All too often small businesses slash marketing budgets when funds get tight. However, finding and attracting the right customers is fundamental to business growth. Marketing your small business doesn’t have to be difficult but it certainly takes some planning. As we approach the third quarter of the year, I’m going to share 4 ways to kickstart your small business marketing efforts and build revenues:
Put Together A Calendar: Let’s start with the low hanging fruit. There are natural events that happen all year that give your company an opportunity to shine. Print out a 2014-2015 calendar and mark down all the dates that would be relevant for your business to share information that will bring customers in. If you own an independent book store, you can run promotions for Martin Luther King’s Birthday, books about love for Valentine’s Day or Goal Setting Books for the beginning of a new year. Holidays are markers for specific times that people are looking for information on related topics. Take advantage of it.
Develop a New Partnership: One of the fastest ways to find new customers is by partnering with people that already have access to the kinds of clients you’re looking for. It’s the equivalent of getting a direct recommendation. Your potential partners are referring you to their customers, paving the way for the clients to know, like and trust you much faster than finding the client on your own. If you own a pet supply store, partner with doggie day cares and veterinarians that specialize in dogs. People really love and care about their animals and with a trusted referral they will leap at the opportunity to do business with you.
Make Sure Your Customers Can Contact You: In today’s noisy world, people are hearing marketing messages at an overwhelming rate. A person living in a city 30 years ago saw up to 2,000 ad messages a day, compared with up to 5,000 today. Knowing that it’s a challenge to stand out, it’s helpful to make it easy for potential customers to contact you. Here are a few simple tactics, but you would be surprised how many small businesses don’t do these. First, put your business phone number and email address in easy to find locations. That includes your email signature, website, social media pages and on your business card. Create a call to action. If you have a business that does staging for people selling their homes, offer a free report or e-book with tips for home staging that customers can receive when go to your website or email you.
Get Social: Online social networks have emerged has the new way in which people connect on a daily basis. Social networking services make it possible to connect people who share interests and activities across geographic borders. That’s why your business needs to have a presence there on social media sites and the web. You can look for opportunities to boost your social media game. Use Twitter Search to find popular topics or hashtags that people are engaged in. Find a dedicated team member to manage your networks or run a contest to build your email list and add friends and followers.
Keep in mind that you can use a combination of these methods to kickstart your marketing. It doesn’t matter which you start with first but it does matter that you get started.
“Business Plan” courtesy of patrisyu / www.freedigitalphotos.net
What do you plan to do to kickstart your marketing efforts now?
You posted some great content on this post, and hit some very key points. I am just starting up a blog that i hope to be able to make money from some day so i’m always interested in what people have to say about marketing.
I think that the “Get Social” part is really important. I’m finding that making connections with people is really helpful and also helping other people out not only helps to make you feel better but helps yourself as well.
Great read Melinda. Agree most with getting social. These days most people are on the internet for business and leisure so it is the best way to be found. Not only will you be able to get leads there but a network as well.