Marketing can be difficult when you don’t have a large budget, but there are many things a small business owner can do to attract and retain customers. Because of the rise of digital marketing, it is now easier for small business owners to establish a presence and attract informed buyers.
Before your company begins marketing a product, it is a good idea to create a buyer persona that you want to reach with your promotional materials. Once you’ve identified your ideal customer, you’ll have a plethora of marketing options at your disposal. The majority of these are low-cost or no-cost strategies (sometimes called guerrilla marketing). You can use different ones at different stages of your business cycle, or you can use them all at once from the start.
Flyers
This is the carpet-bombing technique for low-cost advertising. You locate a location where you want to do business and distribute flyers to all mailboxes within reach. Your flyer should be brief and to the point, emphasizing the services or products you offer and providing contact information. It never hurts to offer a free appraisal, coupon, or discount.
Posters
The majority of supermarkets, public places, and shopping malls provide free bulletin board space for announcements and advertisements. This method is hit-or-miss, but try to make your poster visible and have removable tabs that customers can present for a discount. Make each location a different color to get an idea of where the most leads are being generated from the tabs. If one area generates the majority of your leads, you can better target your campaign (flyers, ads in local media targeting those areas, cold calling, and so on).
Additions to Value
Value additions (also known as value-ads) are effective selling points for any product or service. Value additions appear to be similar to coupons and free appraisals on the surface, but they aim to increase customer satisfaction and widen the gap between you and the competition.
Guarantees, discounts for repeat customers, point cards, and referral rewards are all common value additions. The point card or preferred customer card is the deciding factor for a customer choosing between two similar shops. To add value, you don’t have to promise the moon.
Networks of Referrals
Referral networks are extremely valuable to a business, and they frequently include customer referrals, which are often encouraged through discounts or other rewards per referral. Referral networks, on the other hand, include business-to-business referrals. If you’ve ever said to yourself, “We don’t do/sell that here, but X down the street does,” make sure you’re getting a referral in return.
When it comes to white-collar jobs, this network is even stronger. A lawyer refers people to an accountant, who refers people to a broker, who refers people to a financial planner, who refers people to a real estate agent.
Follow-Ups
Advertising can help you get a job, but what you do after you get a job is often a much more powerful marketing tool. Follow-up questionnaires are one of the best ways to get feedback on how your advertising campaign is performing.
- Why did the customer select your company?
- How did they find out about it?
- What other businesses did they consider?
- What resulted in the highest level of customer satisfaction?
- Which of the following was the least satisfying?
Also, if your job requires you to go to the customer, place a flyer in nearby mailboxes, as people with similar needs and interests tend to live in the same area.