Due to Nottingham having a very competitive business environment you should have a plan of action to market your business effectively to beat your competitors. You will need to be aware of your surroundings so that you can use them to the advantage of your business.
Listed below are 5 key points that you need to know and that will help you to market your business effectively in Nottingham.
Events to look out for
You should do some research about what sort of events are coming up in and around Nottingham that are specific to your business. This would be useful for your business as hundreds of people attend events meaning that you can target those people, potentially bringing in new customers for your business. Being aware of your surroundings will give you a boost up from your competitors as you are proactively seeking out new and innovative ways to promote your business locally. There are many events that are held in Nottingham.
You can use tools such as experiencenottinghamshire.com as this allows you to search specific events that are being held in Nottingham including, arts and exhibitions, food and drink, music and theatre, etc. Going to events that are closely related to your business is beneficial because you may be able to create contacts with other business people that may be able to help you in the future. Also your target audience will be attending the event. Being aware of these types of events which are specific to your business, allows you to interact with people face to face. This is extremely useful for you and your business as having face to face conversations are the best way to build strong relationships.
Festivals
Due to the fact that many different festivals are held in Nottingham it is an excellent way to market your business. One of the most useful tools I have come across is 10times.com. This website allows you to target a specific location and industry. Another benefit of this website is that you can choose whether or not you want to attend conferences, venues, trade shows or organisers. On the other hand you are able to set it to ‘All’ meaning that the whole of Nottingham will be searched in relation to your industry. Big music festivals, such as Splendour, may be an excellent opportunity for your business as there are usually sponsorship opportunities. Sponsorship can benefit your business massively as it can expand your company’s competitiveness, give you bigger brand awareness and more powerful credibility by supporting acts which your target market follow.
Exhibitions
It will be useful for your business to attend certain exhibitions relative to your business as you can get talking to business managers and owners to form close relationships. It is valuable to be involved with other professional networking groups as they can help you to expand your client base. Relationship building is key to a successful business. You can find reliable business partners and employees easily through LinkedIn and in particular people who are based around your location. LinkedIn allows you to upload applications and to join groups. A LinkedIn Application means that you can set up simple polls to find out what is on the minds of your customers and prospects which allows your business to work around them and fit their needs. Every application comes with easy steps to put them into practice. Also joining LinkedIn Groups allows you to join groups which may be outside of your industry, which is a good thing as it can help to expand your business and your businesses reach.
Big companies to target
There are several big companies in Nottingham which you can target, for example Paul Smith, Raleigh, Boots and iPC Nottingham. Due to their reputation it would be valuable to your business to approach them to see if you can work with them, depending on what type of industry you are in. Another great way to marketing yourself in Nottingham is to set up a Google Plus local account. It is an excellent profile page to set up for your business as you can have your address listed there, your telephone number, a link to your website, a description of your services and maybe a picture of your logo and others pictures you may have for brand awareness.
It is important to have a Google Plus local account because when people do local searches, for example ‘Nottingham Plumbers’ a variety of businesses will show up in the search featured on their Google Plus local account. Make sure that you add citations to everything that you upload on behalf of the business this is due to the fact that if they are all consistent across a variety of different social media tools the search engines are more confident in knowing that you are a ‘real’ business. Your business name, address and phone number are important to Google and other search engines because it shows that the content that is uploaded is from a legitimate business.
Set up a Google Adwords account
Adwords can help you to target local online customers by setting your pay-per-click ads to appear only when people search for specific locations or names. There’s no minimum spending requirement and you can set a maximum spending budget so that you do not exceed it. Google Adwords is a very effective online advertising platform as it allows you to get your business listed on search engines under specific keywords which you have specifically chosen. Also, with Google Adwords you can measure and know exactly when you’re generating your investment and your return on investment. You can also make your ads highly relevant and specific so that they will only be shown to people who are looking for something strongly related to what you are offering.
Find out more in this article - Does Google Adwords Work?
There are many ways to market your business based on a specific location. As stated earlier, Nottingham is a very competitive area which is why it is useful to use both on and offline marketing techniques to get your business name in front of your target audience.
Article by Lydia Reynolds
