Small Business Owners: Low Cost Marketing Strategies to Increase Profits

Have you ever wondered if you could think of a marketing idea that could propel your business to the sky? Like the Wendy’s commercial in the 1980s ‘Where’s the Beef?’, Coca-Cola’s ad for ‘The Real Thing’ and Nike selling tennis shoes spreading the word ‘Just Do It’. How ingenious of those companies.

When people think of marketing, they tend to think of advertising which can be expensive and ineffective image-based advertising. There are many ways to position yourself as an expert and build a personal connection to attract new clients, consumers, and patients.

Effective marketing is not cheap; however, there are strategies you can implement for little or no cost.

A basic, low-cost way to do market research is to get a poster and put up a picture of your ideal customer, then list your potential customers’ fears and frustrations, then list your customers’ wants and aspirations. Then focus on the emotional event that caused it and the irrational dream behind it, this is where the power and edge lie in solving the customer’s problem with your product.

Develop a customer person profile that identifies where the customer gets information from such as magazines, websites, and key people they follow on blogs. Find out what ‘watering hole/bars’ they frequent, the neighborhood they live in, the university they attended, their hobbies, their favorite TV shows, associations and the church they attend. Use websites and ask your target audience to collect this information.

Ideally, a small business owner should spend 35-50% of their time marketing their product. To avoid giving little importance to the marketing of your products. Write a schedule of marketing outreach events for 6 to 12 months. Identify marketing opportunities, what methods you will use, and when you will take action. With a schedule worked out in advance, opportunities won’t sneak up on you while you’re busy paying attention to other aspects of your business.

If you have a marketing department to support your business, make sure it’s like the customers you serve. The power of recruiting people from many different cultures, products, and industries to come together and create products for your consumers is powerful. Depth of ideas, understandings, insights, creativity, and blending of cultures can provide the best solutions for your business to make more money.

Below is a list of 10 low cost strategies that can help you improve your profits.

1- Join the Chamber of Commerce in your area and participate in community service events. Get involved in your community by volunteering, donating and/or sponsoring local events. It gives you the opportunity to network with other business owners and maybe cross-promote with other locals. These monthly meetings let you know what’s going on financially in your area.

2- social media: the ability to provide information about your products throughout the web.

• Share what you do and which merchants you love. You completed a new project, offered a new product, and got a customer testimonial.
• Offer tips, advice and information on your website. Show customers how to repair, modify, or improve your products. Provide product usage tips. The more customers enjoy your products, the more likely they are to buy. If you sell services, a Q&A column is a valuable addition to websites, as are “Frequently Asked Questions” pages that address simple topics related to your services. A little free advice will encourage clients to come to you with more thorny problems.
• Write about it on Twitter, website, Facebook, LinkedIn or on an industry blog. Photos and videos help others understand who you are, what you do, and how you can help them solve a problem.
• Include your website link in all company emails and other correspondence. Display your company or business web address prominently in your email signature. Do the same for stationery.

3- Tell your story in 90 seconds.

• A. Develop an elevator pitch story to inform others about your business. Your story should contain the following elements.

1. who are you
2. What are you doing
3. Why you are different from your competitors
4. Why should they care about your products or services (what’s in it for them)?

• Does your message create an emotional response from your target audience demographics? Tip, use simple language when creating your message

Example: We help make your life easier by (explain your product or service).

• Use customer testimonials to persuade your customers to buy from you. Order them from happy customers and use them, make sure they are genuine and go into details with real names.

4- Develop a simple marketing plan for your business

There are (4) secrets to marketing engagement, investment, communication, consistency. It’s hard to keep all (4) four without a basic plan.

• Do you make sure that your plan describes how well the product or service meets the customers’ need or problem?
• Make sure your logo and marketing message use words that represent an experience of using your product that creates an imagination in the customer that generates profit (makes them want to buy your product or service).
• It could consist of ordering business cards, attending networking opportunities, booking talks, and sending out press releases about your product offerings.
• Create an email signature, with web links to your company website and a Twitter link. Also, include your business name, most recent achievement, phone number and email address, and tagline if your business has one.

5- Assemble a list of past clients and send them new information and promotional offers to reactivate some of them.

• Reward loyal customers with discounts. It will keep them coming back and help generate referrals. Good referrals from satisfied customers are often more effective than expensive advertising.
• Use social media to offer SMS (text message) marketing to provide existing customers with new information on discounted or clearance ‘must have’ items.

Improve customer service

Customer service is a form of advertising. You’re advertising that you care, it shows

use your vehicle

Vehicle graphics are viewed by thousands of people every day. Turn your vehicle into a mobile billboard.

6- Offer free public seminars or workshops to the general public to come and find out how you can solve a problem for them and show them how approachable and helpful you are.

Golden Rule:

Your target customers need to hear your marketing messages at least 7 times to influence their purchasing decisions. For example, you can craft your message as a radio public service announcement to play for free on radio stations and small Internet radio stations.

Get a back in tow

Participating in another company’s marketing can save your small business time and money.

Example: Locate near a Wal-Mart to be close to price-conscious consumers on a budget.

7- Stimulate the client’s senses

• Talk to your customers about how they feel about your product and store experience, why they buy from you compared to other stores, they will be honest with you.
• Continually educate your customers on the benefits of buying your products.
• The more comfortable we keep our customers, the longer they will stay, the more memorable their experience will be, and the more they will spend or pass on positive word of mouth.

Example:

Do you think the smell of freshly baked bread wafts throughout the grocery store or does music play by choice? (duh)

Retailers have done everything they can for years to stimulate shoppers and keep them searching. Scented bath spray works better than disinfectant.

8- Make yourself newsworthy

Get your business mentioned in the right media

1. For doing a good deed in the community or a humorous link to a sporting event.
2. Develop a relationship with your industry trade publications (magazines), they are always looking for ‘free relevant content’, write and feature for them. It can help you appear as an “expert” to others in your industry.
3. Contact the local media. Newspaper and television reporters need reputable sources for their articles; While you may not make “news,” you can add color to a story. For example, if you are a lawyer, you can explain how the new legislation will affect local viewers. Get on as many reporter contact lists as possible.

9- Form a joint venture

• By forging an alliance with a group of small businesses or a large company, you will get the “greatest value for your money.” Reduce your costs to enter new markets and create new distribution opportunities.
• Make offers to other businesses that serve people in your target markets to pay them for referrals or share their list with you
• Support Fundraisers

1. Donating your products or services to selected charitable events is a great way to get your name out there in the community. Make sure your target market attends and your brand is well represented.

10- under your nose

• Are your suppliers doing business with you? No, call them and everyone you do business with. If your product doesn’t currently match your needs, chances are you know someone who should do business with you. At a minimum, ask to display your business cards and flyers at your office. Oops, I forgot, take a moment and make sure the people in your immediate personal circle understand what you’re selling.

go out and walk

1. Look for underused storefronts in areas of high foot traffic. Approach the owner and offer to pay a small fee to advertise their business in their window or reverse it, and do the same for another business owner.

2. Scan your friends’ social networking sites Facebook, Pinterest, etc. Ask them to post a friend page ad about your business. Ask a friend if you can place an ad on your company’s website.

3. Put flyers, catalogs or brochures with each order. Make it easy for customers to buy from you. Don’t assume that a particular client knows all the services that he provides.

It can take a lifetime to build a business reputation, but 20 seconds to tear it down with the wrong message in your marketing campaign or an employee doing something that reflects negatively on your business. You, the small business owner, are the “gatekeeper” to the image of the business you are trying to build. Monitor all communications that are released to the press about your business, you and one other person review all media coverage and commercials about your business image, to make sure it is consistent with who your business is. Most importantly, be honest in all communication, dishonesty can boomerang you in a frightening way.

Ultimately, marketing is about making the customer aware of your product and building a trusting relationship with the customer and hopefully growing with customer needs, as they expand.

Easy benefits in your pocket!