For any small business to be successful, a perfect storm has to form, among which includes the very important aspect of promoting one’s business.
In the event your small business is struggling for reasons other than a bad economy, how much time and effort are you putting into promoting your business? If the answer is not much, therein lays one of your biggest problems.
Promoting your small business takes on added importance in times like these when the economy is struggling, and when consumers are more reluctant to spend money. If your small business is putting more promotions in place for your customers, you stand a much better chance of weathering this financial storm.
Among the ways to go about that are:
- Deals and discounts – What individual does not like a deal, especially in today’s economic climate? While you cannot give away the business for free, make sure you are taking care of customers by offering them specials from time to time, giving them more incentive to want to do business with you;
- Do free promotions – It is wise to provide customers and potential customers with free giveaways that promote your company. Among the things can be hats, T-shirts, pens, paper supplies, etc. Your company name gets out there, giving you free advertising in essence;
- Take part in community events – When you have the opportunity to advertise your business at local community functions, do it. This is a great way to meet community members and advertise your business for free;
- Promote your business within – Be sure to have your employees, family and friends help advertise your business with T-shirts, hats, bumper stickers etc. This is a great means by which to get the company name around. If you have a Web site, make sure that gets advertised too;
While it does cost money to make T-shirts, hats, bumper stickers, etc. keep in mind that you are looking at the long-term goals involved.
The money spent now to promote your company through such advertising and by offering customers deals and incentives can come back to reward your business in ways you could never imagine.
Photo credit: flcreative.com
We have found connecting with folks through social media and blogs has been really successful for us. While we do have to make time to do it, it has driven a lot of traffic to our website and led to new contractors as regular customers. Mashable.com has great guides to Facebook, Twitter, etc. for those just getting started.
I like to say that these all are nice way to promote our small business in a short time!! Take part in community events and
through blogs the advertising is nice way to improve our business and establish our business!!!
Nice article. There are a lot of different ways to advertise a small business without spending a huge amount of money. Writing an article for a newspaper or magazine is very much help for your business.
While it may cost thousands to get a half-page ad in a newspaper, you can often times secure an entire page by writing a good article. The trick to getting published is to make sure the article is of value to your customers, and not just an advertisement for your business.
nice view on small business promotions but the strategy what you have posted cannot be applied on every business.
A huge part of promoting a small today is social media. Being connected to customers and friends on FaceBook, LinkedIn and other service like Twitter is a must.
Constant reaffirmation of what you do in the eyes of current customers and friends will more than likely earn you referrals. You would be surprised at the fact that most people won’t refer you in fear of being let down. However, if you are constantly adding success stories to your social media feeds people will get a sense of what you are good at and will have no fear recommending you.
It is my experience that apparel like hats and small gifts like pens with company logos on does create awareness in public for the said company.
As a small business owner I find it very difficult to compete against the major brands. Thank you very much for the tips. I will give them a try.
I agree 100%, advertising nowadays is so important.
My company was in the comfort zone before this crisis and we were not paying attention to the marketing, but now this is our first goal.
The problem with advertising is finding the right company and budget.
It should be interesting if you can do an article recommending a trusty SEO company and if possible one that get pay by results.
Thanks.
Promotional items are good for getting your name in front of people but in the end great customer service is what keeps your customers happy and satisfied. Success can be measured by customer loyalty.
Although promotions are very important in any marketing strategy, it is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to getting your brand to go viral over the social web. Careful research and analysis of your selected market can lead you to the specific demographics and social media outlets that you should be focusing your efforts on. A strong, targeted social media campaign, a highly-optimized Website and the right analytical tools go hand-in-hand when building a flawless marketing strategy. These analytical tools are used only by a select few marketing firms out there, but in the long run utilizing these tools will expedite your brand’s success faster than anything else.