OpenMagazine

You have a brand with your own colour and design. You know your market, your target audience, and consumers. Now, you are stuck because you don’t know how and what to do with all this information. Well, take a look below to see what are the steps to market your brand in the vast ocean of online advertising.

Step 1: Have Your Own Website

And make sure it is in good condition! The website should have all the necessary information regarding your products, your brand awareness, as well as the services you are able to provide. This website can also serve as your core for all activities, where links and ads can be directed to this website, hence increasing user engagement as well.

Step 2: Get On Social Media!
In this digital age, people of all ages have access to social media. Be it Facebook or Instagram, social media has become a tool to connect people to people, businesses, services, and more. Creating an account on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and even Twitter, allows you to further engage with your audience. At the same time, this helps to build and maintain a relationship with your clients and consumers. 

Step 3: Create Content to Market Your Brand

You will need to know and have already analyzed your target audience and clients. Once you have done that, you can create content such as videos explaining your brand and product, webpage posts on how your service and brand are able to help clients (what can they expect from you). Relatable, relevant, and reliable content is able to attract the right audience. 

Step 4: Placing Advertisements

On the internet, there are a lot of ways to place your advertisements or links that will direct your targeted audience to your webpage. For example, you can opt for promotions through Instagram stories if you have a professional account. If you are targeting business groups, LinkedIn has message ads as well to allow you to reach a specific target audience. 

Step 5: Create Email Campaigns

It’s never too late to remind your clients and audience who you are and what your brand truly stands for. Create newsletters at a consistent pace such as one newsletter every week or month, include recent news or promotions, and mention your services in order to keep your brand’s place in your audiences’ mind.

Step 6: Involve Influencers and Opinion Leaders

With Instagram being the current core of all trends, it is not a bad idea to engage opinion leaders or influencers to be involved with your brand. It doesn’t matter if you are a small fashion brand or a thriving F&B business, the right influencers can be connected with for an affordable sum, and the impact would make a huge difference. But also keep in mind that you will need to enquire about the right and proper influencers for your brand as each influencer has their own values and reputation. 

Step 7: Stay True to Yourself

After each step, it is important that you are consistent in your campaigns and advertising. No matter how much advertising and marketing is out, you need to make sure that people are able to recognize you on sight based on your colour and image. This is important to guarantee that you will not get carried away while reaching out to your target audience. 

Follow the steps above and you will be able to see your brand on billboards in no time! 

Not knowing what is best for your business can be tricky, especially when you’re contemplating between opening a physical store or an online shop, or even both. But there’s no need to dwell on it anymore because all you need to do is take a look below and weigh the pros and cons. 

The Upper & Lower Hand of Physical Stores

1. Pure Physicality 

The very first leverage about having physical stores is that you are able to provide the pure thrill of shopping. Being able to see, feel, and sometimes smell, will allow customers to weigh the price with the quality of the product.  

2. Product Specialties

Physical stores also allow certain products with special features to have an easier display. For example, consumers wanting to purchase body baths with a fragrance have difficulties knowing exactly how the smell of the product is like. Hence, physical product display will enhance the customer experience and at the same time have loyal customers return. 

3. Instant Transfer

Transactions are also straightforward in a sense where there is little to no delay in payment as customers usually pay by cash or card on the spot. Hence, payment records are easier to keep track and less confusion will occur.

4. Steep Prices

Naturally, because of the external reasons like shop rental, product shipping, and material costs, prices in the physical store are often higher than online ones. This is because shop owners need to make sure that the earnings are able to cover the expenses used.

5. Only for the Local Community

If you ONLY have a physical store, only locals and the nearby communities that are aware of your existence will be seen around your store. Time spent in your store by customers is also less due to physical closing and opening times. Hence, limitations will automatically be set, and the number of sales will also be constrained. 

The Benefits & Drawbacks of Online Stores

1. An Online Escapade

With infinite users online, having an online platform is only an open door to wider reaches from around the world. The cost for an online space is definitely more affordable than a physical one as there are no external expenses like rent and amenities. 

2. Unlimited Inventory Space

You are able to display an endless range of products on the shelves of an online store, hence, the expansion of products are always easier. As you expand your product variety, more relevant consumers will show up and sweep those shelves clean. 

3. Wherever & Whenever

Let’s say you do not have a website, but you are a registered user on online shopping platforms. You can be a seller too! With platforms like Shopee, Lazada, or even Instagram, online shops, or drop shipping has emerged in an abundance. Due to the simple user interface, sellers and customers can sell and buy easily. 

4. The Limitations of Personalization

Personalization on online shopping platforms is convenient, as relevant consumers will be able to reach your store in a jiffy but for those outside the relevance of the search word, consumers will definitely come across your shop less. Thus, your wide reach is only limited to those relevant to the keywords associated with your shop. 

5. Hard to Open Up

First-time viewers at your shop will undeniably have doubts about your products. This is because they did not have experience with your products or your services. Hence, aggressive advertising and marketing of your product or brand are needed to clarify uncertainties and enhance brand awareness. 

Which path do you choose?

You can choose either or opt for both and have a broader reach of consumers by going omnichannel. Where not only your physical store is synced online, you are also able to navigate your physical and online customer activity. If you still can’t make up your mind, it’s always fine for you to consult an expert, because ultimately, you are to do what is best for your business. 

One of the best, yet often overlooked, ways to keep operating costs low is by reducing food wastage. 

This can be achieved by conducting a Food Audit! A food waste audit’s primary function is to identify where the operation’s waste comes from as finding the source is the first step to reducing waste. There are two primary sources, pre-consumer waste, and post-consumer waste.

Pre-consumer waste is food that never leaves the kitchen due to either improper handling or storage. This is the largest contributor to overall food waste and the easiest to manage. Ways to reduce pre-consumer waste includes:

1. Storing perishables in ways that maximise shelf life.
2. Evaluating the inventory by ordering fewer food items that are often thrown out or left unused.
3. Repurposing ingredients, like using old bread for croutons.
4. Training kitchen staff to ensure all food items are properly prepared and no usable bits are thrown out.
5. Keeping the inventory organised so food is used by its due date and no food is mistakenly reordered.
6. Offering daily special menus based on food items that need to be used.
   

Post-consumer waste is food that is leftover by patrons. There are a few steps restaurant owners can take to reduce the amount of leftover food, including:

1. Ensuring that guests are properly informed of portion sizes, so your customers know what to expect and can eat until they are comfortably full.
2. Encouraging customers to take home leftovers and providing proper takeaway boxes.
3. Managing customer expectations with accurate descriptions of dishes so that food isn’t sent back to the kitchen.
4. Adjusting the menu and dishes based on what is most often left on the plate or least ordered.
   

By decreasing food waste, not only are operating costs reduced but can help build a loyal base of customers who are becoming more aware of conscious practices by restaurants.