(ThyBlackMan.com) The truth is, no one is going to purchase your products or services if they aren’t aware who you are or what you do. In this day and age, advertising platforms of all kinds are usually saturated so you need to be careful how you approach your advertising or marketing strategy. Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or someone who has had a business for a long time you’ll need to think about business awareness at one point or another. Certain businesses usually stick to particular types of advertising. For example, if you own a restaurant you’ll target the local area, no point paying for advertisement in another country. But to stay ahead of the curve and more importantly your competitors you might need to think outside the box. These tips can help give you some ideas regarding how you treat your business in terms to advertising. You might have already done some, which is great! Or, they may not apply. But have a read through and they might at least enable you to start thinking about things in a more dynamic way.
Find Your Niche
Businesses don’t always follow each other in terms of advertising. If you own a particularly niche business then there can be tried and tested marketing tactics which work well for the trade you’re involved with. An example can be seen with a construction company. No point advertising on Facebook that your firm can build skyscrapers. There are trusted channels to use instead. The same can be said for the medical professions, though they are more wide ranging. There is tried and tested marketing for physical therapists, dentists, podiatrists, etc. The trick is to know your niche and follow tried and tested models. If you don’t operate in a specific niche, then you can go for any 
number of marketing techniques. There’s help out there if you need it. If you’re just starting out you might not be aware of a niche that you’re in, so make sure you do your prior research before enlisting any firms to help you. Research is king, and it can save you a pretty penny too!
Harness The Power Of Social Media
Social media is everywhere these days. Most people use more than one platform but even for the die hard avoiders they’ll still have a presence somewhere. You can go down the simple route and pay Facebook or one of the other giants to advertise to your chosen area or demographic. But you need a presence. These days, a lot of people will search for a business type on Facebook itself, especially if they’re looking for one in the local area. Set up your business page there. Fill the page with useful information regarding what you do, maybe some of your business history and your prices. Maybe a link to your website too. Then you need to think about content. The content you create will allow you to link up with people and keep your business out in the ether. These can be articles, opinion pieces regarding your industry or just sharing things you find interesting. The key is to be unbiased. Don’t share hard opinions regarding politics or foreign policy. There will always be someone who doesn’t agree with you and that person could be a potential customer. Now, imagine replicating this over all the social networks.
Go Local
With the advent of the internet and social media, some businesses forget about the power of local advertising. This is especially important if you require local custom. There are multiple ways to encourage local custom to your business. The usual poster or flyers work, but how many times have you been handed one of these just to throw it in the next bin? Think outside the box. For example, as a restaurant you could give out a sample of the food you create. Sampling is a great way to pull people in. You should also make use of local Radio Advertising to improve visibility within your local community. Another option is to hand out flyers which include a percentage of discount. These are great ways to ensure your business is noticed instead of ignored.
Build A Blog
It’s obvious that you should have a killer website. But seldom do businesses build blogs into them. They’re time consuming to maintain and depending on how you run them, expensive. But they’re a great way of driving more traffic to your business page. They may not always be customers but it is a great way to increase business awareness. You can write the articles yourself. Or, you can hire content writers to do it for you. As long as they’re of good quality and relatable to your business, you’ll likely find people coming to read your articles who are in need of what you offer. You just need to ensure there is a professional tinge to the blog and don’t post anything amateurish.
Review
The review scares business owners. Don’t be afraid of them because they’re certainly one of your keys to success. If you own a restaurant you can’t get away from them anyway, but any other business should use them too. Customers should be able to review your products on your website. Good reviews instill consumer confidence. Just look how Amazon made them work. Bad reviews aren’t good and are the main reason a lot of people stay away from them. However, try to look at this from the other side. Consistent bad reviews mean there’s something wrong with what you create or offer. This gives you the opportunity to change them. When you’ve changed them, give your product/reviews back to the bad reviewers for free and ask for another review. Rinse and repeat. You can also invite industry experts to review you, meaning you’ll end up in industry magazines or on relevant websites. It’s all good publicity, especially when you interact with the reviewer and show a willingness to change what needs to be changed. It can be a daunting step but one that can send your business into the stratosphere if you take it one step at a time.
Staff Writer; Calvin Short
