When the budget is tight, marketing is usually the first thing to go. Although traditional marketing methods are hard to measure and costly, small businesses have never had better success to track-able and cost-effective marketing. Social media and email marketing are just the beginning; here are some marketing strategies that will help you to advertise your small business on a tight budget:
Create an elevator pitch
You have to market all the time if you want your business to be successful. For this reason, you need to create an elevator pitch. Because the average adult has an attention span of about eight seconds, you need to devise a clever way to grab attention in that time.
If you can successfully engage the user, then you have about a minute to sell him/her on the product. You need to invest your time in creating a great elevator pitch. Once you do this, your ROI will pay big dividends by creating business opportunities.
Leverage your community
You do not need to think too much when coming up with marketing strategies. You only need to consider what is going on locally within your community. You should then consider sponsoring a 5K charity walk or Little League team to get recognition.
Get to understand your customers and think about how they spend their time. Once you do that, search for opportunities to present to your customer along with your marketing message.
Post amazing content on your business website
Ensure that you regularly post content that satisfies the needs and interests of your audience on your website. It is where you direct visitors, nurture relationships and capture leads. If you don’t have a website for your business, consider hiring a web design and SEO firm that offer cheap services such as BrownBoxBranding, out of Dallas to create a good website for you.
Collaborate
You could put together a group of non-competitive and synergistic companies within your area and decide to cross-promote; you can use fliers, site links, and coupons. When you collaborate with each other, you will be expanding your customer base by reaching new people.
Network
There is no better way of building your business than by going out there and getting to know people. Networking requires a time commitment and does not gratify you instantly. However, a strong network is the greatest asset that you can have.
Give speeches
Although most people hate public speaking, many organizations are looking for experts on specific subject matters to present to some groups. Instead of fearing public speaking, you should volunteer for such things to market your business. As long as the information that you share is useful to the audience, you do not have to be a professional.
The best part about giving speeches is that the more you do it, the better you will get. Moreover, you will be considered an authority in your field.
Ask for referrals
Do not be shy when it comes to asking for customer referrals. Most people are usually willing to give referrals when asked but rarely will they take the initiative. A referral makes it that much easier for you to get new customers in the door.
Therefore, if you are not asking for referrals, you are missing a lot.
Build relationships
Keeping an existing customer is a lot easier than getting a new one. That is why you need to establish a strong relationship with your current customer base. You can do that by keeping in touch with them through email marketing.
When customers visit your actual or online store, you should ask them for their email addresses. Once you do this, make sure that you send helpful and informative emails to make them looking forward to your next one.
