The fact that your business hasn’t developed yet doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t afford advertising in order to help it grow. On the contrary, it may well be the right thing to do, something to give you a push in the right direction.
It’s perfectly understandable that a small business or start-up doesn’t have a lot of money to invest in advertising. So, what you need to do is invest wisely and try to get as much as possible for the money you have at your disposal.
Luckily, there are ways of informing your target groups about your offer and attracting them that won’t break the bank. Let’s have a look at some of them that might be the perfect solution for you.
Social Media Is the Key
Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, have become increasingly important communication channels with your customers. Since you can use all of those platforms for free, think of it as a great opportunity to promote your business. If you’re not convinced, have a look at these numbers.
For example, Facebook allows you to create a free fan page for your business and with well over a billion monthly active users, it might have the best effect for very little to no money. The thing you have to bear in mind though is that just creating a fan page is definitely not enough. You need to stay fresh and relevant, and engage in communication with your existing and prospective customers.
Your website
Even if you don’t sell your product online, you need a well-designed and informative website. Your website is like a shop window that customers from all over the world can look through. Think as a potential customer and analyse your website. Does it contain all the information you need? Can you find what you’re looking for?
If not, you might want to hire an expert to help you build a relevant, positive and informative website. Chances are many people who hear about you will first try to find you online, rather than paying you a visit, which means you need to be ready for them.
According to experts from Ryan’s Web Design company, a business website should be functional, easy to navigate, and aesthetically appealing.
Newsletter
While still talking about your website, it’s worth mentioning creating a regular newsletter that is distributed to all those who subscribe to your mailing list. The content of your newsletter should not be limited to sending ads to your existing or potential customers, but it should rather tell them something useful, informative about your offer.
The main purpose of having a newsletter is to help your customers associate your company with the product or service they need. If it offers some useful information, people are more likely to remember the source.
Flyers
One of the most inexpensive ways of advertising your product or service is printing flyers. Apart from offering your contact information to prospective customers, your flyer should also offer incentives or discounts to those who visit your company and bring in your flyer.
What makes this method particularly useful is the fact that you will have a very clear picture about its effectiveness just by counting the number of leaflets returned.
Cross-promotion
Partnerships are meant to bring benefits to all those involved. Your company may still be too small to create a partnership with a large corporation, but there might be some smaller businesses that will be willing to strike a partnership with you. Naturally, you’ll be looking for potential partners among those who are not offering the same or very similar product or service like you. This way, you might reduce your advertising costs, reach new clients and offer incentives and discounts to your partner’s clients.
This list of available options for advertising with a very restricted budget doesn’t end here, of course. What is important is that you don’t neglect this extremely important aspect of business operations, but also not to be discouraged and disheartened by the lack of funds.
If you use some of these inexpensive ways of reaching your customers in a smart way and convey the right message at the right time, you may actually have a great return on your investment.
Emma Miller is a Sydney based writer with a degree in marketing. Interested in digital marketing, social media, start-ups and latest trends. She’s a contributor at Bizzmark Blog.
You are absolutely correct about importance of social media, it is the cheapest way to get your message across to a huge audience, if only you have a solid content creation and promotion strategy. SEO is another very effective way to promote a small business by putting it on the top search engine listings by effectively optimizing the website and promote the website through various off-page promotion techniques of which cross promotion is an integral part.
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Thanks for sharing this tips in regards to advertising using low budget to a small business. Been looking an article like this in ages! Keep up the great work.
Total business solution is important for small business for small town.
In today’s very hard competition marketing for starting a small business. For small business startup you want information about small town business ideas, small community business ideas, local business ideas and free creative marketing ideas with low cost. It is very challenge to get your business to find more customers and make some incredible sells. Advertisement of business on social media platform and digital marketing has made it very easier and also very inexpensive to make a good business.
Flyers are really an effective way to create a good image of your business. Make sure the flyer is eye-catching and makes an impact in the mind of the viewers.