30 million small businesses flood America’s marketplace today. That number continues to grow as the global economy strengthens and more people are finding success as entrepreneurs.
Given that favorable climate, opening a copy machine company seems like a slam dunk, right? After all, more businesses means more need for commercial copiers.
We’re going to tell you something that if you’re reading this article, you probably already know…
Just because the market is ripe for sales doesn’t necessarily mean that those sales are going to materialize. After all, more opportunity means more competition.
The way to break away from your competitors and capitalize on demand is to market yourself effectively. If you’re not sure how exactly to do that, these 10 marketing tips can help.
1. Start Selling Yourself Before You’re Open
Before we get into how to market yourself and who to market to, we want to quickly touch on something that a lot of experts fail to mention… When.
You shouldn’t wait to start marketing once your doors open. Since marketing might take a while to build traction, you’ll lose a lot of money that way.
The best time to start marketing is now.
If you can build a short-list of clients before you launch, you’ll get off to a hot start.
2. Understand Your Customer
The most foundational tenant of marketing is knowing who your customer is. If you don’t know your customer inside and out, you’re going to end up sinking money into a marketing campaign that doesn’t connect with them and will lose you money.
The best way to understand your consumer is to talk to them.
Find out who you think your consumer is and ask them how interested they’d be in services like yours. Find out what they’d expect from you as a service provider and what turns them off.
The more you know, the more effectively you’ll be able to harp on pain points in your campaigns.
3. Understand Digital Marketing
Marketing used to happen on television and in print. Today, most marketing tips point towards the digital spectrum.
Pay-per-click ads. Social media posts. SEO. These are all mediums that are worth understanding.
After all, digital marketing is cost-effective and connects with young entrepreneurs better than any other medium.
4. Don’t Neglect Local
Just because digital marketing is the way of the future doesn’t mean that you should stick all your eggs in that basket. There are a number of local ways to market yourself that may represent a very high return on investment for a company that’s claim to fame is selling the best commercial copy machines.
Our recommendation is to sponsor local events, show up at community trade shows, give classes and to do anything else that you can in your neighborhood to get people buzzing.
Whenever you put yourself out there, don’t forget to hand out your business cards and be sure to invite the people you’ve met to engage with you further.
5. Dedicate Most of Your Energy to B2B
Let’s face it…the business to consumer market for commercial copy machines is non-existent. Therefore, if you’re in the business of moving copiers, you’ll want to dedicate your energy to business to business marketing.
Business to business audiences tends not to live on consumer-focused platforms like Twitter or Facebook. They’re on professional platforms like LinkedIn.
That’s where you’ll want to have the biggest presence.
6. Cross Promote
One of our favorite marketing tips is to partner with related companies and cross-promote. For example, if you know a company that sells paper, let your copier buying customers know about them.
In return, that paper company can recommend you to their clients.
This arrangement is free, easy and won’t cannibalize either party’s market share.
7. Listen to Your Customers
Your customers see ways that your business can improve that you can’t see. Take the time to listen to what their suggestions are if you want to build the best company/marketing strategies that you can.
Marketing that makes clear that you appreciate customer feedback will resonate with buyers that only want to do business with companies that put them first. That group is a growing segment of the overall market.
8. Market Towards Government Agencies
If you can get in with the government, you’re made. Government clients tend to buy in very high volumes and prefer not to switch out contractors given the amount of hassle that represents.
The trouble with getting government contracts is getting your foot in the door with agencies.
Our recommendation is to hire army veterans or other people with public sector experience to see if they can help grow your business with their contacts.
9. Keep Advertising New Products
What is it that your clients want? Clearly, they want copiers.
But what else would somebody that just bought a commercial copier be looking for?
Repair services? Paper?
Keep an eye on the market to see where there are opportunities for you. Once you find those opportunities, roll out new products and market them to your existing customers.
A company that rolls out and advertises new products/services is one that consumers will feel is active and is set to stick around for the long haul.
10. Build Out Your Online Presence
The passive marketing that having a great website or a good blog can afford you is unfathomable.
Invest in making your website mobile-friendly, claiming your social media pages and doing other small things that’ll make you seem more official online.
Believe us when we say that small moves like that can have a big impact on your business.
Our Final Thoughts on Marketing Tips for Your Copier Business
Marketing tips that can benefit your copier business aren’t unlike tips that you’d use to market any business in today’s marketplace.
We hope that the tips above have given you insight to better point your marketing efforts and we invite you to browse more of our content if you’d like additional inspiration.
| 
Fetching the Best Small