Owning a business is a balancing act. You have to figure out how to balance your budget while engaging in marketing efforts to produce the best results. For some businesses, if budgets are limited, the first place they may cut is their online marketing.
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Unfortunately, this isn’t a smart move.
Even though more traditional advertising methods are expensive and challenging to measure, small businesses now have access to effective and trackable marketing tools. Because of this, marketing your business is now easier than it has ever been before. Keep reading to learn more about some effective and affordable marketing efforts you can implement to ensure your business remains on a trajectory of growth and success.
Consider Guerilla Marketing Tactics
If you want to improve your team, you have to dive in and get involved. This means using unique and effective strategies, such as virtual team building. The same is true for marketing your business. Think outside the box. Get hands-on. Use guerilla marketing tactics.
With guerilla marketing, you have the opportunity to leverage originality, imagination, and creativity, even if you don’t have a huge budget. A lot of startups and small businesses that have limited funds for marketing use guerilla marketing tactics to compete with larger and bigger businesses. When it comes to guerilla marketing tactics, you will find more than a few ideas “out there” to try.
For example, if you have a brick-and-mortar store, you can pay someone to use sidewalk chalk for advertising what you offer. If you are selling a product that can be used on the street, use “undercover agents” to provide direct promotion of your product to potential customers. One example of this would be when Sony hired different people to ask strangers to take a picture of them and then went on about their camera.
A popular option in recent years is a flash mob. You can get many people involved in this activity to increase awareness of your brand and what you offer.
Profile Your Target Markets
Trying to promote a service or product to everyone isn’t just expensive; it is also ineffective. When you segment or group your possible customers based on specific characteristics, you can better focus your marketing efforts.
Usually, segmentation is based on certain factors. This includes location, demographics, lifestyle, and behavior. The target market for your business should have an obvious need for your service or product and be willing to pay you for this.
Create an Elevator Pitch
It is important to be marketing constantly. It doesn’t matter where you are, this is something you need to find time to do. Because of this, it is necessary to create an effective and compelling elevator pitch.
According to statistics, most people have an attention span of just six to eight seconds. This is all the time they put into grabbing someone’s attention.
If you can successfully engage someone, you have only one minute to sell them on the service or product you offer. Take time to create an elevator pitch that will help you achieve this. The ROI will pay off in the long run and help create new business opportunities for you.
Be Social on Social Media
It’s estimated that more than two-thirds of adults today use social media. This is a significant increase.
Some of the most popular social media channels include Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Google Plus, and Instagram. Each platform is unique and offers unique connection opportunities. Instead of trying to master all these simultaneously, choose several that work for your business and try to build a presence for yourself on those first.
Find Your USP – Unique Selling Proposition
The USP you come up with should explain the unique reason that your customers would buy from you rather than the competition. You need to define what you do differently and make sure that you can convey this information to your potential customers. In most cases, your USP will show off your special skills or knowledge.
The USP may be having a unique or new offering or providing superior service. You can begin developing the USP by thinking about what you love about your product or service, the special skills you have, and what makes you appealing to your customers.
Create Some Buzz
When it comes to growing your business, there is a lot you can do in terms of public relations without hiring professionals. For example, you can respond to a reporters’ queries that are searching for resources or story ideas. While some will be smaller media opportunities, others will be big media outlets that will be using this service.
Create and Share Valuable Content
Potential customers not only love great content, but Google does, too. There are more than a few ways to share this information. This includes hosting podcasts, creating videos, designing infographics, submitting your articles to authority sites, and blogging. Along with gaining authority and being viewed as an expert in your niche, you also acquire more free traffic. It is also a good idea to become a guest blogger for a website that complements yours or set up an interview on a podcast.
It isn’t always necessary to create the content yourself. It is possible to hire freelance writers, personal assistants, and more to help you with this. If you happen to run out of new ideas, you can start to repurpose your old content and give it an all-new spin.
Begin Developing Your Brand
Each business, no matter the size, needs a brand. Brands are more than colors, taglines, and logos. When your brand is well-articulated, it will create an emotional connection with your target customers while conveying who you are, what you stand with, and what you can deliver.
Marketing Your Business on a Budget
If you want to market and grow your business on an ongoing basis, be sure to keep the tips and information here in mind. This is going to help ensure you achieve the desired results and that your business continues to grow.