What’s the best way to promote your business? How can you advertise your business and get your name in front of potential prospects when money is tight or you’re just starting up? How can you get the word out about your business in the most affordable way?
Promoting a business is an ongoing challenge for small businesses. Whether you’re just starting out or have been in business for years, these 37 proven advertising and marketing strategies will help your business find new customers without spending a fortune.
Plan your marketing
You’ll waste precious time and money if your marketing activities are random and unstructured. The key to success – not matter how big or small your budget- is to define your marketing strategy before doing anything else. Start by identifying who your best prospects are, and then determine the best way to reach them. Be as specific as possible. Is the decision maker the CTO of the company, the director of human resources, or a 37-year-old working mom? Will you find them on Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube or Instagram? What about in-person networking at local business meetings? Will you find people at those meeting who are likely prospects or who know and could recommend you to likely prospects? What about advertising? Will customers be searching for your type of product on Google or Bing? Do they look for coupons in newspapers? Do you want to start promoting your business to them at the start of their buying cycle, or when they’re about ready to pull out their credit card and make the purchase? Write your answers down and refer to them before you start any new marketing tactic.
Set up a website
Having a working website is important for marketing a business. Depending what you sell, your website serves as a lead generation tool, online brochure, catalog, and information source for your potential customers. If you can’t afford to have someone custom-design your website, put your site up using one of the companies like Wix, SquareSpace or Godaddy that provide templates and tools that make it easy to create a basic website. Whether you choose a ready-to- use template, or have someone build a site for you, be sure the design is responsive. (In other words, that it looks good and is easy to read on mobile devices as well as on desktop and laptop computers.)
Include a blog
A blog (or other written articles on your site) serves two functions. It informs your customers and prospects, and the content, in turn, improves your chances of being found in search engines. You don’t have to be a professional writer to add a blog. Just write information your customers will find helpful at different stages of the buying cycle or provide tips and hints on using what you sell.
Use Basic SEO your website
SEO stands for search engine optimization – in other words, setting up your web pages so the search engines understand the content of the pages and may link to you when someone searches for what you sell or the kind of information you provide. Although some companies spend a lot of money on SEO, there are a number of things you can do yourself to improve the SEO of your site. Among them:
– using a different title for each page on your website
– using phrases people search for in the page title
– including your business name, location and phone number on all pages on your site
Set up a listing for your business in search engine local directories
Google and Bing both offer a free listing for local businesses. To get listed on Google, go to Google My Business To get listed on Bing, go to Bing Places for Business. Yahoo charges for local listings, but you get listed on more than Yahoo if you buy their service. The service, called Yahoo Localworks, costs between $8.25 a month(billed annually) and $41.58 depending on the number of directories you want to be listed in and what additional services you want to purchase. The benefit of paying: You have a single location to enter your data to make it consistent and available on multiple online directories that your customers might search to find what you sell.
Set up your business profile or page on social media sites
Be sure your business profile includes a good description, keywords and a link to your website. Look for groups or conversations that talk about your type of products or services and participate in the conversations, but don’t spam them with constant promos for what you sell. The best sites to use for this are LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Get business cards
Your business card, letterhead and envelope tell prospective customers you are a professional who takes your business seriously. Be sure to list your website address on your business card, letterhead and any handouts you create. Include your main social media profile link, too, if possible.
Hand out business cards
Get your business cards into the hand of anyone who can help you in your search for new clients. Call your friends and relatives and tell them you have started a business. Visit them and leave a small stack of business cards to hand out to their friends. Give several business cards to your customers if you are a service provider. That way, when their friends and neighbors ask them for a recommendation, they have an easy way to pass on your business name and contact info.
Send out emails
Be sure you ask for permission to send email before putting any person’s email name on your list. One good way to build a permission-based email list of people who want your mailings is to give something away. It could be a free ebook, or even a free tip-sheet on how to do something related to your business. If you’re a health coach, for instance, you might offer people who sign up for your free newsletter a tip sheet with “10 Easy Ways To Lose Weight Without Going on a Diet.” If you don’t have anything to give away, try offering a signup discount on products or services as an incentive. An email service makes it easy to manage your list and send professional-looking mailings.
Talk to all the vendors
Give them your business card, and ask if they can use your products or service, or if they know anyone who can. If they have bulletin boards where business cards are displayed (printers often do, and so do some supermarkets, hairdressers, etc.), ask if yours can be added to the board.
Attend meetings of professional groups
Groups such as the Chamber of Commerce, other local business groups, or civic associations. Have business cards in a pocket where they are easily reachable. Don’t forget to ask what the people you speak with do, and to really listen to them. They’ll be flattered by your interest, and better remember you because of it.
Pay for membership in those groups that attract your target customers
If the group has a website and publishes a list members on the site, make sure your name and website link get added. Once it is added double check to be sure your contact information is correct and your website link isn’t broken.
Become actively involved in groups
That will give you more opportunity to meet possible prospects. But remember: opportunists are quickly spotted for what they are, and get little business. While you won’t want to become involved in many organizations that require a lot of your time in, you can –and should– make real contributions to all of them by offering useful ideas and helping with projects when possible.
Post interesting information
The information or photos should be interesting to your audience. Tips on how they can improve their life or business or special offers are likely to get the most likes and shares.
Pay to boost your most popular posts
Target the boosted posts at groups of people who are most like your customers. This can be an inexpensive way of getting your business in front of potential customers in very targeted locations or who have interests that match what you sell.
Look for something unusual about what you do, and publicize it
Send out press releases to local newspapers, radio stations, cable TV stations, and magazines whose audiences are likely to be interested in buying what you sell. Post the press releases on one or more online press release services, too, being sure to include links to your website. To increase your chance of having the material published, send along a photo (but not to radio stations) with your press release. Editors of printed publications are often in need of “art” (drawings or photos) to fill space and break up the gray look of a page of text.
Help reporters find you
Reporters are constantly looking for sources to quote in their stories. One way they find those sources is to use services that distribute their request for sources to publicists, experts, marketers and others who want to be sources. To find out when reporters are looking for information you can provide, sign up for these lists and scan them regularly. One such service is HARO (short for Help a reporter out), and is free. Another service, called PRLeads is fee-based.
Write an article that demonstrates your expertise in your field
Send it to noncompeting newspapers, magazines, and websites in your field that accept submissions from experts. Be sure your name, business name, phone number, and a reference to your product or service is included at the end of the article. If the editor can use the article you get your name in print, and possibly get your contact information printed for free, too.
Publicize your publicity
Whenever you do get publicity, get permission from the publisher to reprint the article containing the publicity. Make photocopies and mail the copies out with sales letters or any other literature you use to market your product or service. The publicity clips lend credibility to the claims you make for your products or services.
Ask for work or leads
Contact friends, acquaintances, former employers (if you left on good terms), nonprofit organizations, schools and colleges, and even other businesses that have customers who may need your services. Let them know you’re in business and ask if they can use your services, or if they can give you the names of people who need what you sell.
Network with others
Network with people who are in the same field as you and let them know you are available to handle their work overloads. (But don’t try to steal their customers. Word will get out, and will ruin your business reputation.)
Offer to be a speaker
Industry conferences, volunteer organizations, libraries, and local business groups often need speakers for meetings. You’ll benefit from the name recognition, contacts and publicity you gain from being a speaker at these events.
Demonstrate
If your product or service is appropriate, give demonstrations of it to whatever groups or individuals might be interested or, teach others how to use some tool you use in your work.
Upload videos
Put videos of your product or service on YouTube and other video-sharing and slide-sharing sites.
Find out what federal, state, and local government programs are in existence to help you get started in business
Most offer free business counseling, and some can put you in touch with government agencies and large corporations that buy from small and woman-owned businesses
Get certified
If you are a woman-owned or minority-owned business look into getting certified by private, state or federal organizations. Many purchasing agents have quotas or guide for the amount of goods and services they need to buy from minority- and woman-owned businesses.
Send out sales letters
Be sure to describe your business in terms of how it can help the prospect. Learn to drop a business card in every letter you send out. Follow up periodically with postcard mailings.
Pimp your ride
If you use a car or truck in your business have your business name and contact information professionally painted on the side of the vehicle. That way your means of transportation becomes a vehicle for advertising your business. If you don’t want the business name painted on the vehicle, consider using magnetic signs.
Get on the telephone and make “cold calls”
These are calls to people who you would like to do business with. Briefly describe what you do and ask for an appointment to talk to them about ways you can help them meet a need or solve a problem.
Samples
Get samples of your product or your work into as many hands as possible.
Free consultations
Offer a free, no obligation consultation to people you think could use your services. During such consultations offer some practical suggestions or ideas–and before you leave ask for an “order” to implement the ideas.
Learn to ask for referrals
A satisfied customer is often glad to refer you to their friends. Help them remember to do so by asking for referrals, and leaving them extra business cards or fliers that they can give to their friends and family who need your services. If someone gives you a lead, follow up on it right away.
Use other people to sell your product or service
Instead of (or in addition to) selling your products yourself, look for affiliates, resellers or people who will generate leads for you in return for a commission on sales. Be sure your pricing structure allows for the fees or commissions you will have to pay on any sales that are made.
Get together with businesses
Get together with businesses who serve the same market but sell different products and services. Make arrangements to cross promote each others’ goods and services by passing leads back and forth, sharing mailings, and making referrals.
Print information
Have sales letters, brochures, flyers and other pertinent information printed and ready to go. Ask prospects who seem reluctant to buy from you: “Would you like me to send information?” Follow up promptly with a note and a letter that says, “Here is the information you asked me to send.”
Run a contest
Make the prize something desirable and related to your business — it could be a free gift basket of your products, for instance, or free services.
Test buying Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising on the search engines
If you are not yet advertising on search engines search for offers that give you $50 or $75 in free advertising to start. Read the directions for the service you plan to use, and very carefully watch what you spend on a daily or more frequent basis until you are comfortable using PPC ads and see you are getting a return on your investment.
With these 37 tips, you are guaranteed to find that at least one or two will work successfully for you. Good luck and don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone to try something new, you never know how well it can work for your business.
If you need any further help with your marketing needs, don’t hesitate to give us a call or visit our website to see exactly how we can help you!