invest in if you haven’t already.

1. A logo that tells your story. In a world saturated with content and data, the visual impact of professional graphic design services determines your credibility in the marketplace. As a small business, investing in a professional graphic designer to create a logo for you is worth it. Your logo is your company’s graphic representation and according to research done by MIT Sloan Management Review, visual logos tend to be more effective than brand names at creating a sense of emotional connection with consumers – having a graphic designer create that visual logo will ensure that it’s professionally done and of high quality.

2. Business cards to connect with consumers. Because of today’s ever-changing technological landscape and the importance it holds in marketing your business, a business card may seem like a counterintuitive marketing choice. But print marketing and materials like business cards, brochures, and more are still an excellent way to attract new consumers. According to Applied Designs, a company’s sales increased by an average of 2.5 percent for every 2,000 business cards that were handed out, so keep some on your at all times, and make sure that professionally designed logo you invested in takes up some real estate on your cards to help build your brand.

3. A home on the web for your business. Your website is your most important marketing tool. It may be 2016, but 46 percent of small businesses in the United States still don’t have a website for their company, according to a report released by business-to-business research firm Clutch. So why is a website even important to begin with? According to Hubspot, 78% of Internet users conduct product research online. That means that someone’s first impression of your business (or lack thereof) could be your website.

4. A social media presence. On any given day, users post 350 million photos to Facebook. On that same day, Instagram users upload 80 million photos. And in just one minute of that day, 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube, according to Brand Watch. Social media can help you connect with younger audiences and attract an entirely new demographics to your business’s products or services.

5. Rack cards to help spread the word. Rack cards are extremely versatile marketing materials that can advertise practically anything and be put practically anywhere. You can use a rack card to create a menu of your services, introduce your business, provide contact information, outline an events calendar, provide useful tips related to your business’s product or service, and much more. As a form of print advertising, rack cards can be put directly into the hands of your consumers, and act as a mobile marketing device because of their ability to travel with you anywhere. Remember that print isn’t dead, and a healthy mix of more traditional advertising, such as a rack card, with other new forms of advertising, such as social media, can help you attract a diverse customer base.

At Pulse we offer a small business package that provides each of these items as a start-up to your marketing efforts. We recognize how important these five items are to getting started, so we offer everything you’ll need to create a remarkable first impression. This particular package is an affordable option, but we also offer multiple options at different rates to help you get exactly what you need.