Whether you’re just starting out or have been in business for years, promoting your business is an ongoing challenge, especially if it’s a small business. As a startup or small business owner with an even smaller budget, the prospect of marketing your business can be overwhelming. But the thing is, marketing doesn’t have to cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. Great! So, how should you advertise your business and get your brand in front of potential prospects with a low budget?
Below are five working ways to market your small business without spending hundreds or thousands of dollars:
Referrals
Till this time, there’s been proved no strategy more powerful than a referral. When your business is recommended to someone by one of your customers, the new customer expects good service and will be more comfortable in dealing with you because a friend, co-worker, or family had said great things about your business.
Referrals are known as the simplest, most consistent way to market your business. This is a secret that salespeople understand, that referral is very crucial when it comes to growing or marketing their business.
But here is a way to do it better, when someone sends you a referral make sure to thank them. Send an email or a note or even a personal call to express your appreciation for the referral and if you acknowledge the act by presenting them with a gift, it is sure to encourage the referring party to do it again.
Networking
You don’t need a thousand words to let people know what you do. Make sure you can describe your service with the brevity of words. The best thing is to keep it around 25-35 words– simple and clear. A complicated description is damage when it comes to marketing your business. Further, you should arrive early to meetings and stay until late. To do what? To network! Get up and work up to people, introduce yourself and your business (make your business your name) with a spark. Also, do you need to take care of a portable that you should have? Yes! It’s your business card. Give it to them after having a little talk and make sure you ask for theirs. Never go out without your business cards. ever. Don’t forget to follow up. Start the relationship right away while the contact still remembers who you are.
Collaboration
Perhaps you’ve been going through a lot of difficulties and challenges in growing/marketing your business, maybe it is time you open the door for collaboration. In fact, the business world is one of the types in which no one succeeds alone.
All the great businessmen or entrepreneurs today never made it alone. They started with someone/some company or organization and most of them are still even collaborating.
Working collaboratively could contribute significantly to the success of your business, delivering a number of business benefits including cost savings, access to new markets, knowledge transfer, increased sales, increased capacity, and most importantly, improvements in efficiency and effectiveness.
Speaking at Local and National Events
Sharing what you know in a public forum is one of the best ways to market your business, expand your network, and attract new customers. The best way to do this is to get in touch with organizations that cater to your target audience. Prepare and send them marketing materials that prove your credibility. Be clear on the benefits you are going to provide during your speech. Find a way to incorporate your business into your speech. Make sure you provide a sign-up sheet for audience members to register for your free newsletter. The most effective way is that if a slideshow is part of your presentation, end by displaying contact information about your business. Be smart to leave it on while you answer questions.
Online Marketing
Having a blog offers one of the best and most cost-effective means for reaching out to people.
The more value your audience finds in the information you share on the blog, the bigger the number of audiences you end up attracting to read it. Uploading a video tutorial teaching something that you would normally have people pay you for, helps you to gain loyal fans and followers that would be willing to pay you for your expertise.
You can also attract the right customers to your website who will hopefully sign up to your email list by building compelling content like infographics and other helpful content that will make your target customer live a better and happier life.
