7 tips to make your business look bigger than it is


October 9th, 2017

Sometimes image is everything. Your business might not be particularly big at the moment but technology has made it possible to make it appear as such. The consumers do not need much to get hooked by a business, product or service, as long as it is presented to them as a “real big deal”.

This week we compiled a guide of 7 steps that will make your business look bigger and get it under the radar of more potential customers. Here we go!

Create a recognisable brand

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The first step to creating an impression that your business is big is to make it recognisable. The best way to start is by giving your enterprise a catchy name that will stick in customers’ minds. A memorable name goes a long way especially when you are in the early stages of developing your brand. It should be easier to acquire clientele when your prospects can remember your business’ name right away.

Pretty much the same can be said about logos. You should devise an epic logo for your business that will print itself in people’s minds.

Do not forget that marketing practices are only justified when a business is actually able to make a sale. This said, it is definitely more important to first develop your products and services, so you are confident that they will offer value to your customers. Nevertheless, it is worth investing more time and little money on putting some makeup on the face of your business that is the name and the logo.

Build a good website

Like it or not, business prosperity cannot be achieved without fortifying the Internet front. The presence of a usable, good-looking website is a must when enticing potential customers. The role of the Internet when a customer does their market research has never been bigger. A potential buyer is almost guaranteed to interact with your business via your website. Therefore, you need to make sure you have a pleasant web page that will make the visitors return to it over and over again.

A well-made site speaks of professionalism, on the top of that. It signals to viewers that you have taken the matter seriously and have used resources to create a user-friendly, informative platform, for their benefit.

There are umpteen examples of poorly-built websites, and every one of us has had some unpleasant encounters with those. Do not forget that the customers remember and make judgment of the sites they visit. If yours stand out from the competitors’, you get bonus points and create a positive impression with site visitors.

Stay active on social media

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Admittedly, this is easier said than done. Limited human resources and, more importantly, time, pushes social media activity at the back of companies’ priorities. It really is not that businesses do not want to try to maximise social media’s full potential. They just cannot squeeze the task on the agenda, which is a shame, because building a social media following gets your business talked about.

Posting regularly on your selected platforms will not necessarily bring you too many new customers but it will keep your followers engaged, and that is good in itself. If you are able to demonstrate that you can develop your social platforms, then you send signals to your followers that you actually possess the resources to make it work.

The presence of scheduling tools like Hootsuite makes it even easier to prepare several posts that will go live at your selected times, so it is worth taking some time to increase your social media activity.

Expand geographically with virtual numbers

An easy way to appear bigger than you are is by advertising numbers prefixed with big city codes. Virtual landlines leaving the impression that you are based in one of the country’s major cities, instil confidence in prospects that they will be dealing with a big and established business. What is more, large companies are generally more trusted and sought after, so using a virtual number really feels like killing two birds with one stone.

Equally, you can group several numbers on a regional principle. For example, you can advertise numbers with Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford codes to make people think that you have office branches in each of the three cities. This works well if you want to grow in a particular region and want to target some of its prominent towns and cities.

Get a professional business phone system

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This point complements the previous one. Virtual numbers should be examined as complete business phone systems that offer more than just call forwarding.

Quality phone systems allow users to set multiple virtual departments that redirect to the most appropriate person in a company. And even if all the selections route to a number answered by you, the callers will never know that. Instead, they will think that your business is divided into a whole lot of departments, each run by numerous employees.

In addition to setting virtual departments, a phone system could be utilised to record personalised voicemail greetings, too. It is generally off-putting for callers when they hear an impersonal, cold and distant voice asking them to leave their message. The much better option would be to record your own greeting that will be played in the rare cases when no one will be able to take the call. And the best option is to…

…Get a virtual receptionist

It has been discovered that people feel better treated by a company when they get to speak to a real human. This builds the case for the importance of signing up for a live telephone answering service.

The availability of a virtual receptionist not only erases the risk of missing calls, but also gives your image a more professional projection. You outsource the receptionist function, save money, and get yourself a professional operator working off-site acting as if they are an integral part of your company. And the callers are delighted with the quality of customer service they receive. This is it in a nutshell – simple and effective.

In case you are a sole trader or work within a tiny team, the virtual receptionist service will work even better for you. Instead of answering the phone yourself, you can leave that to the professionals. It will make a difference to the customers who will always feel they are being greeted by a skilled big company officer.

Choose a virtual address

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This would be particularly beneficial for business owners running their trade from home. If you list your home address on your website, you will be easily exposed by visitors who will find out that you do not have a proper business office. That is the reason why it is worth paying for a PO Box address you can advertise as a main business address. And if you want a place to hold business meetings, you can also rent an office in a more central part of the city you are based in.

Similarly, you can invest in more than one virtual office in multiple locations. This tactic aims to repeat the effect of using several virtual numbers – you shall appear as if your company operates from a number of offices across the country. Needless to say, people will be impressed with the projected size of your business.

Conclusion

Combined, these tips form a powerful tool to promote your business as a large entity. Doing this will enable you to show off to larger audiences. And this, in turn, will increase your chances of landing more customers and eventually reaching a factual big business status.

 

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