No Cost Marketing Strategies
No business is too small to have a good marketing campaign. Small businesses often shy away from a good promotion strategy for the simple reason that they always associate this with costs. What they do not realize is that these costs are actually investments. They should be considered investments because any company should expect a return on whatever they have invested on promotional campaigns.
Admittedly, full-fledged marketing efforts such as the ones employed by multinational corporations are way too much for a small business like a community meat shop or salon. However, as mentioned earlier, no business is too small to have a good marketing strategy. Every business, no matter how small, should be involved in some form of marketing activity. Here are a few tips on how to launch a marketing campaign without putting a dent on your budget.
1. Res Ipsa Locquitur – Let your product speak for themselves
Cleary, there is nothing more effective and more inexpensive than marketing through word of mouth. There is a Latin saying, ‘Res Ipsa Locquitur’, which means ‘let the name speak for itself.’ This should be the mantra of small businesses. Let your product, services or reputation do the talking. If you have a good product or fantastic service, this would spread like wild fire. Once customers find out about it and have actually experienced it, they would become your company’s mouthpiece. The good part is that they will do it for nothing.
2 Use online social networking sites
If you do not have an FB account or a Twitter, you are not yet able to harness the power of the internet. What you want to do is to create a following. Some companies have been using Twitter, an online blogging tool, to let customers know about specials or freebies or delivery schedules. One mobile food cart (think of a street vendor) actually uses Twitter to announce where their carts would be parked at lunch time. The good thing about this is that this does not cost anything other than your Internet subscription.
3. Email away
Email is fast and free. Use this tool to inform a good number of customers about new products or services or specials. What you can do is to create an email group of customers and then send electronic postcards with your special on it. This is much cheaper than actually engaging the services of a postcard printing company.
Each time you work with a customer, don’t be afraid to approach them about your business. Engage them. Ask if you can use them as a reference. Ask for their email address. Send them print postcards if you can. Ask for their feedback and be sure to do something about it. There are plenty of opportunities to market your business. But remember that the best ones are usually free.
More tips and information’s on how to effectively market your business by postcards can be found at online print postcards.