Let’s be honest, running a business is hard, especially when starting one on a shoestring budget. It feels like waking up every morning struggling to solve complex puzzles, doesn’t it?
The good news is that if you know the right ways to promote your business to your target audience then you can significantly boost your sales success without spending a lot of money.
Here are four inexpensive ways to start promoting your business today.
1) Get Published Online
If you don’t have a blog already you need to get one, like yesterday! A blog not only helps your business get its name out, but it’s a great way to connect with your customers directly. One major key of successful blogging is to keep your blog updated as often as you can. An abandoned blog is worth nothing.
If you don’t have experience or enough time to manage your blog, you may want to consider using the service of a freelance writer or blogger for hire, to help you out.
Additionally, be sure to set-up your business profile on relevant social networks and communities, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Plus. Your business profile pages should include a description, link to your website, contact info, and be updated regularly with useful content for your audience.
2) Talk to Clients
It’s amazing how businesses spend so much money to find market information and attract new customers when they have a wealth of information in their present client database. Talking to existing customers is one of the best ways to boost revenue. Ideally, this should be done by someone who’s not in your company, so customers are willing to be open and honest.
You don’t have to talk to hundreds of people; it can be just as effective to choose a handful of engaged clients and ask if they’d participate in an interview. Then use what you learn to your business’ advantage. Learn what your customers want, figure out ways their suggestions can make a difference, and how to present it, then make changes to improve those areas. If you don’t make any changes to your business, then you’ll have wasted everybody’s time.
3) Offer Free Giveaways
Offering giveaways to clients and prospects is an excellent business promoting strategy that can result in an overflow of new and returning customers. If you’re in a service orientated business, you’ll want to offer a free consultation. Your prospects will have the opportunity to test your service risk-free.
For businesses that are product oriented, you may have a “buy 2 get 1 free” or give something unrelated to the product, for instance, “Buy a bed sheet and receive a pair of shoes for free”.
By doing someone a “favor”, they naturally feel obligated to return the favor by becoming your repeat clients.
4) Network
Meeting experts from related fields is a fantastic way of promoting your business. Networking provides you with the opportunity to learn about your competitors, form mutually favorable partnerships in related industries, ask for referrals, and spread awareness about your brand.
What successful ways have you found to promote your new business? Share with us in the comments below!
Originally published Dec 22, 2015, updated Jan 27, 2021
