1. Define the nature of your business.
The ultimate rule of thumb in the arena of embarking towards establishing your brand and products. Ask yourself: what do I want to sell, and how can I brand it in such a way to tap into a hotly-contested consumer market? Or can I actually create a niche to set myself away from others who are doing almost the same business model with me?

The simpler solution to this is to market anything you’re familiar with to your future consumers, but if you’re planning to sell something that is rather alien to your knowledge, do more research and learn about that product before taking the plunge. Sometimes it’s better to be safe than sorry.

2. Why pursue this business model?
Thinking of flipping a quick profit in the short run? Or it’s something so out of the ordinary that you could perceive it’ll be a gateway to success with minimum effort? If these thoughts are on your mind, it’s almost certain your business will never take off.

In the world of running your own brand, business or service, there’s no shortcut to that pot of gold. Always put passion and value first before money, and a vision that could possibly determine your soon-to-come business’ future and how it will be shaped by society. Remember, that splendid plan of yours might look impressive behind that rose-tinted glasses for now, but in the long run, it’s both the market and consumer that calls the cards.

3. What are your business goals?
Goals could relate to your visions set in place now and for the future of your business. Would it benefit the community or your consumers? Could your business one day enable you to achieve your dreams? Key components such as these must be set in place alongside a timeline to eventually broaden your brand’s presence someday (e.g. branching out by offering franchise opportunities, liaising with international suppliers or expanding your brand’s presence to another market).

Upon reaching this chapter, the challenges you’re bound to face is going to be much greater than before. You shouldn’t be struggling much by this stage; the experience gained throughout while building your brand should’ve prepared you to face various difficulties. This is only achievable if you have the right goals set in place during the initial planning stages!

4. Research and marketing.
An integral part of your entrepreneurial journey. Observe the market and its commercial activities on how certain products are well-received by consumers, and always take note of changing consumer demands. Market trends is another topic you should always keep a lookout. A hot-selling product doesn’t always guarantee longevity in demand, so don’t be influenced easily.

Create an effective branding strategy over your closest competitors to succeed if the product you are intending to sell is mainstream; also be different to give your business the upper hand by infusing innovative ideas such coming up with attractive packaging designs, appealing prices, persuasive marketing campaigns, or even provide exemplary customer service to disrupt the market and your competitors.

5. Identify your customers.
Know where your customers are based and which particular market segment you are targeting before putting a price on your products or services. Always include your target market’s age group, gender, income, and their lifestyle into your marketing plans.

Now let’s say if you’re running an online boutique selling premium clothes, it’s guaranteed you are tapping into a market segment that consist of middle to high-income consumers. Selling stationery? Now that appeal towards a broader market; therefore setting the right price should enable you to tap into a larger pool of customers.

6. Brand it differently.
This is where your creativity juice comes to play. Come up with a brand identity that’s capable of capturing your audience’s attention, and sell products enclosed in attractive-looking packages. This applies to both mainstream or products that you don’t often see on the market. After all, it’s all about garnering demand and attention.

Catchy product names will also give you the upper hand here, and if you pair your products or services with an attractive brand presence, such as a well-thought out logo and tagline, be rest assured you’re going to go places!

7. Be open to new ideas and criticism.
It’s common to face criticisms from anyone; let alone from consumers you will be selling your products to. Keep in mind that it’s better to be criticised rather than not receiving any important feedback to improve your brand.

It shows that improvements can be made to enhance your products or services. Always strike a conversation with close friends, business partners or relevant parties with experience to learn insightful ideas, as this could well assist you in streamlining your operations as a whole.

8. Run your newly-started business with passion.
Now in its infancy, you will need to commit all of your effort and ideas to build a solid foundation for it to grow in the years to come. Mistakes will be made along the way, nonetheless, but be prepared to face any consequences (be it mild or major), and work out a way to resolve them before it hits the fan.

It’s no harm to think of a way to recoup that investment you’ve poured into, so set a realistic timeline alongside your business plan to ensure it happens simultaneously. All in all, run your business with passion and you will soon reap the fruits of your labour.

The post Starting Up Your Brand Or Business appeared first on Subture.

Timing of your post.
Simple: If you are posting anything up on FB at 3am your local time (when everyone’s fast asleep), or during off-peak hours, then it’s guaranteed your post will never see the engagement you desire for. Always keep in mind about when and whether people will be scrolling through Facebook throughout the day. Hours between 8am-10am are known to be the best time, and the same goes for mid-noon (between 12 noon-2pm). Weekends are good to get some content up, too; just make sure it’s worthy of your viewers’ attention.

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1. Give it an attractive outlook.
The goal here is to draw attention, and the best way forward is to place your CTA(s) in a prominent location within your website. However, placement flow also plays a vital role here because you wouldn’t want to place a CTA before any intended product or informative description. Secondly, do inject some pizazz (e.g., a bolder outline or a subtle but attractive appearance) to draw attention!

2. Use a fitting line of text.
Texts used on CTAs doesn’t need to be long; in fact, the shorter it is, the more effective it gets. Examples like “Buy Now”, “Speak To Us”, “Reserve Your Spot, or even “Click Here” does the job well enough. What’s important, though, is by connecting the text used on your CTA to relate with the intended product, service, promotion and etcetera to maximise effectivity. Let’s say if you’re selling online tickets with a promo thrown in for a limited time, then your CTA should write “Book Now!” to raise the likelihood of your webpage’s visitors to take action.

3. Make sure it stands out.
Common mistakes most websites make are sandwiching CTA(s) alongside sizeable images or design elements. This results in a rather ununiformed layout, of which could lead viewers to simply leave the site due to confusion. To avoid this, maintain a white space around the CTA button to create a visual break to truly reflect its core function!

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Here are some marketing tips and ways you can elevate your newly-established business without breaking the bank.

Word of mouth.
The conventional, albeit, slightly less-effective method. However, this is a great way to kickstart as it literally doesn’t cause you a single penny. Never depend on this method in the long run, though; unless if you’re a hardcore Elvis fan that’s somehow waiting for the 70’s to make a return (of which it never will in this digital day and age).

Brand it differently from the rest.
If you are selling products or services, always focus on its core strengths and let everyone know why differs from any competitors. To give it an added twist, make your brand distinctive and innovative as a whole; e.g. a bespoke identity, logo, name, colour and materials; or attractive banners, product placement and advertisements to lure viewers by wanting to learn more. Don’t hold back on creativity for this bit!

Social Media.
Facebook would be a great start, but your options are endless. If you fancy eye-catching visuals, then Instagram is a must as audiences plying their interest here do appreciate quality images being shared by various channels. LinkedIn, too, is a worthy proposition if your brand or service is directed towards the corporate sphere. For interactive videos, it’s none other than Youtube!

A good website.
Everyone’s on their phone these days, and research has shown that online shopping has grown tremendously over the years. There’s much to be made by selling your products on an attractive webpage; though a well-built example could demand quite an investment for start-ups or small businesses. Fret not, however — there are tons of free website builders out there for you to get started, and it doesn’t require you to learn technical wizardries to get one up and running.

Keep your marketing data up to date.
The most vital part to make your business succeed is to not only build a long-term marketing plan, but to create an effective one. Keep a look out at shifting consumer trends, your direct competitors and demand. Always be ready to adapt for changes when it’s necessary. Most importantly, streamline everything to maintain your brand’s identity, as this will greatly help your marketing needs.

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1. Gimp.
   Gimp is often perceived as the next best alternative to Photoshop. Not only it’s powerful and applicable across all operating systems, it also include a generous range of functions and tools to complement regular users or even the savviest editors. Best of all, Gimp is free, and you can expand its usability by adding more plugins to broaden its kit count.
   
   
2. Paint.Net.
   If Gimp is rather complicated to use, then Paint.Net is here to save your sanity. Its relatively straightforward menus and ease of navigation reminisces the good old UX of Microsoft Paint, which is a plus for those wanting something simple. Besides possessing such merits, Paint.Net is also loaded with adequate features, and it’s low-end PC-friendly too.
   
   
3. Pixelmator Pro.
   Pixelmator Pro is recognised for its simple and fuss-free single-window interface; a dream for those who can’t stand cluttersome editing software. The toolbar is seamlessly integrated the best way possible to enable users to focus better on editing their content without being distracted, and there’s even an option to hide it. Unfortunately, it’s reserved for Mac users only.
   
   
4. Photo Pos Pro.
   Another superb alternative to Photoshop, Photo Pos Pro encompasses a range of worthy tools and functions. This includes layer brushes, colour refining tools and batch edits with scripts for you to keep track of your work. The only downside though is users are only allowed to save files at 1,024 x 2,014 max.
   
   
5. Affinity Photo.
   Unlike the rest, Affinity Photo is often coined as an alternative to both Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom. Why? It holds a wide array of tools that are designed for both designers and photographers. There’s even HDR merging, Curves, Levels, and Panorama-stitching functions built-in as well alongside a host of other features one can find from Adobe’s Photoshop.

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But before we start off, what’s SEO? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It’s a marketing focus on growing your platform’s visibility the organic way through a commercial search engine like Google, Yahoo or Bing. SEO incorporates a website’s design and technical aspects to increase its presence on the internet.

To put it simply, it takes one to have a proper webpage or platform mixed with all the right ingredients to enable a search engine to not only capture, but understand its context to return better search results. Here are some effective SEO techniques you can learn.

1. Page Design.
   A clean page design with proper content is chief in this case. However, make sure it’s not too lengthy as it might bore your page visitors. Keep any content short and simple, unless if you need to put up an interesting 2,000-word piece that’s capable of dwelling your visitors.
   
   
2. Quality Content.
   Keep things simple and straightforward without skimping on quality. If your web page talks about dietary products, then stick to it. Deviate away from the intended topic and you’ll soon realise everything’s a mess. This will drive your audience away, unquestionably.
   
   
3. Keyword Usage.
   Keywords: another integral part that makes up for a great online page presence. These one-liners or captions do commonly work alongside algorithms; enabling the search engine to pick the most searched words to return a result. If a description is needed, then don’t just upload a photo without a description!
   
   
4. Site Performance.
   A website with dial-up load time is fun! Said no one, ever. It’s vital to keep all things lean and oiled perfectly for a seamless loading experience. For assets, always optimise them. Don’t use visuals or assets with massive file sizes, and reduce plugins. Remember, loading speeds encapsulates algorithms as well, and this could very well affect your website’s ranking on a search engine.
   
   
5. Inbound Linking.
   Inbound linking translates to one distributing their website’s address or URL to any social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram. In this day and age, it’s all about connecting your businesses from one platform to another to drive traffic, viewership and visitors.

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