Small Business Marketing Ideas That Won’t Break Your Bank.
Getting exposure is one of the hardest things for any brick and mortar business as well as online businesses. Advertising can cost a lot of money and many small businesses simply can’t afford a TV ad on national TV or a bunch of billboards all over the city.
Here are some marketing ideas that will bring you a lot of new customers and will help you build your brand without breaking your bank.
Start a Blog
Many online businesses already have some sort of a blog. However many offline businesses neglect this marketing strategy. Starting a blog is very easy in our time and age and you can create a blog completely free and within seconds.
Once your blog is up and running you should update it with good content. The best blogging strategy is creating helpful content for your niche market instead of creating sales content. Find out what your clients want to know and answer these questions in your blog posts.
Start Social Media Marketing
You must be present on social networks if you want your business to get lots of exposure for free. Make sure to list your business in Google Local, create a Google+ page, create a LinkedIn page, Twitter account and a Facebook page for your business.
Simply creating these accounts is great but you must update them whenever you get the chance. If you can afford it, hire a social media manager who will help you out.
Advertise on Social Networks
If you’ve got some money to spare, you should buy ads on social networks. LinkedIn and Facebook offer great advertising platforms where you can target your perfect prospect and only pay pennies for clicks. PPC through Google could also work well however it’s usually a lot more expensive.
Build an Emailing List
Many successful marketers will tell you that “Money is In The List”. An emailing list works great for converting your potential customers into paying customers. It also helps you bringing back your old customers. If someone already bought from you and liked the product, they will most likely buy again.
You won’t spend your valuable time by e-mailing your customers one by one. You can’t batch e-mail them either because most spam filters will block your e-mails is you are trying to e-mail 10 people or more at a time. Aweber is the perfect solution for this. This platform allows you to collect, track and contact your e-mail subscribers with easy and at a very low cost.
Ask for Referrals.
Ever wondered why most online shops always ask you to “Share With Friends”? It’s because this strategy works. If you found a good product online at a very good price, you would probably tell your friends about it.
The same applies to offline businesses as well. If your customer liked your product or service – ask them for a referral. It’s as simple as that.
Attend Networking Events
Networking is still very much alive. You can find groups of people in your business industry that meet in your city to exchange ideas and to network. If you are an online entrepreneur, you can join these events as well and offer your online marketing expertise.
MeetUp is a great resource to find local events.
Fix Your Brand
Did you know that Google and many other big companies are constantly changing their logos? Sometimes the changes are so subtle – they are hardly noticeable. Big brands understand that a good logo is very important; you must understand this as well.
If your logo was created by your nephew in 1996 – it might be a good time to re-brand. You are in luck because you can get a logo designed for you for less $5-$10! Check out Fiverr for this.
Have anything to add? Comment below!
– Alex
