5 Easy Steps to Introduce Your Brand to a New Market

Is your company expanding into new markets, cities or even states? If so, there is a lot to think about. How are new prospects going to find you? What kind of marketing should you consider? While expansion can be a massive undertaking, these five expert tips will help you navigate announcing a new market expansion.

Leverage social media

Social media is a major part of promoting businesses in the present climate. Create a graphic with detailed information highlighting your new expansion. Make sure to mention your new location or locations along with hours of operation. Consider sharing why you’re expanding to this area and convey your excitement. Determine if you’d like your business’s social media account to encompass your brand as a whole or if you want to split off accounts and create one per location. There are benefits and drawbacks to each. With an overall brand account, it’s easier to promote general discounts or new product launches. With individual location accounts, you’re able to better market individual location discounts, events, or new products. Either way, create content that is geared towards the new cities you’re operating in. Develop bold, engaging content that interests prospective customers in your brand such as a limited time offered giveaway. To run an effective giveaway, create a social post that encourages people to enter by asking participants to follow your account, tag a friend in the comments, and share your post for an additional entry. A giveaway campaign timeline sweet spot is around a week at the most before you draw your winner. This allows your entrants to stay engaged and interested to see if they’ve won. Think about whether you’d like to put some money behind these announcements and consider creating geographically targeted social media advertisements. It’s worth beginning targeted advertising around one month prior to launch to let consumers know your business is coming to the area. Ramp up the ad spend during your launch and then adjust accordingly. If the targeted ads are seeing great results, maintain the ad spend. If the ads aren’t hitting the customers you had hoped, it’s worth evaluating whether you can continue to increase the budget or stop them.

Update your website

Your website is key to helping promote your company’s expansion. Be sure to update your site before you market elsewhere as you’ll likely be driving new traffic to your site. Make these new store fronts or locations a focal point on your site by creating a banner or slider on your homepage. Also, consider adding a press release or blog post about your expansion. Update your home page with fresh announcements about your new market endeavor. Posting fresh content helps your site’s Search Engine Optimization. In addition, ensure that your company registers your new locations with Google so that your business is easier for prospective customers to find you in the new market. Evaluate whether creating location specific pages on your site will add value. If separate location-specific pages within your site make sense, adding landing pages for each location can allow you to market and drive traffic directly to those. Incentivizing people to visit your website, through a social media tie-in, is a good way to drive traffic and an easy way to collect customer data and develop new customers. We recommend creating a form fill on your website where visitors can enter their email address to receive a coupon for their first order. Not only do these new customers get to experience your product at a discounted rate, but you’ll gather customer email addresses for newsletters or future promotions. Utilizing your website can also help encourage individuals to visit your physical location. Calls to action can be anything from “the first 50 people that visit our store receive a month’s supply of our products” or “order from our new location and receive 25% off your order using the code: NewStore”. Regardless of which specifics you include, your web presence is vital to your company’s success.

Establish a community presence

Getting involved in your new markets is a great way to let people know you’re there and you care. Join the community’s chamber of commerce to learn about events happening in the area and meet other business owners and prospective customers. Great examples of being involved in the community include volunteering as a company team at a local non-profit; setting up a booth every Saturday at the local flea market; or sponsoring school events and causes. Volunteering with a non-profit can not only be a rewarding team building activity but can also serve as great social media content and allows you to do good in the community. When you exhibit or sponsor, be sure to provide every potential customer you meet with something branded to take home. This can be anything from a branded item (lip balm, lens cleaner, etc.) to a coupon flyer with information about your company/expansion. The main goal is to encourage potential new customers to think about you and your brand after the event. Lastly, consider joining and partnering with your local Chamber of Commerce to host a ribbon-cutting ceremony at your new location. These events have the potential to draw in local press as well as help you connect with other business professionals in your area. Whether you decide to sponsor, exhibit, volunteer, or have a ribbon-cutting, getting your company out and about and involved in the new market is key.

Invest in reaching prospects where they live

Consider implementing a targeted advertising campaign. For example, a direct mail campaign can be an effective way to get your brand’s message in front of your potential new audience in specific areas. A one-time mailer could be sent or a more robust drip campaign of a series of mailers over a several-week period could be employed. Print collateral essentially guarantees that your promotion will be seen by the homeowners in the area you’re trying to target. Be strategic, concise and clever with the copy on your direct mailer and include an eye-catching, relevant image. The USPS has a great tool to help determine the households to include and cost of mailing.

Utilize a public relations strategy

A relatively cost-effective way to garner some excitement and potential press excitement would be utilizing a public relations strategy. Crafting press releases that you can then send out via paid wire services are sure to generate some buzz surrounding your expansion. Make sure you tailor your release to your new market launch and highlight some key impacts, such as – the number of jobs created and the expected impact of the new market expansion. If you’re planning on a grand opening or ribbon cutting with the Chamber of Commerce, mention that in the press release.

Expanding your business can be a stressful, but exciting opportunity. Following these five recommendations can help alleviate some of the stress of launching in a new market. Whether you decide to implement a direct mailing campaign, rely on social media, get involved in the community, develop your website, utilize public relations or all five, getting the word out that your brand is in a new market is critical to your success. Need help marketing in a new area? We have many more ideas and years of experience – contact us!