You have a business idea. You’ve got a good idea for a business. You’ve even gone down the route of registering a trademark for your brand. But where do you go from here? How do you make your business a success? How do you stand out from the crowd and ensure you make the right connections?

This is the question many businesses ask themselves when planning their marketing strategy. The answer is: You need to find a way to reach your ideal audience and make them aware of your product or service. This is easier said than done. You’ll need to get creative and figure out which platforms and methods will work best for you.

Traditional Marketing

For decades, businesses have relied on traditional marketing methods to gain exposure and make sales. These methods include:

• Print media: Billboards, newspaper ads, magazine articles
• Radio: AM/FM broadcasting
• TV: Broadcast TV networks like Sky and TV4
• Online: The internet, social media, and SEO

Each of these methods has its perks and its shortcomings. Newspapers and magazines are readily available, but unless you have a massive audience, your ad may not be read. Radio is a free and easy way to reach your audience and engage with them. However, many people find listening to the radio to be extremely boring and it’s not uncommon for people to listen to music while working hard jobs outside.

Then there’s TV. While video content is growing, many people are still hesitant to spend their precious leisure time watching something they could be doing. Instead, people are turning to social media and online marketing to find the content that inspires and intrigues them.

Which Platforms to Use?

So you’ve decided to take your business online and you’re wondering which platforms to use. There are many choices and it can be difficult to know which one is the right fit for your business. Here are some suggestions. Choose a platform where your target audience is also likely to be.

• Facebook: The world’s largest social media platform. Over 1 billion active monthly users and growing
• Instagram: A photo-sharing platform with over 1 billion active monthly users. Great for capturing and engaging with audiences..
• Twitter: A micro-blogging platform with over 300 million monthly active users. Great for building and engaging with audiences…
• LinkedIn: A business-focused social media platform. Over 400 million users and rising.
• YouTube: The ultimate in-depth video platform. Over 1 billion monthly active users and growing
• Reddit: One of the oldest and most popular platforms. Over 300 million monthly active users and growing
• Pinterest: A visual-pinning platform with over 200 million monthly active users. Great for creating content that appeals to younger audiences

If your target audience primarily exists on Instagram, then that’s where you should focus your efforts. Not only is it a fantastic platform for sharing and connecting with others, but it can also be used to drive traffic to your site. If you decide to go down the Instagram route, consider using the platform’s Business Account. This will give you the ability to post business images and videos, and connect with potential customers. Depending on your niche, you could see significant results from this relatively inexpensive option. You could also use Instagram’s “sponsored stories” to help fund your online marketing campaign.

Which Mediums to Use?

Once you’ve picked your platform, you need to decide whether to use text or multimedia to get your message across. There are pros and cons to using each one. Text-based content is easy to find, cheap to produce, and accessible to everyone. However, if you use text, you’ll need to make sure that each individual piece of content is of high quality and not too short.

Images and videos can be very powerful. Not only do they provide your audience with a visual representation of what you’re talking about, but they can also entertain them, cause them to think, or make them believe that you’re providing a better service or product. In fact, image-based content is becoming more and more popular.

If you decide to go image-based, you’ll need to pick your niche. There are hundreds of topics you could choose from if you want to create content related to business. From creating infographics to photographing products, you can build a sizable audience by making content that appeals to people in your niche.

Creating Content That Works

So you’ve decided to create content for your marketing campaign. Just remember: Quality is key. You need to produce content that is both visually and grammatically appealing to your audience. The better your content, the more likely people are to share it and the more likely you are to gain exposure and make sales.

To create content that will engage and entertain your audience, use these tips. First off, always make sure you’re using the right language. Everyone understands and feels comfortable speaking the English language, but sometimes it’s easy for things to be misunderstood by the people you’re addressing. Proof reading and editing before you post will eliminate most of these issues. The second tip is to make sure your posts are interesting. Even if you have great content, if the other person doesn’t find it interesting, they might not be inclined to read it. The last tip is to make sure you’re posting the right content on the right platform. If you want to make sales, you’ll need to find the audience that is most likely to be interested in what you have to say. Once you’ve picked your niche, use online marketplaces like Google Trends to discover the most popular topics related to your niche.

As you can see, there are many different platforms out there. While some will work better for you than others, all of them have great features and tools that can be utilized to help develop your business.