It’s such a shame to see hard earned money for your business simply go to waste. Marketing budgets for small businesses are generally pretty small, so it’s imperative that you make the most of your advertising budget. Some tips to help you promote your business, yet stay within your budget-
- Social media can be a good place to start, however, it is not the best long term solution. Eventually you will have to pay for ad space on Facebook. The constant evolving with Facebook is a good indication that your followers may only see your business a fraction of the time. Ad costs on Facebook are not too bad now, however, it is predicted they will only continue to rise as new platforms emerge, so you need to be prepared. So what can you do? Start right now, collecting your subscribers email addresses to build a clientele list. This way you can communicate with them directly without involving Facebook. Use social media when it is of benefit to you, but be prepared to constantly change, as that is what social media does, and you don’t want to be left behind.
- Keep your expectations realistic. Know and understand your customers and potential customers. If you don’t, your advertising budget is a complete waste. Before you invest money in advertising, be sure it will appeal to your customer base. Make sure you relate to them, say the right thing at the right place. You cannot expect to reach out to a customer and win them over if you have no idea who they are. Understand which of your marketing technique works, and expand from that. The top 20% of your customers produce approximately half of your revenue, so pay close attention to those V.I.P. customers as you work to attract more. Show appreciation to them, do what you can to keep those loyal customers.
- Testing ad campaign strategies are very important. If an ad campaign is going to be unsuccessful, it will fail regardless of whether you spent $500 or $5000, so start out testing it, and opt to spend the lower amount. If the campaign is a complete flop, better to have lost $500 than $5000.
- You know you need to market, but are you doing it the correct way? You may have Google Analytics, however, if you are not using it properly, you are losing business right there. Google offers a free Google Analytics learning course online, and it would be worth your time to learn it, you need to make use of marketing tools, and you must understand how to use them. Google AdWords can be an effective marketing tool, however, it’s imperative that you keep tract of the business they attract. How much revenue are you getting from them, don’t just assume they are working, make sure they are working.
- Last of all, but very important, go with the times. If you don’t, you will be left behind. Things change constantly in the business, and if you don’t adapt, you’re out, it’s that simple.
With so much free information available online on how to promote your business, spend some time researching before you implement a plan of action, it will benefit you in the long run.
