Small businesses are notoriously behind the curve when it comes to extra cash flow that can be devoted to marketing efforts. And yet, you have to spend money to make money, even if you don’t happen to be a mega corporation (especially if you’re not a well-known brand, in fact). If nobody knows you exist you’re not going to get far in business, so spreading your name, growing your brand, and convincing consumers that you’re better than the competition is a must if you want your small business to survive and flourish. Unfortunately, you can’t squeeze blood from a stone, so you’re likely looking for marketing strategies that won’t break the bank. Here are just a few affordable approaches to increasing your presence, raising your brand recognition, and hopefully seeing more sales as a result.
- Cross promotion. One of the best ways to promote is to get someone else to do it for you, and if you have a solid network of industry contacts you can make it happen through cross promotion. The concept is pretty simple. All you really have to do is affiliate yourself with a company that you are comfortable promoting and then the two of you trade advertising (by placing each other’s banner ads on your respective webs sites, for example) or find a way to collaborate on promotions that benefit you both. And if you’re looking for ways to attract suitable companies for such purposes, think about joining industry forums or networking sites like LinkedIn as a way to get the ball rolling.
- Integration. An integrated marketing strategy for your offline and online advertising is not only a smart move on the branding front, but it can also save you money. For example, print ads in paper publications can use the same content as online advertising. Or if you want to shell out a few bucks to air commercials on local television, you might also put them on your YouTube channel. This strategy will increase your exposure and help you to reach a wider variety of consumers without doubling your marketing spend.
- Social media. You really can’t compete these days without a social media presence, and the good news is that you can enter this arena for free. You’ll want to start by creating professional profiles on the sites that are the biggest (Facebook, Twitter, perhaps Foursquare if you happen to have a real-world location) as well as those that are trending (Instagram, Pinterest, etc.). The trick is not to bite off more than you can chew. Making social media work for you requires that you participate, engage with followers, and keep your feeds creative and compelling. So you’ll have to devote some time and effort to social media if you don’t want to pay someone else to do it.
- On-site blog. If you can post new pages to your blog and you have decent space allowances from your web host, it should cost you nothing to add this feature to your website. The upside from a marketing standpoint is that you can attract a new audience and gain opportunities for recognition from search engines, potentially raising your page rank through SEO efforts.
Community outreach. If you operate a brick-and-mortar location it’s in your best interest to focus some of your marketing efforts within the community. And while you could certainly use Radaris.com or similar sites to target consumer demographics in your area, you might instead consider donating your time to volunteer efforts, participating in community events, or otherwise making your name known to local residents. This is a great way to bring in business from the community that supports you.