3 Ways to Market Your Small Business on a Shoestring Budget

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Running a successful small business is not only dependent upon a great product but also on how that unique product is marketed to the prospective audience. In this era of competition, effective marketing approach is as vital as product differentiation to gain a maximum share of the market and to boost up the revenues. However, most of the small businesses are on a tight budget and cannot afford to spend a single penny without completely taking into account how much return it is going to bring to the business. If you are a small business owner and are looking for optimal marketing strategies that might grow your earnings then read on to find out essential tools for good business marketing.

1. Leverage the power of Social Media

Using various social media platforms to effectively advertise their services is no longer optional for small businesses, rather it has become a necessity. Considering the vast reach of social media platforms, it is highly advisable for small business owners to create accounts on all available social media including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, LinkedIn, etc.

Before creating the accounts, the most important step is to understand your target audience. If your product is more relevant to the younger generation, then it is more sensible to create an account on Snapchat rather than on LinkedIn. Statistics suggest that more than half of this population uses Snapchat more than 11 times a day.

However, if you do not intend to get trapped into the intricacies of such type, Facebook is your friend. FB has been growing at a higher rate than all other platforms and with 1.5 billion daily active users, there are pretty high chances that you will be able to meet your targeted audience there.

2. Focus on the quality of your content

In order to grow the number of buyers, small businesses need to have a lot of followers. According to recent research, it is relatively easier for small business to convert their followers into buyers. The point to be noted here is that your followers are the main driving force of your sales. In this regard, the following are the reasons why people would be interested in following your small business on social media:

• they’re curious about your products or services
• you offer exclusive promotions
• your content is entertaining
• they need to reach a customer service representative
• you offered an incentive
• their friends or family follow your brand

 

Therefore, be aware of the fact that your content should be worth following. Also, many small businesses’ owners need to understand the difference between posting daily and spamming their followers. Former can be a great technique to boost sales while the latter can cause things to backfire.

Another important thing is to be transparent and honest with your followers to gain their trust and ultimately motivate them to buy your products and services. It goes unsaid that it is one of the most important ways to improve your online presence

3. Let the gurus look after the marketing stuff

Small businesses run on tight budgets and therefore, have to make very vital decisions on day to day basis. Most of the businesses make a crucial mistake of not putting their money where they could get maximum return. One such common example is of businesses trying to save money by trying to market their services by themselves. While there appears to be no harm in doing so if they have mastered all the tools and tactics to efficiently grow their reach, the business is still not operating at its optimum level.

Consider a businessman spending a major chunk of his office hours trying to learn and then experiment with marketing techniques to save a few dollars to pay to a marketing expert. He might be saving his precious dollar bills but he is also wasting his more valuable time. He could have used the same time to improve the quality of his product or to learn some other skills that might make him able to charge more for the type of service he provides. It all comes down to cost-benefit analysis.

For the majority of small businesses, the perfect solution lies in hiring a marketing consultant who charges only for the services he provides rather than providing bulk packages that might not suit everyone’s needs. Learn more here regarding such consultants.

To conclude, marketing is an important aspect of business and the above points must be carefully scrutinized by small business owners before making any marketing related decision for their business.