Marketing On A Dime

Every business owner is looking for ways to increase exposure without breaking the bank. This is often hard to find, since many of the less expensive avenues perform poorly or may not be completely ethical.

What goes up must come down.

As we dig deep into our businesses and daily tasks, we can easily become too industry focused and less consumer oriented. Meaning we begin to start using verbiage that only people in our industry would actually understand. Our consumer begins to struggle to understand and then ultimately starts losing attention. Take time to reinvent that elevator pitch, making it modern and clear.

Leverage your community.

A community is a great extended resource with untapped potential to market and gain awareness. Sponsor a local team, get out and do charity events, help the smaller guy even if it hurts. These little things will help your corporate image, provide education to your consumers and allow for natural networking to take place. 

All for one and one for all.

Harnessing the power of many is a lot easier than being the one-man band. Find synergistic non-competitive companies with whom you can team up to do cross promotions. Using flyers, social media, link exchanges, contests and other incentives. You will be reaching new consumers with the trusted referral of your collaborating company.

Investigative networking. 

I am usually not a fan of networking in general. Most networking events seem to be very cliquish and people tend to stay within their circle of acquaintances. However, if you do your research ahead of time and come prepared to fire, you will have great success. Use social media, and other resources to find out what people are up to. Take note of the new car Jim just purchased or remember the photo of the new deck Sue just added to her house. Then use these to open the doors for communication. You may not be able to pencil them in for a meeting yet, but after a few events it will start to pay off.

Create your own buzz. 

Don’t wait for the media outlets to contact you. Start building relationships with media personnel. Keep in communication with them and comment on articles they have wrote. Every so often send them a note of new things happening in your company. New staff hired, new contracts awarded, new expansions or additions, or new products or services. 

Be the expert. 

If you position yourself as being the expert in your field then make sure you are hammering that point home. Many organizations are looking for speakers on a variety of different topics. You don’t have to be an amazing speaker you just need to know your stuff. Contact your local groups, like Chambers and business clubs, to see if you could offer a presentation.

Give it up. 

We are more likely to stay with a service if we can experience it first.  The key to keeping that customer during the trial is all about the communication. Don’t be afraid to offer a free trial while offering the best communication around. You will find they will usually end up staying with you, and this open line of communication will pave the way for other services.