small business Archives

An Innovative Small Business Guide To Social Media – Top 3 Platforms

Don’t push people to where you want to be; meet them where they are.

-Meghan Keaney Anderson, VP of Marketing, Hubspot

If you’re a small business owner and not on social media, you’re missing out on all the fun! It’s where you can promote your products or services and share funny memes and reels with your followers.

In fact, your growth is not just limited to social media platforms. Social media marketing also helps to promote web content and drive traffic to your site. Now, let’s take a look at why social media still counts for small businesses:

Social Media provides targeting capability at a lower cost

Social media allows you to target your audience based on demographics, interests, and behaviors to minimize ad spent waste. You can also utilize real-time performance data and insights. It will help you to adjust campaigns for maximum speed.

It guides you to improve customer service

Social media is a direct line of communication with your customers. You can respond to customer inquiries, complaints, and feedback in real-time to show you value their concerns. This allows you to monitor and track your customer sentiment and improve services accordingly.

So, this is how you can strengthen your relationship with your customers.

It helps you to gain valuable insights

You must optimize social media analytics tools to know your audience’s behavior and choices.

Well, you are familiar with social media’s benefits for your brand. Now the catch is to crack the correct code to start with social media. And here you go; in this blog, you will get the best practices to adopt for a robust social media presence for your startup or already established business.

Optimize social media for marketing.

First, you need to define your target audience. You can do this by creating customer personas. You will have fun drilling down into specific segments. For instance, it comforts you to figure out the demographics and personality of your customers.

Use social media for recruiting and hiring.

Create your company page on social media platforms like- LinkedIn or Facebook to establish credibility and work culture. After doing so, opt for job openings and clarify your recruitment goals. It can target a specific set of applicants or skyrocket the traffic to your job listing.

Pro tip: You can share employee testimonials to highlight the benefits of working with the company.

Pick the right platforms for your small business.

So, how do you swipe right on the right platform?

Think about your target audience. Are they on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn?

Each platform has its pros and cons, so choose thoughtfully. For instance, visual content is more efficient on Instagram, while text-based content is more suited for Twitter or LinkedIn.

Next, think about what content you want to share. Are you focussing on infographics, reels, or behind-the-scenes? And finally, track your social media performance, and adjust your strategy accordingly to drive desired results.

Well, among the many platforms, the most effective social network for your small business could be:

Facebook

Facebook has 2.93 billion monthly active users, allowing your small business to target potential customers. Also, Facebook offers targeted ads and boosted posts. You can use such marketing tools to reach specific demographics and win over your business goals.

Pro tip: Facebook provides unique features like business pages, groups, and messenger so you can show your products and services, build community, and gain insightful feedback.

Instagram

Instagram users are highly interested and spend lots of time on it. You can use this to your advantage by posting eye-catching content. Don’t miss out on Instagram Stories, reels, and IGTV. You can also use an Instagram influencer strategy to leverage your business and reach a wider audience.

Pro tip: You can integrate other marketing tools with Instagram, such as Facebook Ads Manager or Hootsuite, to make managing social media for your brand more accessible.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is your best friend if you want to network, market, or hire for your small business. Other than potential customers, you can also get business partners and employees. You can use advanced search features to reach your ideal audience.

You can start the social media journey for your small business by opting for free courses and networking events. It will provide a business-focused approach to your brand.

Pro tip: You can grow your email marketing list by running a weekly newsletter on LinkedIn and also stay in touch with your current customers.

And finally, don’t hesitate to experiment with other platforms until you find your perfect match!

Our dedicated team of professionals will ensure to support every type of business. Call us at 7249222661 or fill out our contact form to contact us.

Special : Music Production 101 for a Growing Digital Agency

With music production, your digital agency will be singing a happy tune!

Music production expertise will position your digital agency as a niche specialist. And thus, you can stand out in the market for unique offerings. Also, it will attract clients who are specifically seeking music-related services.

But before getting started with music production, be clear about your goal. Start with just one goal. It could be to rock the digital landscape with music videos or promotions. Or it could be to offer top-notch services such as jingles, dubbing, or sound design.

Whatever you’ve decided, your digital agency just needs to follow an action plan given below for a smooth journey into music production:

Tune into the skills for music production

To learn music production, start by mastering an instrument of your choice. Next, invest in honing your team by binge-watching YouTube tutorials or scrolling through blogs. But what really would help is the- Logic Pro User Guide. It’s beginner-friendly for music production.

But, if time is a constraint for your team. Structured courses on platforms like Udemy can provide holistic learning. Alternatively, you can look out for music academies that offer physical live lectures.

Then, to acquire practical experience, you can create 4-5 soundtracks or music videos. Or you can pursue internships or jobs under experienced sound engineers.

Once the team is highly-skilled, your digital agency can function even without owning a recording studio. You can facilitate music production by partnering with local recording studios, engineers, and manufacturers. This allows you to build relationships, gain referrals, and potentially access special rates.

Finally, soundproof your recording rooms and set up your equipment. In case you need assistance with the room design. You can consult with a recording studio designer.

PRO TIP: Register your business name and obtain a permit to establish yourself as a music production service provider.

Studio staples for every digital agency

If you are just starting out, your digital agency doesn’t need to splurge on expensive gear. Gear matters to an extent. But, it shouldn’t become a limitation for producing decent music. You can study viral tracks by EDM producers from Martin Garrix to Alan Walker.

They started with just a laptop.

So, assuming you already have the basic systems in your studio, such as a PC, laptop, or mobile phone as a backup option. Now, it’s time to install premium software for better music production capabilities:

–Ableton

–Cubase

–Studio One

But if you want to experiment with free software, here are your options:

–Cakewalk

–Waveforms

For mobile devices, you can go for:

-BandLab

-Garage Band

-FL Studio Mobile

Apart from your system and software, you need a basic monitoring device to process or select a sound. When it comes to music use, studio monitors and headphones come in handy.

PRO TIP: Compile a list of the necessary equipment and purchase it from a music studio equipment retailer.

Music Marketing

When it comes to music marketing, platforms like YouTube and streaming services play a key role. Given that, 65% of the music industry’s revenue comes from streaming. It’s vital to have a strong online presence.

To further expand your reach, organize a talent hunt contest. Invite aspiring musicians to participate, and offer them a banner to showcase their talents. You can also offer a revenue-sharing model where the monetization revenue is divided 50-50.

Initially, offering the platform for free to content creators will help build a creation loop and attract initial investments. As your music gain traction, your agency can start charging new competitors for participation.

Also, integrate an Electronic Press Kit (EPK) on your website. An EPK is a complete showcase of your brand and music production services. It includes your bio, promo photos, music and videos, social links, and contact details.

Remember, the proportion of “undiscovered” artists is likely much higher. So, making that leap from unknown to established requires proactive music marketing.

PRO TIP: Collaborate for free with mixing engineers, singers, and producers to build connections and gain experience.

With the above tips, you can start your journey with music production. It is more accessible than it’s ever been. Finally, let’s take a look at the summary points to ponder.

Master an instrument and invest in team skills.
Gain experience by creating soundtracks or working with sound engineers.
Utilize platforms like YouTube and streaming services for music marketing.
Register your business and obtain a permit as a music production service provider.
Collaborate with mixing engineers, singers, and producers for connections and exposure.

Want to sound like the artist you’ve always dreamed of? Professional song production can get you there fast. Prefer collaborating online because it saves you time and allows for flexibility.

Get in touch with us by clicking the link here. At Antriksh, we are determined to make a business grow. Our only concern is, will it be yours?

Need a Branding Plan? 5 Game-Changing Strategies To Create One!

Do you want your business to be known, loved, and successful?

All you have to do is create a unique Branding plan that aligns with your vision. A branding plan is a long-term process to build identification and favourability with the target audience. It will help you stay focused and keep track of your goals. Contact Antriksh to create a custom Brand Strategy for your business and Book a free consultation with our experts to help you attain business objectives and increase sales.

You are putting your business in danger when you have no brand strategy; you lose-

Opportunities– A lack of planning in branding tactics can lead to overlooked opportunities for the growth and expansion of your business.

Customer Loyalty– Building strong relationships with your customers will be easy with a customized branding plan for your business.

Brand Recognition– You will struggle to define your brand’s personality and values. And this will negatively impact your brand recognition and recall.

After all, building a solid branding plan helps you communicate to your audience who you are and what you are good at!

Let’s look at how you can create a unique branding plan to enhance your business credibility:

-Conduct a situation analysis

A situation analysis is like taking a snapshot of your brand’s environment. Start by evaluating your brand’s strengths and weaknesses with a SWOT analysis to get a clear picture. Study your competition like a detective, uncovering their strengths, weaknesses, and secret strategies.

Check out the latest industry trends and observe your customers’ behavior and preferences. And finally, summarize your findings in a report, and use it to create a branding plan that’s a knockout!

-Define your brand personality

Start by defining your brand’s mission and values. Think about what emotions you want to evoke. Once you clearly understand your brand personality, incorporate it into your visual identity. It will ensure a consistent and meaningful brand image.

Also, get to know your target audience; you can run online polls to determine how the audience recognizes your brand. Doing this two-step process is similar to connecting the dots between how you won’t want to portray your brand and how your audience perceives it.

-Think about your end goal

Keeping your end goal in mind ensures that your branding efforts are aligned with your overall business goals. Your end goal should be specific, measurable, and achievable for your branding plan. For example, it could include brand recognition, building customer loyalty, or establishing a competitive advantage.

Setting an end goal helps to prioritize your branding activities and measure the success of your branding efforts.

-Analyse your branding strategies

Analyzing your tactics gives you a reality check. It reveals how far you have come and what adjustments to make to ensure you are moving in the right direction. Take a close look at your current branding efforts, including messaging and packaging of your brand. Then, seek feedback from your customers and know what they want to see in your branding efforts.

Simply put, get your hands dirty with the data. It is your secret key to unlocking the full potential of your brand.

-Pick your social media channels

Choosing the right social media channels for your brand is crucial in creating a unique branding plan. You must consider the social media channels your target audience uses most. If your viewers are mainly active on Instagram, that may be a good place to focus your social media efforts.

You can begin with a few social media channels that are most effective for your brand that helps you stand out in a crowded market.

And also, don’t forget to set your branding budget. It could include expenses such as hiring a design agency or investing in market research. But first, you must look at your financial appetite and realistically allocate a budget.

Your audience will identify you if you create content that aligns with your brand personality. Tell your brand story in every piece of content and craft a content distribution strategy to maximize your content reach.

So, what are you waiting for? Pick your brand’s focus, personality, look and articulate your vision to the world. Follow our tips to create a unique branding plan for your brand. Or just holler at us. We’d love to help you tell your brand story.

We at Antriksh help businesses grow and achieve targets. We also help you increase conversion rates through well-optimized content and impactful media assets for your brand. Book a free consultation with our experts to help you attain business objectives and increase sales. Our dedicated team of professionals will ensure to support every type of business. Call us at 7249222661 or fill out the form to contact us.

4 Important Stages of How Branding Evolved Over the Ages

The definition of “Brand” has changed dramatically over time. Originally, the term referred to the practice of leaving a mark on something to indicate ownership. It later evolved to include marks or stigmas placed on convicts or those involved in gangs. Italians began using unique watermarks on paper as early as the 1200s. This was possibly the beginning of the definition of branding that the majority of us think of today.

The American Marketing Association defines this type of branding as a “name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that distinguishes one seller’s goods or service from those of other sellers.” Branding evolved to include the term “trademark” in the 1900s. It was further succeeded by print media and radio branding, before TV commercials became a reality. In today’s world, branding has evolved to be a completely different ball game altogether. Let’s deep dive into how branding has evolved over the course of time.

The Era of (Real) Brands

When the use of branding property came up, it sparked a long debate. However, using unique designs to brand cattle and other livestock was very common in the 16th and 17th centuries.

These brands were physical markers that told anyone who saw them who owned the animal. Unique in many ways, brands were similar to early logos, in which they were easily identifiable.

People gradually realised that these types of brands could be used for more than just claiming ownership — they could also be used to associate a product with a company.

The Era of Trademarks

During the Industrial Revolution, the evolution of branding entered a new phase. Factory manufacturing was a thriving business at the time; however, factory-produced goods were not initially as trusted as those made and sold by local sellers. To sway buyers away from purchasing products from local suppliers, factory owners learned to build product-consumer relationships by promoting their products in a familiar way and earning brand loyalty within the household.

Brands, such as Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s cereal, and Campbell soup, simply represented specific products. Because of the circumstances (lack of regulated standards such as quality control), buyers found it relatively easy to distinguish superior goods from inferior ones.

Successful businesses demonstrated that their products were of high quality and superior to those of their competitors. Many products were also new or recently invented (for example, soda pop and the convenience of canned soup), which provided companies with what is known as a unique selling proposition (USP).

Companies began using trademarks in the 1870s to gain brand recognition and demonstrate ownership. From logos to colours to symbols to slogans, brands could legally register their brand identity and claim it as intellectual property.

Trademarks enabled brands to protect their integrity and deter copycats. Bass & Co.’s Pale Ale, was one of the first registered trademarks in the United States.

The Era of Radio and TV

Brands had a new, exciting way to connect with more consumers than ever before with the invention of the radio in 1896 and television in the 1920s.

With this new medium came an auditory angle — jingles and slogans that became embedded in consumers’ minds and increased brand awareness.

Branding was given new life by radio and television. You could now do more than just see brands; you could also hear them! It was a full-fledged branding experience!

Radio and television advertisements were game changers for branding because they allowed companies to come directly into consumers’ homes and provide a multi-sensory experience.

The first television, by Bulova Watches, commercial aired in 1941. Even though only a few thousand people saw it, it signalled the beginning of a new era of branding possibilities.

The Digital Era of Branding

Branding should evolve in tandem with the digital world. Your business will remain relevant and appealing to your target market if you regularly research trends and how to best portray your brand.

The digital era has altered branding in numerous ways. Many businesses now use online advertising and marketing to share their stories with customers and build their brand. There is, however, much more competition out there, and it can be difficult for a company to develop a compelling, standout brand identity.

Social media has enabled us to communicate directly with the brands we use every day. The audience can challenge, question, and gain a more accurate picture of the company. There are no longer “gatekeepers” who control who speaks and what is said. As a brand, you no longer need a large budget to get your message heard thanks to social media.

Branding has evolved from the sale of a product to the sale of values and beliefs because the audience has evolved. The majority of brands have moved away from purely descriptive content and toward more interactive, information-based, and versatile content.

Businesses that adapt to the changing digital landscape the fastest are more likely to thrive. Keep up with the pace of the ever-growing world of brands with Antriksh and check out our branding packages. Get in touch with us for a free consultation on how we can add value to your brand.

6 ways to make your small business popular

Larger corporations often get the best of the clients and small business owners frequently have to work twice as hard to get their brand in front of a larger audience. However, this does not mean the small business owners can’t withstand the competition and build their own brand.

Brand awareness measures how well your target audience recognises and is familiar with your brand. Creating brand awareness is beneficial when marketing and promoting your company and products, especially in the early stages of a business when the scale of operations is small.

1. Social Media and SEO for Small Business

You must socialise in order to create strong brand awareness. Social media platforms allow you to do so with absolute ease.

However, simply posting content on social media platforms on a regular basis does not help. It is natural for the user to skip and scroll through this content if it is repetitive and doesn’t evoke much interest.

The trajectory of your brand awareness depends on the uniqueness of your content strategy to engage with your audience.

Another way to increase the outreach of your business is by making your content SEO-friendly. If you are using blogs as a medium to engage with your audience, SEO comes in handy since blogs are ranked over time by how search engine-friendly they are over the quality of the blog. Checkout the social media handles for VKT, one of the small businesses that we handle.

2. Customer centricity

People place a high value on excellent customer service. If a product or service fails, it is critical to respond quickly and with a customer-focused response aimed at improving the user experience. It is imperative to maintain a friendly, consistent, and clear tone while interacting with the customers.

If a customer consistently shares content or writes positive reviews for your small business, reward them with a free product, a huge discount on some of your best offerings or even a nice note works well. Positive reviews will gradually but steadily flood the internet, increasing your visibility and ratings.

3. Promotional products and influencer marketing

Chewing gum made William Wrigley Jr. one of the wealthiest men in America in the twentieth century. Wrigley began his career as a soap salesman. He offered store owners free cans of baking powder to stock his products. Wrigley switched to baking powder when it became a hit and included free packs of chewing gum as a promotion.

Later on, chewing gum became a huge hit and Wrigley pivoted to chewing gum as the main product. What was once a promotional product, went on to become a crowd favourite and changed the business for good. Promotional products have the potential to improve your brand awareness. Couple that up with influencer marketing and you have a perfect brand awareness combo.

One of India’s well known lifestyle brands in recent times, Boat, used influencer marketing to take huge strides in a small amount of time. You too can use it for your small business to improve the outreach and brand awareness.

4. Build a local network and collaborate with other businesses

By being active in your own city or community, you can quickly spread the word about a business. For example, if a local event is being held, you can sign up for a booth. If possible, consider sponsoring or hosting a local event to increase brand visibility in your community. This is also an excellent way to gain local press coverage, which increases your chances of being discovered online by a local audience.

Collaborating with another business is also a great way to increase your brand awareness. Cross-promotion allows you to reach the audience of your partner, explore new market opportunities, and grow your business.

You can promote your business for free if you form a mutually beneficial partnership with a brand that resonates with your values.

5. Use logo for brand awareness

The logo is, in a way, an identity card for your business. When a fancy car passes by and you are not sure which car it is, you tend to look for its logo. Logo serves as a tool for brand recognition, which is the next step in line after brand awareness.

An eye-catching but simple logo can work wonders for your business as it helps the customers to develop a sense of familiarity with your product/service. Putting your logo on packaging, t-shirts and freebies accelerates your brand awareness, which eventually builds a strong brand identity.

Here’s how you can practically optimize the logo:

-Ensure to use your logo in emails, industry events, and social media as well.

-Integrate your logo into your product packaging

6. Referral program

Users will gladly spread the word about your product or service if they know they’ll receive an incentive for doing so. Payment apps are a great example of how smart referral programmes can help a company grow. The rise of UPI payments was primarily due to the ease of use and the incentives that came along with making payments or referring the service to a new user.

The referral model is an intelligent method to acquire more customers for your small business and market your service/product at the same time.

Even if you don’t use all these techniques, a combination of the ones that best fit your strategy can be a good stepping stone to creating brand awareness for your business.

Antriksh has been delivering top-notch services in company branding to businesses, both regional and global.

Need a free consultation about how our services can add value to your company? Well, we are just a click away.

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Music Production

Social Media Management

E-learning Solutions

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Tag: small business

Special : Music Production 101 for a Growing Digital Agency

Tune into the skills for music production

Studio staples for every digital agency

Music Marketing

Need a Branding Plan? 5 Game-Changing Strategies To Create One!

-Conduct a situation analysis

-Define your brand personality

-Think about your end goal

-Analyse your branding strategies

-Pick your social media channels

Explore ideas with us

Drop us a line!

contact@antrikshglobal.com

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