How did you promote your business when 2010 rolled over on the calendar? Did you even have a business ten years ago? Maybe you were part of a different business. The same questions could be asked about where things stood even a year ago.

Let’s just look at some general observations at how the landscape has changed. Facebook was around a decade ago and you might even have had a Facebook page for your business. I know we jumped on the bandwagon fairly early and our Graphics Unleashed Facebook page was created on February 25, 2009. In the last decade, we’ve created three other Facebook pages. Vehicle Templates Unleashed and Seamless Textures Unleashed were both created in the last few months of 2019. Our Loreto Bay Home Rental page was created in 2014, though it truly isn’t a big party of the business.

If you don’t already have a Facebook page, you should seriously consider getting one as it provides one more way to promote your business. You can create one in less than five minutes and it doesn’t cost anything! For those who already have a page, is there something you can do to get more from it? Should you post more (or even less)? Can you build your audience? Are you posting events? Do you have a shop on your page? There is no perfect answer for every business, but now is the time to explore ways to get better!

I know that none of you had an Instagram page a decade ago since it was launched on October 6, 2010. For some businesses, it is the most important social network while other businesses may not see a huge boost from it. Should You Be on Instagram? If nothing else, create a personal profile and get used to how it works. Then you can decide if it makes sense to convert a profile to a business account.

It is highly unlikely any of you were using Pinterest at the start of the last decide. While it was founded in 2009, it was invite-only in 2010 and only truly launched in 2011. For me, it was a platform I didn’t understand for the longest time. Now that Unleashed jumped on Pinterest in 2019, I feel I’ve gotten a detailed understanding of its importance.

There are certainly more social networks we could discuss and they could be the best networks for you. Take some time to explore the available options and work with the platforms best for your needs. Should you want help with your social networks, we know someone that can help you grow them. Reach out to Katie and allow her to develop a growth plan for you.

Technically we had two active Web sites a decade ago and now we have eleven of them. Not only did we break things into multiple sites, we moved everything to WordPress in the 2014-2015 timeframe. Now building WordPress sites is our primary business. Yes, a lot can change in just a few years. When was the last time you refreshed your site? If it is still basically the same as it was a decade ago, you absolutely need to do something. Mobile is now extremely important. SSL is nearly a requirement. Not to mention that WordPress is dominating the space where it was only a niche player ten years ago. If you need help with your site, please consider allowing Unleashed to help.

Email marketing has undergone numerous changes over the years and it continues to evolve. Have your email marketing evolved as well? Do you even use email marketing? Most of you reading this post will at the very least find it via email so clearly it is an important part of our strategy. If you’ve not made changes in the past couple of years, it is time to give your emails a look and find ways to improve their effectiveness.

So far I’ve focused on various digital marketing methods. They are extremely important. Yet there are also traditional promotional tools you can use and those tools can be more effective if your digital toolset is full. There are traditional print ads that should include a Web link and social profiles. Maybe you embroider some shirts and put a URL or other online profile on it. There are frisbees, pens, flashlights, USB drives and thousands of other promotional items that can be used to share your business. Get those digital platforms humming along and then allow the traditional tools to really kick things in high gear.

While I’ve listed a number of things you can do to boost your business, I know I’ve only scratched the surface. Stop and take some time to think about what you can do to increase your success moving forward!

Photo by Jungwoo Hong