Marketing your business can seem daunting. That is especially true if you don’t have a big budget for advertising, videos, and fancy direct mail campaigns. However, there are cost-effective ways you can market your business that leads to awesome results.
The one thing to remember about marketing your business is to always be marketing. Talk to the person standing in line and then hand them a business card. Be on the lookout for customers.
For instance, talk about your wedding planning services if you are a wedding coordinator and you hear a store clerk telling another about getting engaged. There are a million ways to sell your business if you get creative.
There are five solid ways to get your marketing started without spending a fortune. All it takes is a little time and effort to get some marketing efforts going. None of it is complicated nor does it require extensive education.
Get Business Cards
Anyone you talk to is going to ask you for a business card. It does you no good to promote your business without a card for the potential customer to follow up. You don’t need to start out with a high-end card. You can get cards through discounted online printing services or with coupon codes at office supply stores.
Collect E-mail Addresses
A key marketing technique is to collect email addresses. This is important for a variety of reasons for future campaigns, giveaways, and newsletters. Collecting e-mail addresses is pretty simple with some changes to your online social media and website accounts.
To get email addresses, you can do an online giveaway. You can also have people register for a free information package from your website that you can send electronically. If you doing an event in person like a seminar or booth, you can give away a free sample in exchange for an email address.
Use Mail Technology
People typically don’t associate mail with high-tech marketing systems, but new companies are merging the two to create an innovative method to personalize contacts with those already showing an interest in your company.
Its called mail retargeting. New software system technology can match the IP addresses of those visiting your website to their physical address. This tech then automatically sends out a pre-written direct mail campaign piece customized for them.
The mailed piece is typically mailed within two days, capitalizing on the new interest from your potential customer in your business.
This tech can be so specific that it takes the information it knows about a customer browsing your site to decide which campaign piece will lead to a sale. This is highly promising because the customer doesn’t need to fill out anything for you to capture their business. It is all done automatically.
Do an Online Video
Live videos and online tutorials became all the rage during the worldwide lockdown. This opened up an entirely new market for you to promote your products or service. You have knowledge of your niche. You should showcase it. Doing videos regularly, whether live or recorded, for social media or your web page will add credibility to your brand.
Use Multiple Online Platforms
Most people who have businesses are online in some way. However, you need more than one social media account to really make a difference in your brand. You don’t need to be on all of it, but four or five social media platforms will help get the word out.
Online media is a great marketing tool because it’s free and you can maintain control of your image. Remember that different platforms suit different needs, so you need to learn how to use each one to make each highly effective.
For instance, Instagram depends a lot on pictures and video while Facebook relies on posts. Twitter is a short-format post while Pinterest is longer and image-oriented. Pick one and learn it and then add another. After about six months, you will start to see some serious results and your online presence becomes almost self-automated.
Once you really absorb the fact that marketing is a promotion that can be done free or cheaply, you will find lots of ways to implement it into your daily business routine. Eventually, marketing will become second nature and your business will boom.