Appearance does count. It’s why we dress-up for special occasions and it’s why so many service-type jobs are in the business of keeping buildings, people and online presences neat and tidy. That applies to your business as well as your self and if you can gain an extra metre over your rivals why ignore it. Whatever your business the following six top tips will help you smarten up your offering and make you more appealing to your customers and more importantly potential customers.
Think Brand
However big or small your business is, branding is a key to success in the modern world. That needn’t mean thousands spent on a new logo, what is important is that your business looks the same wherever people read about it. So make sure your name is used the same way on your website, on your business card, on your social sites – you will be surprised how many businesses overlook this. Keep colours, font and the phrases you use consistent too. Big brands like Coca-Cola, Tesco, etc succeed because the font and colours they use are consistent and people sub-consciously immediately recognise them whether they ‘read’ the name or not.
Keep your social profiles up to date
If your blog hasn’t been updated for a while, or your Twitter is slow to respond, it suggests you are under-resourced or perhaps too small to care. Make sure the information on there is consistent and posts are regular. Link all the accounts together if you can with a tool like Hootsuite, SproutSocial or similar to make your job that little bit easier and schedule a time each week at the very least to update and do some housekeeping of all your profiles.
Get a personalised domain name and email address
We’ve said it before but there is no excuse for a business to be using a generic email address or long, non-specific URL for their website. Having a domain name and email address unique to you immediately puts you on a more professional footing with would be customers.
Dress to impress
Wearing a bow-tie to work every day may be going too far, but certainly if you are meeting customers a smart look suggests a smart business person and is much more likely to be consider worth doing business with. Dress appropriately of course, you don’t want to stick out like a sore thumb and even if you are at home alone working, get into the right mind set by dressing for work.
Remember Quality counts
Near see-through envelopes, crackling phones, self-printed business cards. They have their place, but not if you want your business to create a professional image to the people who deal with you. Quality says a great deal, like a smart appearance and a clean look. Don’t scrimp on things you will give or hand to customers or would be customers, that will be their lasting impression of you. Quality needn’t mean expensive either. Buying in bulk or doing contra-deals with suppliers can get you fantastic deals and looking out for sales or special offers will help you get quality supplies for less money.
Make your website stand-out
Your website is probably going to be the port of call for the majority of your would be customers whether they are following you up from a meeting or just stumbling across you via a search, so it needs to be good. It is worth investing in making it look as professional and in-line with your business ethos as possible. This could be by employing a good web designer or via a web site builder tool, just make sure it reflects the image you want to portray to new customers.
