Many of you would like to see your business improve, and you can, with the help of some good advertising. But, when the business is small and the marketing budget is only so big, you have to make sure your advertisements are cost-effective and get big results. Check out the following strategies for successful marketing.
  1. Own up to the fact that you are a small business. Big businesses and small businesses work very differently in the marketing department. While a big business is looking to get their name out there and make sales at some point in the future, your advertisements need to produce results, now. Try including a special offer in each advertisement to entice those sitting on the fence. Make it easy for them to contact you, and easy for them to purchase from you.
  2. Make your product adaptable. You should have a standard way of doing things, a budget version, and a premium version. By having a budget version, which is basically a stripped down, basic variation of your standard servicing, you will be able to draw in customers who are still undecided due to the price. A cheaper model might just be what they are looking for, and eventually convert them into regular customers. A premium product, on the other hand, appeals to completely different crowd. You might offer package deals that include a number of your products, or use higher quality materials to come up with your premium package.
  3. Cut down your ads. Smaller ads cost less money to produce, so you can get more for the same amount of money it would cost you to have one larger advertisement. Smaller ads can be effective, because they are attention grabbing, if they are short and to the point.
  4. Be creative! Use email newsletters, postcards, flyers, anything you can think of to talk about your business. You might be surprised at the response that your unconventional ads will have!
  5. Use the power of your current customers. They know you. They trust you. More than likely they will be able to point some more business in your direction, and will do so happily, if the interchange is mutually beneficial. Offer special deals for any referrals they provide. You may even think of creating a “Preferred Client’s Club” that offers them discounts on certain products and other insider information.
  6. Do things that are withing your reach that can help. You may be a small business, and have a small reach. What about your online presence? There is an entire subset of people who google things first and foremost. Will you show up in there searches? How legitimate do you appear when researched online? The answers to these questions are very important to determining if someone will trust you, or even find you, if they were to look for you online. There are many things that you can do regardless of your small business limitations, like hiring a Wikipedia page service. If people that like to google things look for your online marketing presence it is important that they find what your company does and what you can do to help them, and that this happens quickly and comfortably to them.
  7. Make friends! Networking with other small businesses that are not in your industry. Go the quid pro quo route – they mention your services around, and you mention theirs. Such an interchange can do wonders for business and is extremely cost effective.
Putting into practice these quick and easy publicity tricks will help you find customers and generate sells in a way that won’t break your marketing budget. SIGNhWarehouse.com