You had a sparkling idea, you went for it, and now you’ve a very business of your own. Now, what? The next step is the marketing phase!
If you’re running a small business and don’t have a hefty budget to expend on premium marketing, you shouldn’t dread. Who cares whether you’ve a horde of cash or not for promoting your startup. After all, it’s 21st century and with it comes the many proven ways you can build a well-known presence both offline and online.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at those techniques:
1. Create a Blog on your site
Needless to say, having a business website is more essential than having a brick and mortar company. However, don’t just stop there. Take your website to the next level by creating a blog. Blogging – related to the topics in your niche – allows you to expand your online presence. When you publish content that has an authoritative tone, people tend to given attention to it. When you attract attention, you bring readership and ultimately potential audience to your business.
2. Go get LinkedIn
LinkedIn isn’t just another online network, but a primary hub for professionals around the globe. Build your LinkedIn profile, join groups and communities. You can also share content or blog posts on LinkedIn to draw not only potential audience there but also the eyes of angel investors…who knows you might also find a well-wisher!
3. Run a Referral Program
One of the best and sometimes free marketing strategies is the “word-of-mouth-publicity”. As the name says it all, it lets your customers do the marketing for you, while you sit back and enjoy easy leads. How would you do that? Offer your customers free giveaways, compensation or any other reward that would tempt them to refer your service to people in their circles.
4. Conduct a Survey
Yes, surveys can be a great source for making your presence known, and with that it has another great advantage which is its primary benefit. The main aim of surveys is to understand your market first hand, i.e., you get to know their buying behavior, demographics, purchase power, etc. By offering them a questionnaire and then rewarding them with a compensation or gift for completing the survey can help you exude the feeling that you care for your customers and you strive to make your services better for them.
5. Go all out with Podcasting
Just like blogging, there’s podcasting which is voice + blogging. Instead of text-based content, you offer an audio content to your target audience. However, podcasting only works well and I mean really well, when you turn your sales-pitching into storytelling. Yes, people love listening to stories more than hearing all day long that there’s a company that wants to sell something with blah blah features. So, add a story to your podcasting and publish it to your blog or to podcasting platforms.
6. Go Social
Social networking…yes, the ever growing and booming industry! Perhaps the best and amazingly cheaper yet highly effective way to bring a big bang boost to your blog is through social networking. With heavily-engaged social channels like Facebook, Pinterest, G+, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Snapchat and many other, propelling your presence to new heights isn’t difficult anymore. Just share meaningful and engaging content and share them to all your profiles. You can make it more effective by linking all the channels.
7. Car Vinyl are also great
Though it may not be as cheaper as other methods provided here so far, brand vinyl is still an affordable and effective marketing technique. Big brands use branded vinyl not only on the whole cars or buses but also whole buildings as well. However, at the initial stages you don’t need to go all out with full-body vinyl just start with a window decal of your brand on your and employees’ car.
8. Offer tempting discounts
Do you know what appeals customers the most? It is Discounts! Yes, with hefty discount deals you can even turn a passerby into buyer. Customers are always on the lookout for holiday sales, seasonal deals, discount coupons and vouchers so they may get their favorite product at a lower price than usual. So, add this amazing technique to your low-budget marketing ways list as well.
9. Email Marketing is the way to go
Email marketing comes with 2 great benefits. Firstly, it allows you to bring more new readers or potential leads to your business and secondly it also lets you keep a good relationship with your past or current customers. So, set up a newsletter or a subscription form on your site and offer them free tips, guidance or information via newsletters.
10. Host a charity event
You don’t need to go big right from the start, even a local-level charity would do fine. Charity events allow you to attract more eyes toward your brand or company by showing them that care of others and you are not afraid to raise your voice for a just cause.