How Shelf Companies Lost Their Appeal and What to Do Now
Also known as a ready-made company or an off-the-shelf company, a shelf company is a pre-registered business you can buy and customise.
Marketing, marketing, marketing! Once you’ve completed your company formation, the “M” word will be the catalyst to building customer awareness and boosting your brand. If you’re frantically searching Google to “advertise my business”, then take note of the following marketing tips and you’ll soon understand what it takes to increase sales and growth without the need to research much further!
Scrutinise Your Marketing Strategy
There’s little use in having a viable business product if you can’t obtain profit-generating sales. Therefore, an effective marketing strategy is key. One way to assess whether your marketing strategy is (still) effective is to calculate the average lifetime value of a customer (LTV).
For example, let’s say a customer is worth, on average, £300 to your business and you spend £50 a day for Facebook ads. If you can obtain a customer within two days, then you’ve made a profit:
£300 – £100 (£50 x two days) = £200.
However, after the 6th day (at £300) you’ll evidently be facing a loss — and now it’s time to re-evaluate your strategy. Spending above the lifetime value of a customer is an important indicator that you need to pivot your marketing strategy and you should begin to ask yourself “how to effectively advertise my business?”
Be sure to get your basics right. The cornerstone of an effective marketing strategy is clean and communicative advertising. Give each ad, text, copy, email, etc. a “once (and twice) over”; then simply use Google Analytics to assess the individual ad’s efficacy.
If you don’t seek perfection in your marketing material then you’ll end up changing every campaign because of the illusion that the strategy isn’t working, when the actual problem lies with the content itself.
Things to look out for in a “bad ad” include:
- No engagement in copy
- No clarity in the offer
- No clear call-to-action
Create a Detailed Plan
You don’t achieve results in business through guesswork. Every business target and goal should be planned and adhered to. Creating small incremental goals can be highly impactful and morale-boosting on your journey to boosting sales.
Exercise: Create a weekly checklist to keep you focussed on the end-goal. For instance, when you’re first starting out, write goals such as: “Target for day two: send follow up communication with customers”. After all, you’ll be asking yourself ways in which to “advertise my business”, so the self-monologues needn’t end there!
A written target is far more effective than merely “wishing” for a goal to be reached. And since sales and marketing can be cumbersome, a sense of focus and organisation will go a long way.
Time Your Marketing Approach Carefully
“I want to advertise my business” is a fair question to ask, but not if you time said advertising poorly. Ever seen ice-cream trucks roaming the winter roads? You can only provide a supply to a demand. Pounce on marketing opportunities when the timing is right. For example, if you make an unrealistic sales approach to another industry’s vendor during a momentary financial crisis relevant to their industry, then no matter no matter how skilled you are at the selling game, you’ll fail to close the deal.
Exercise: Set up Google Alerts around your customer’s/vendor’s industry. The next time they have a particularly healthy financial period, i.e. they’ve raised an enviable round of funding or entered a new market, you can make an educated approach knowing they’re in a currently stable position.
It’s not always about their monetary muscle at any given time. It’s also about their need for your service. For example, a B2B sale can move swiftly if the buyer has entered a new phase or venture and requires your business’ service. When you are alerted of any transition in the buyer’s position, study it and make the sale. Get your timing right!
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Sell Your Company’s Credibility
In order to hold a credible business stance, you need to project reputability. Ensure your potential buyers and investors perceive you as a worthy entity from which to buy. This is where you can truly help yourself in answering the question of “how to advertise my business?”
Exercise: Hire a copywriter and create SEO-friendly blogs for your website. Be sure that they are optimised. Once you’ve compiled quality, informative and “Google-friendly” blogs, begin article outreach whereby you approach publications with a high Domain Authority who will publish your content on their site, including backlinks to your webpage. A traditional way to do this is to write a book with you/your company as the author. Once the content is in the hands of your prospects, it’s safe to say they will be more inclined to do business with you.
And don’t forget to maintain a strong social media presence — essentially the number one contemporary answer to the question, “How do I advertise my business?”
Remember…
When analysing your marketing strategy, be sure to carry out thorough research, produce effective marketing material, and focus on the right market at the right time.
Keep the following tactic in mind: An Info Entrepreneurs report suggests that business owners begin their marketing strategy document with an honest and rigorous “SWOT analysis”, evaluating their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats:
Strengths: Your product’s Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Weaknesses: Lack of pedigree (not producing top quality, effective material)
Opportunities: Is there an increased demand from other markets?
Threats: How is your competition’s marketing strategy getting more results than you?
Don’t forget, any wider changes as a result of your marketing strategy should be updated at Companies House.
If you’re still asking “How to advertise my business?” and would like more help and guidance, contact our reputable company formations team who will help you every step of the way.
