A lot of entrepreneurs get discouraged because they don’t have massive marketing budgets and they assume that there aren’t effective ways to promote their business without deep pockets. This is far from the truth.
Here are a few ways you can market your business without breaking the bank.
1. Build an active and loyal social media following
Social media platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter give you direct access to millions of potential customers, located all over the world. You’re not going to attract followers by just being average. There are far too many options out there. You will need to put out interesting and unique content in order to build a large following.
As you work on your social audience, you will create a valuable asset that allows you to market over and over, without it costing you an arm and a leg. Make sure you don’t overwhelm your social audience with constant promotional offers. If someone follows your business on social media, he or she is obviously interested in what you offer. You don’t need to flood their timeline with direct advertisements; as this will turn them off and cause them to disconnect with your brand on social media. Instead, subtle and clever posts will naturally spark interest in your brand.
2. Develop referral partnerships or collaborate with businesses that share your audience
This is a very easy way to place your brand in front of a strategically-targeted audience and quickly build a customer base and generate revenue, which in turn will give you more working capital to scale.
You will have to identify potential referral opportunities that will complement the product or service of the partner. For example, are you an ice-making factory? Partner with a mobile bar owner or an events planning agency and you could offer them a flat fee for any referrals made to you.
It’s important to set up a deal with two things in mind — longevity and keeping the referral partner happy, so he or she continues to funnel business your way. While this strategy may eat up a portion of your profits, think of it as an advertising expense. Only, it’s at a lesser cost. Also, you’re receiving direct benefits as opposed to advertising to a large audience and never really being able to measure the success of the advertisement.
3. Constantly engage with your current customers.
Who are the best customers? Repeat customers.
You should have an email list of all your customers, and make it a priority to constantly touch base with all of them often. Rather than send direct-sales offers, send interesting information related to your industry. E-mail marketing comes in very handy here. Some useful tools include Netcore and Mailchimp, which send out bulk e-newsletters to your audience. Make the content interesting by having personalized subject titles and images within the email.
This kind of marketing keeps your brand fresh in the minds of your customers. That way, the next time they’re in the market for what you offer, you’ll be the first company they think of.
4. Get out on the streets
Too many new entrepreneurs think that you can come up with a business, slap together a website, sit back and wait for the money to roll in. There are many success stories about how startups grow into multi-million dollar businesses, and while there are plenty of examples, the media never talks about the early-day hustle and bustle it took to get them to this point. It wasn’t always prim, proper in fancy looking office spaces – but they don’t tell you that!
Successful businesses gain the traction that eventually equals success because of their founder’s hustle. They eat, sleep and breathe their business. You can’t be afraid to dive in and do the groundwork yourself. So, get on the phones all day and night to generate sales. Hit the street, and go talk to every potential customer you can think of.
Photo Credit: Dreamstime
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