6 Simple and Affordable Ways to Spread the Word About Your Business
In a struggling economy, a marketing budget is easily one of the biggest problems that small businesses are faced with. Here are some inexpensive tricks for spreading the word about your business.
The Elevator Pitch
An elevator pitch is a promotional speech that sums up a product or service in the time it takes to ride an elevator. Why so hasty? It’s been proven that the average attention span of an adult is roughly 8 seconds. That’s how much time you have to grab their attention. If you are successful, then you will have time to reel them in through savvy and engaging conversation. However, you must get their attention. If you do not have an elevator pitch, stop whatever it is that you’re doing and come up with one. Spreading the word starts here.
Promotional Product Giveaways
Everyone loves getting free stuff. Giving away promotional products like coffee mugs, promotional automotive calendars and custom apparel is a great way to spread the word about your business because these promotional products can be imprinted with your company name and contact details. Promo products such as promotional calendars will also tend to stay in a customer’s home or office all year, providing a daily advertisement for your business. It’s a really cost-effective solution!
Always Ask for Referrals
If a customer is happy with your service, don’t hesitate to ask them for referrals. Most people are happy to refer you to others, but most of them need a gentle reminder to do so. Referrals are also one of the most efficient ways to find new customers, especially if you can somehow involve the person who gave the referral. For example, many sites will actually offer a discount or some sort of gift card to not only the person who is referred to the business, but also the person who made the referral.
Collaborate
Get together with local businesses that are not competing with you and form a professional networking group. Agree to promote for each other by posting fliers, giving away coupons, and supporting one another on social media websites. By doing this, you may be able to get some essential marketing services for free. For example, if you own a janitorial business, you might offer to clean a print shop if they give you free materials. Business networks are also great for getting comments and shares on your website and blog.
Become Active in your Community
Reach out to your local community by sponsoring little league teams, printing brochures, or getting involved with local charities. If appropriate, you can even give local demonstrations of your services. Never take your local community for granted, because that is where you will find a large and loyal customer base. Also, the money that you invest in these charitable activities will almost always come back to your business.
Coupons and Discounts
Offer promotional discounts to attract new customers to your business. These customers will then tell their friends, who will bring you even more people who want to purchase your products and services. Furthermore, hand out coupons for future business to persuade customers to return.
As you can see, there are many cost-effective ways to spread the word about your business. The best marketing campaigns are not the ones that are the most expensive, but rather those that are the most creative and effective.
Category: Business
