By Ata Khan
The election season is in full swing and is associated with a flood of marketing methods that are flooding the average American. While the top runners on the race have a bigger budget, their marketing strategies are actually something that small businesses can learn from.
If candidates can use these techniques to win entire presidential elections, imagine what they can do for your company. With this in mind, there are five ways small businesses can use the tactics of effective campaigning to their advantage:
Typically, the first step to starting a successful business is a well-designed website. The same applies to presidential candidates. They use their websites to spread their message to the masses (both nationally and locally), give American voters the opportunity to communicate with them, and a platform to receive donations for campaigns.
Thousands of user-friendly website development platforms and templates are available today (many of which are aimed at small businesses and startups). There is really no reason why even with a nominal marketing budget, a company cannot create a website that is optimized for the sale of its products or services.
Take this opportunity to differentiate your brand from the competition and design a website that meets your business goals. Make sure that you have a clear and recognizable logo, a uniform and defined color palette, brief information about your services / products, a mobile design, a search engine-optimized design and a clear funnel for calls for action and conversions.
Every single candidate starts knocking on doors and shaking every hand to introduce themselves to the community. On an enlarged scale, knocking on doors to town halls and finally national debates, caucuses, news spots, opinions in national publications and much more develops. Face-to-face interaction strengthens a presidential candidate's credibility, and so does small business.
Small businesses should definitely visit trade shows, local events, and anything that gives the company name a face. As a rule, these events offer many opportunities to make contacts and generate leads. They offer sponsorship opportunities, stands, speakers and even lists of participants (to which you can then market). These efforts will not only help you generate leads directly, but also generate brand awareness and drive customers to your website or brick-and-mortar store.
Presidential candidates rely on free goods, meet and greets, and more to attract new voters and potential donors. However, they know that this is not enough and therefore send bulk emails to their lists. These emails help candidates stay ahead of their electoral base, present their position on current events and provide a secondary way for voters to communicate / feedback. It is an excellent tool for presidential candidates and also for small businesses.
Email marketing campaigns running on platforms like Mailchimp cost very little if you already have a contact list. Everyone likes a good deal, and if your email marketing campaign can tempt users to go back to your product or service over and over again, you should make a concerted effort to maintain that relationship. This does not mean that you have to publish your products for free, but that you have to be creative with what you offer and how you offer it.
