Did you know that there are literally tens of thousands of businesses out there? This means that if you are trying to launch a business, you will need to find a way to make your business more noticeable. One of the ways to do this is to market your business. Many potential and existing business owners know this, but they are staying away from marketing because they believe that this activity is expensive. The good thing is that they are wrong and that marketing can be inexpensive and effective.
As a matter of fact, there are many different methods of marketing and tactics that you can use in order to stand out from the crowd without affecting your budget. We are talking about low cost, highly effective marketing. Keep reading this guide if you want to find out more about this type of business marketing.
Stay connected
First and foremost, the basic objective is to ensure that your business message and your business in general stay in the minds of your potential customers. Let’s say that you are selling pet food. The main goal here is to make the customers think of your business whenever they need pet food. With a successful marketing campaign, they might think of the business you are running even when they have already chosen a pet food brand.
Social media marketing
Gone are the days when social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter were used just for small talks. Today, they have become great marketing tools for the businesses of all sizes regardless of the industries where they belong.
But, being present on these networks is not enough. On the other hand, spamming your followers and fans can result in a counter effect. That’s why you must build a solid social media marketing strategy. Don’t forget that a strategy like this includes free and paid activities. For instance, you have to be active on your page/account at 2-3 times a day by sharing new statuses. You should also respond to all your followers and fans. Furthermore, you can create a PPC (pay-per-click) campaign to attract more fans/followers on your website.
One of the simplest ways to stay connected is to find a good reason to get in touch with them. Luckily, there’s more than one reason for that. For instance, you can contact them (via email, regular mail, phone, etc.) in order to provide information about your new products or to reveal a special offer. Furthermore, there are many businesses that are contacting their customers just to say “thank you”. Whenever there’s something new in your company, you can inform your customers about that. Focus on the things that can make you say “we are here” to your customers.
Writing blog posts and articles
The truth is that modern customers are fond of businesses that are managed by experts in their area. It’s always better to buy pet food from a business that owns a pet and has experience with different pet foods, right?
Take some time and find the subjects that you find interesting and subjects that you have knowledge about. Of course, these articles and blog posts must be interesting to your readers. They have to provide useful information and even resolve some of their issues and dilemmas. You can share these articles on your website’s blog section or on another site as a guest blogger. This is a good way to established professional relationships with other businesses in your sector.
Referral marketing
Even in the 21st century, referrals are still very powerful tools that can help small businesses boost sales and profit. If you analyze popular business websites, you will see that many of them have “refer a friend” programs which promise incentives. But, this is not the only way to attract new visitors. You can simply ask your customers to share your business site with their friends and family. Obviously, you will have to work hard to deserve their respect in order to make them do this.
Public appearances
Nowadays, business activities are shifting to the World Wide Web, but this doesn’t mean that conventional ways of doing business and marketing will be gone in the near future. Trade fairs and exhibitions are still very popular and that’s why you have to consider public appearances and speeches on such events. This is one of the most effective ways to market and promote your business.
Giveaways
Don’t underestimate the power of free stuff! The fact is that we all like free stuff and even if we are not really sure whether we should get them, most of us will still use this opportunity. So, providing giveaways to your potential customers is always a smart move. These giveaways can come in different forms like t-shirts, caps, or eBooks. Unleash your imagination and use the option you find most interesting. Of course, you should create a budget for this purpose before you start realizing this plan.
Email marketing
At the end of this guide, we will mention a type of business marketing that many people believe is ineffective today. Well, they are wrong. Email marketing is alive and kicking. Surely, many people are using social media, but most of them are checking their emails at least once a day too.
What makes email marketing really great is that you have a chance to send your business message to tens of thousands of people with a click of a button. In order to create an effective email marketing campaign, you should send emails to users that are genuinely interested in your products. Otherwise, your messages can be marked as spam and you will witness negative effects.
Try to add an email subscriptions list on your website to get the contacts from your visitors. In addition, ask your social media followers to subscribe too. Take some time to build attractive newsletters and try to personalize your emails.
We hope that this guide will help you market and promote your business.