Tips On How To Do Small Business Marketing Affordably

Any marketing campaign can take its toll on your business’ resources, but your business still needs you to advertise and spread the word. Small business marketing is essential to grow.  You can’t afford to be complacent – you know your competitors aren’t.  This is when you as an entrepreneur should start thinking outside the box.

Do Your Homework Before Attracting New Customers

Start by talking to your existing clients. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on a campaign to attract new people, you can start by acting on the wealth of opportunities that are available with your existing customers. Your first goal is to assess the perception of those who have already tried your product or service. To do that, pick a handful of your clients and interview them (or send them a survey). You can even get a third party to do it, that way the clients might be more open if they’re not afraid of hurting your feelings.

Now, once you have a willing person to sit through the interview, the next step is to ask important questions and keep the interview brief. You do not want to bore or annoy your existing customers.

The questions should be something along the lines of 1) what challenges were you trying to resolve when you chose our product? b) how essential were our company’s products in solving your problem c) after trying the product what other product or service do you wish we sold with the existing one(s)?

Next, after you have gathered all of the interviews, you can use this data to look for trends and themes. Don’t forget to send a thank you note to every client who participated; not only will they feel appreciated but you can use this as another opportunity to increase your brand recognition. The important part is that you look into what you have. Learn from the data at hand and apply it to your business.

Use Your Imagination

Marketing campaigns do not have to be expensive graphic explosions; you can design one to fit your budget easily. It can be as small as a postcard. Try to come up with something different and do not hesitate to check out what your competitors are up to.  It can also be helpful to look into how companies in other industries do things.  You might come up with some brand new ideas.

It Is Not As Expensive As You Think

Publicity might seem pricey, but these days there are more and more PR firm that are available for a very low fee and thanks to the internet price shopping is easy. These firms are specialized in devising something, no matter how small, that will definitely catch the public’s interest.

Start with email marketing. It’s flexible, cost effective, easy to measure and is very effective. It helps drive traffic to your website and to reach a larger audience. In fact email marketing allows you to not only market your service but also help you establish your brand.  It is an effective form of communication; you can even announce product launches with it.

The options are endless, but you need to do your homework, think things through and develop a proper message that will look effective and appropriate and is also in line with your marketing goals.

In a later blog post we will look into how social media can be used as a further marketing tool.