Entrepreneur Resources Your source for small business information
Marketing your business can be a tough job. If you work for days on end planning a marketing campaign and the first day doesn’t bring in any new customers, then it’s easy to feel demoralized because you’ve just wasted a huge amount of time, effort and money on something that ultimately didn’t help your business. Perhaps a few days, weeks or even a month goes by and you’ve only seen a small increase in your business exposure, and the profit you’ve gained is hardly enough to cover the costs of the campaign.
Stop Throwing Money Away
For many startups and small businesses, the name of the game is being frugal. This is because smaller businesses simply don’t have money to invest in expensive solutions and campaigns to get exposure. Instead, they have to rely on budget tactics that are clever and time-sensitive to be able to reach a wide audience.
For starters, small businesses are experts at reading the market and capitalizing on trends. They achieve this mainly by integrating themselves with social media platforms such as Facebook and Linkedin, and they make sure to read feedback, reviews and comments from their audience regarding the industry so they know where and how to improve.
Being resourceful is a huge advantage to any business, even one with global recognition. You don’t always have to throw money at a problem to find a solution—sometimes the best way to deal with something is to think about it. To give you some ideas on how to improve your business’s exposure without spending too much money, here are three budget-oriented marketing solutions that you can employ.
- Mailing Lists
Telemarketing and email marketing can receive mixed results due to spam filters and call blocking. Let’s face it, not everyone enjoys being cold-called by a business advertising services, but you can create promising business sales leads with targeted mailing lists. For example, if you sell a particular product or service, then specialized mailing lists can compile a list of potential business leads that have already expressed interest in similar products to yours.
- Word of Mouth
Word of mouth is a powerful advertising tool that can give you mixed results. It has both the lowest potential and also highest potential of bringing in new customers and clients. This is because the networks that you spread your business on have a major effect on the success rate. For example, if you get involved in freelancing networks and communities, then your outsourcing services might draw the attention of wandering designers and writers who want to work for you. Spreading via word of mouth simply involves getting involved with social media and communities that are related to your business.
- Follow Recent Trends
Regardless of what products you sell, there’s a way to advertise it with modern trends. For example, it’s common for businesses to have a YouTube channel that shows users how to use their products, trailers for upcoming products or introductions to your services. These YouTube videos are important because they can be uploaded and spread on social media, and the majority of internet users remember something better in video or image format rather than text. One way to enhance your video presence is by creating custom graphics for your channel, but be sure to follow YouTube thumbnail size guidelines.
