Perhaps you have just started a service business, opened a small shop or café. Or you are an experienced entrepreneur already. Either way, you probably want to reach consumers as soon as possible without going broke on advertising. In this article, we’ll take a look at the top ten marketing strategies (online and offline) to promote your business at no high cost.
1. Define a goal and budget
First of all, you need to formulate a business goal and plan a budget. You have to ask yourself the question: “What do I want?” Make a decision what is crucial for your business now. Do you need to increase your international reach? Or maybe you want to work on brand awareness? Etc.
2. Invest in advertising
For effective promotion, you will have to spend money on search, media and social advertising. Don’t be alarmed. You may have many questions at once: where to start, how much does it cost, how do you know if advertising is working on social networks or Google Ads? Don’t worry, you’ll figure it out quickly.
3. Choose your main social network
Working with social media is not easy. Especially when you are trying to cover all platforms at once. It’s hard to say if this tactic will work at all. It is great to be present on many channels at once, but for a small business it is much more effective to choose only one channel where most of the target audience is registered. For example, if your customers are much more active on Instagram than on Twitter, you should pay as much attention to Instagram as possible.
Advice:
Analyze your current social media presence. Where is engagement higher?
Use special tools. They will help you set up automatic posting.
4. Use email marketing
For small businesses, email marketing is a great opportunity to build brand loyalty. You can send your real and potential customers information about sales, promotions, events, inform them about sales and new products or services that you provide. Remember, consumers are more loyal to those companies that talk about their employees, corporate life, and show an individual approach to everyone.
Advice:
To save money, choose free mailing services.
Many people check their mail from mobile devices, so be sure to check how your message will look on different screens.
5. Blog
Blogging is very helpful in expanding your reach. In this section of your site, you must demonstrate to potential clients and fans that you are an expert in your field.
Advice:
Quality should be more important than quantity, and consistency is essential. Set aside time to publish at least one post per week.
Optimize your content, so people can easily find it in search results.
6. Use keywords
Search engine optimization is completely free, but difficult. You have to wait a long time for the results of your efforts, but in the end they are worth it. The selection of keywords will help you understand what words and phrases are most often used by the target audience, trying to find information related to your product or service. Small businesses find it difficult to compete with larger brands for popular searches.
Advice:
Define a list of relational keywords that can take visitors to your site. Use Google Keyword Planner for this.
7. Share knowledge
What are you doing better than the rest? You can share the instructional video on YouTube or speak at a local conference.
Advice:
Pick a popular topic in your area.
Reuse existing content to create webinars, presentations, e-books.
Think about good quality video production. It is a great way of promotion.
8. Listen to customers
Stay tuned for feedback because the best companies are always improving. After providing a service or selling a product, ask the client to share their impressions. Conduct polls. To get consumers interested, offer a discount for filling out the form. Feedback will help you identify areas for improvement.
9. Participate in contests
Be sure to talk about all your victories and awards. They significantly improve the consumer’s attitude to the brand. Find out what contests and competitions are taking place in your area and take part in them!
10. Optimize your landing pages
If you use advertising or email marketing, you direct users to landing pages where they can become leads or customers. The design of these pages can have a significant impact on conversion rates.
Advice:
Analyze your landing pages and their conversion rates. If they are below 2%, then it is better to revise the design.
Make sure your offer is attractive. Then do A / B testing: experiment with the title, text, long form, size and position of the call-to-action button, its content.
Conclusion
Stand out from the crowd. Be original and uniquely present your brand across all channels. Show everyone how amazing your business is. Take a non-standard position on issues of relevance to your industry. Don’t blindly follow trends, do your own research and use unique tactics.
Jack Kewell is writer, science editor, naturalist, entrepreneur. He is focused on writing and illustrating books. Also, he is a regular contributor on mountaintechblog