Ask anyone who’s anyone, and they’ll tell you that you can’t expect a small firm to be a success unless considerable effort is made to promote it. However, it’s unlikely that you will have too much money spare for this as a business owner – according to The Mirror, the average local business can only typically spend 1,630 a year on advertising.
So, what do you do instead? You certainly don’t give up – so here are just some of the best ways to get more of the right people to become aware of your business, without leaving you out of business.
Refuse to spend anything at all
Fair enough, so this might not be a sustainable approach to your company’s entire advertising – but if you take a starting point of “What can I do for nothing?”, a lot of great ideas might start popping up in your head.
Consider your car or van, for example. You travel to work in it every day – it’s basically a mobile billboard that you’re wasting by leaving it blank. So rustle up an attractive logo and colours for your business, then have some vinyl signage created and applied to your vehicle to cultivate the interests of passers-by, whenever you’re driving it or have it parked somewhere.
Keep your blog regularly updated
At the very least, any business with any kind of online presence should seriously consider having a blog – and not only that, but posting something on that blog regularly. Search engine spiders are crawling around all of the time, and Google loves to see that a website is regularly updated, as blogging several times a week or month can help you to achieve.
Make sure you write about topics that are genuinely interesting to your audience, rather than merely ‘salesy’ stuff that just talks about your company’s products and services. Remember that there needs to be something in it for the casual reader if they are to keep on reading, so you might want to blog about your company’s take on the latest developments in your industry, or address a potentially controversial topic (just be careful with that latter one) to keep people intrigued.
Become a video star
You might have read about people who have become ‘YouTube stars’ and imagined that it’s only something that makes much impact if you’re controversial in some way. However, this doesn’t have to be the case – what’s really important, instead, is to be relevant with what you produce.
Maybe if your small business is a salon, you could share instructional videos on great ways for your customers to beautify themselves at home, when they aren’t able to get to your premises? Or perhaps you run a yoga studio and could record videos dedicated to various poses for beginner, intermediate and advanced yogis alike?
Get your business on an ecommerce marketplace
You can’t do all of the promotion of your business on your own – and nor do you have to, for as long as eCommerce marketplaces like Groupon exist. Such sites are where so many firms like yours can be found, offering deals and discounts to tempt customers and spread the word about what makes their brand great. You can entice more people in if you offer global sales, making your products go far and wide bringing in more revenue as well as awareness. To make sure that this is done smoothly, global payment software from companies like FastSpring can be implemented so that those who are buying online can do so safely and with multiple forms of payment.
The aforementioned Groupon is a classic example of such an eCommerce marketplace, offering a wealth of local business advertising solutions that can be tailored to the requirements of companies in specific sectors – whether they are gyms, spas, coffee shops, restaurants, hotels or something different altogether.
Another excellent idea to promote your business is to give reward gifts such as branded wristbands – this way you are raising awareness for your brand and also giving something back to your customer.
What are the best, but also cheap ways to promote a business that you have discovered in your own life as an entrepreneur? Whatever they are, combine them with the above tips for the very best results.