How Do I Market My Small Business With No Budget?

Social media marketing is giving small business owners the ability to get the word out about their products and services in a more cost effective way. No marketing initiative is ever truly free to implement but if you can get yourself up to speed with a little outside help and make the time to be consistent you can really help your business. The toughest challenge that a small business marketer faces is not necessarily cost but finding the correct strategy to get your message heard over all the noise out there. Here are a few tips that we think might help you.

Set Yourself Up As An Expert In Your Niche

I am one of those who believe that advertising does have a place on social media platforms but it shouldn’t be the main focus of a small business’ efforts (not that they can afford to do a lot of it anyway!). The people on these platforms do crave one thing above all else and that is valuable content. There are groups of individuals out there on the web that want information about the very product or service you offer and you have to find them. You can blog, tweet, update, and share things that are relevant to your niche and by doing so you can build credibility. It doesn’t really matter what you are selling because y0u probably have a certain level of expertise that some of your potential customers will want to hear.

There are a lot things you can do; write some “how to” articles or better yet create some great videos that show your product or service in action and plaster them on Youtube. If you attend trade shows tweet about it while you’re there and be sure to include pictures. Offer free stuff to the first ten customers that check into your establishment on Foursquare. Whatever the task remember that the more you post and share the more likely your business brand will be increased. That can lead to better search results and higher rankings for your company at a relatively small cost. Do you want to increase traffic to your hub or your brick and mortar? If your prospects start to look to you as their trusted adviser for everything related to healthy eating; guess what,they are probably going to be way more inclined to buy a product from you.

Find and Maintain Your Advocates

It is vital to understand that your user’s are in control of your brand like never before. That doesn’t need to be a bad thing as long as you know how to use it to your advantage. You need to start by finding the true advocates for your company; those individuals who already love your brand and are willing to speak positively about it online. If you are able to get an endorsement from someone outside your company it will carry a much greater weight than something you do through corporate channels.

For example, let’s say you have someone on Facebook that loves shoes and talks about them all the time. Your company happens to sell some of the greatest shoes on the planet so you reach out to her and offer her a 15% off coupon if she wants to check out your inventory online. Or even better, let’s say she blogs about shoes so you decide to just give a free pair of shoes so she can critique them and talk about them online. Her appreciation for the gesture will go a long way in her talking favorably about you and your company. Now what did that word of mouth marketing cost y0u? Practically nothing in the grand scheme of things.

You certainly can’t control what all is being said about you or your brand on the web but if you actively seek out those advocates for your company you can certainly have some influence. It is also just as important to follow up on the negative talk about your brand. If someone had a bad experience with your brand then you need to find out why and turn that frown upside down pronto.

Can They Find You On The Web?

You would be surprised at how often this mistake is made by some small companies. Your company needs to be on as many listing sites as possible and there are plenty of them out there that are free. Yelp, Yahoo! Local, YellowPages.com , SearchLocal, MerchantCircle, Google Local Business Center, Angie’s List , and SuperPages are all online directories that allow you to make free listings. Be sure to include your website URL, your business hours, phone number, map, etc. Most of these directories also allow customers to leave feedback so you should be encouraging them to do so when it comes to your products or services. Being everywhere all the time does have its benefits.

These are just a few things you can do with little or no money to help your business spread its brand awareness and we would love to hear back from you. What do you do to market your business with very little money?

photo credit: Sh4rp_i

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