3 Ways to Use Marketing for Attracting Buyers to Your Business
Running a business isn’t easy - if it was, everyone would do it. Many entrepreneurs love owning businesses due to being their own boss, pursuing a lifelong dream, or simply financial benefits they can reap as a reward once they have grown the business to the point of selling on. However, there’s no point in working extremely hard to run a business every day if there aren’t any interested buyers for those who do want to eventually sell. Here is where marketing comes in.
Having a well-established business that has a great reputation, whether nationally or locally, sets you up in good stead for a quick and financially rewarding sale. Below are three tips for using marketing to set you up for this level of success.
Develop a Clear Marketing Plan
It goes without saying that you need to put a clear marketing plan in place before starting with it, but this task often goes overlooked. The more detail you can go into here, the better.
Some pointers you might want to consider are:
1. The Business Goals
Are you looking to create brand awareness in the first instance before fully launching the business? Perhaps this can be the focus for the first three months. You could do this by having a presence on social media platforms and creating a hype about your launch.
If you are already established and want to bring in new customers, we’d recommend creating plans that you review every three months based on the reception you receive. You might find that certain channels work better than others, so you can invest more time and resources into those platforms.
2. Budget
In an ideal world, you would start off with a relatively small marketing budget, then once profits increase as a result, you can invest even more. Make notes of everything you would spend money on, whether that’s social media adverts, website maintenance, SEO and marketing agencies. Counting every penny will help with determining return on investment.
Identify your Unique Selling Point and Go to Town With it
As more and more budding entrepreneurs have entered the business world due to furlough opportunities and job losses due to Covid, every sector is becoming increasingly crowded with startups. Therefore, it’s more important than ever to stand out.
What makes you different from your competitors? Is it your branding, customer experience, or location? Make sure you advertise this all across your social media, and encourage your customers to shout about this too through ‘refer a friend’ discounts, encouraging reviews, enticing sales etc.
Use Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Investing in your SEO can be one of the most rewarding marketing tactics you can use. However, it’s important to really refer back to your marketing plan and determine your target audience.
For interested purchasers who may want to buy local businesses, such as convenience stores, cafes and pubs, one of the first things they will do is Google you and look at your existing online presence. If you’re top of the local listings with a decent amount of reviews, you’re already on the right track to attracting buyers due to a great reputation.