We are at an age in marketing in which small businesses can compete with the big boys without having to spend like the big boys.
If you are a small business owner wanting to promote your business online, you have unprecedented access to consumers you can reach with speeds that even the big guns could not achieve ten years ago.
While the choice of online marketing channels and strategies may seem confusing, here are some tips that can help you set course so you can market your product or service online without breaking the bank.
Let’s take a look at some of the most effective and proven methods of connecting with your current and future customers. Remember, there are no “Past Customers”.
1. Blogging – This is one of the simplest (not the same as easiest) ways of reaching your audience and positioning yourself as the authority in your space. By blogging consistently about your subject of expertise, you can provide tremendous value to your readers and at the same time demonstrate that you are the expert in your field.
There are literally dozens of success stories of bloggers who have gone on to build respectable business just as a result of the success of their publishing activities. Big names that come to mind immediately are: Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income, Darren Rowse of Problogger and Brian Clark of copyblogger. Each had a slightly different story at their beginning and each has a different type of business but all of them have become hugely successful as a result of their blogging beginnings.
Good news is, you don’t need much of a budget to start blogging, not even your own blog/website although it makes sense to have that. You can build an audience using Medium, LinkedIn Pulse, or Facebook – all for free. Regardless of what your marketing strategy is, blogging can help you connect with your customers at a level no other format can.
2. Social Media – Impossible to ignore the reach and influence that social media has on our society now days. Information is more avidly consumed on Social Media than practically any other platform. You usually will see news there before the large traditional media networks can get the word out.
As a small business owner, you can access consumers on networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn etc. with incredible ease. You can target your ideal customer based on a wide variety of qualifiers such as: Age, Gender, Income, Job, etc. This is an ability that until just recently, only Madison Ave advertising firms had the resources needed to be able to hone in on their desired audience at this level.
Thanks to the fast advancement of technology, any small or large business can now target their ideal customer for as little as $5 a day. If you are on a budget, I think this would qualify as a “budget friendly” investment.
3. Email Marketing – This is one of the most effective and efficient marketing platforms in terms of ROI. Most businesses can strategically collect emails from their current customers and engage with them on an ongoing basis to create goodwill and repeat business.
Emails can be used to reinforce other marketing efforts as well as a stand alone strategy. It is not unusual for some businesses to credit email marketing with generating 25-30% of their revenue.
The investment to do email marketing is also very economical with per email sent cost as low as .001 cents. For businesses with small lists, services like MailChimp offer a free email marketing plan. If you can connect with 1,000 loyal customers every week, your business will thrive!
4. Video Marketing – The power of video can not be overlooked. Youtube is the 2nd most popular search engine, next to Google. Yet, so few businesses use this powerful medium right now.
Where else could you create a commercial for your business, as long or short as you want it to be, and deliver it to those that are actually looking for your product or service, for FREE!?
Creating educational and informative videos to help your audience find out more about your services or products is the perfect way to connect with them, on their terms, and without you having to be there face to face with them, in person. That is what we call leverage.
Creating your videos does not have to be overly complicated or expensive. Most computers have some basic video editing software and most mobile phones now days have excellent cameras to record video. You can learn how to do all of this for free.. on Youtube!
Unlike network television commercials, the type of video that performs better on Youtube is usually a real, genuine and transparent presentation by a passionate business owner talking about their life’s work or passion. Viewers prefer to see real people as opposed to scripted, acted out plots with lots of post production effects. So your home made video about your super duper new gadget to solve a consumer’s problem will do very well in this format.
If you are at all skeptical, Google the story of “Will it blend” and be inspired. And this is not a once in a lifetime story or case. There are many other just like this.
Marketing your business on a budget has never been easier. Using the above online marketing tools and strategies you should be able to significantly amplify your reach, connect with your customers on a deeper level and grow your business without having to spend a lot of money. If you would like assistance on how to implement these strategies, feel free to reach out and ask how we can make this easier for you with a complete Done For You Service.
