Free Marketing for your Small Business

Marketing is an essential part of running any successful business.  What good does it do if you have a great product that no one knows about? Despite that age old adage, marketing is an area that is does not receive the proper attention. When cash flow tightens and budgets are being scrutinized, marketing is usually the first expense to cut and it can be hard to create a successful marketing campaign on limited budgets. Luckily, there are many ways to advertise and increase awareness of your brand though without necessarily spending a lot (or anything at all!). With a well thought out marketing plan, you should still be able to see significant results without significant expenses.

Focus Your Social Media Approach

One of the most powerful but free tools available to all businesses is social media. To most people, social media marketing is just a buzz word that consists of opening up an account on every platform and hoping that does the trick.  This type of shotgun approach will not work. First you have to look at the industry that your business is in and focus your attention on the social media platforms that work for you.  

Different industries and categories perform much better on certain platforms than others.  For instance: food, clothing, design, art are much more popular on Pinterest and Instagram than on Twitter because these industries are visual focused. However if your business is tightly affiliated with news and entertainment, then Twitter would be the way to go.

Many companies that are able to take full advantage of using this focused social media marketing approach have reaped the benefits, giving them a strong web presence and access to communication between the company and their customers. Your social media marketing can be segmented even further. For example if you own a retail or restaurant, you focus your marketing messages towards a certain lifestyle or interests.

Cater to your Customers on Instagram

Through the use of Instagram you can search for hashtags being popularly used and shared by your audience allowing you to tailor posts to that hashtag and increase visibility of your brand. For example, if you’re selling coffee, a popular hashtag may be #morningbrew, allowing you to target your market with high quality images using the morning brew hashtag to draw people to like and follow your page. For more advanced tactics and ways to get followers, you can read our comprehensive guide here.   

Using Facebook

These days, most business cannot afford to miss out on the vast reach of Facebook. Though most people agree it is essential to have an account, few know how it can be effectively used. By creating a business page and building likes, you increase the visibility of your brand, but also give your followers a place to interact with your business and make them feel that their opinions are heard. With regular updates that are relevant to what people want to see, you can increase loyalty and see returning customers. Restaurant especially benefit when people "check-in" by tagging their location in a status, opening up their whereabouts to their entire network. 

Promotions

Running a promotional campaign can be tricky.  While it can encourage people to try your food or product, it can also cheapen your brand or only draw bargain hunters who will only sample your product or services for the deal.  

Instead of offers that reduce the value of your product or service ie. 50% off which conditions customers to wait for sales, create offers that don't focus on the price such as bring a date for free for restaurants or buy 1 get 1 free.  While they are essentially the same in price, it allows your product/service to retains it's value while encouraging people to try your product or food. This mixed in with high quality of service you will be able to turn new customers into returning ones.

Promotions can be mixed and used in conjunction with social media through the form of contests. “Share this status to win a free t-shirt” will get people to interact with your page, and share your company across their own networks. This will further increase your reach with minimal cost.

The Essence of Marketing

Marketing is often tough for small businesses. Many industries are highly competitive and companies with large budgets can afford to throw money towards expensive advertising. However the best method of marketing is to tap into the essence of your customers and create a feeling that they are part of something. When there are a wide range of competitors to choose from, you want your company to be memorable through exceptional service and your brand's mission. Marketing is an area that takes time to develop.  Certainly having a large budget to spend will increase the speed at which your message reaches your audience. However, the most important part of marketing is developing a message that will resonate with your audience. If your message in weak, it doesn't matter how many people see it,  can create something that is compelling, you'll be able to generate more customers with minimal costs.