Marketing- this is the act of promoting a product and creating awareness of an item with the major aim of driving sales. It involves generating the interest of your prospective buyers in your products or services. It includes all activities taken by individuals or companies to drive sales and increase interest in the products and services. Without marketing, many businesses would suffer.
One of the greatest challenges or limitations for small businesses is funding or finance. As is common knowledge, money is needed to make even more money and so for this reason when a business suffers from limited funds, it becomes difficult for such a business to grow or make progress as it should. Small businesses especially need proper marketing strategies to grow beyond where they currently are.
Many small businesses have been known by the term small business for a long time. Why do you think that is? Do you think the owners of such businesses do not want to expand or have no dreams of being among the big names?
Well, the thing is many such business owners overlook a very important aspect of business- marketing.
This could be for several reasons.
The most common reason why my people shy away from marketing is the cost. For many small businesses, the price of running television and radio ads is more than they can bear. This is quite understandable. For that reason, we have put together several things you can do to market your business at little or no cost.
Marketing a business without money.
The internet is a very powerful marketing tool and should not be underrated. With the device with which you are reading this article, you could spread the word about your business and market your business to millions of people simultaneously at what can be considered zero cost.
Let's look at the ways you could market on the internet before considering other methods of marketing outside of the world wide web.
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Social media: Numerous social media platforms exist today and for that we are grateful. How many of these social media platforms are you on? Does your business have its own social media pages/handles? If not, you need to work to make that right. With social media, friends of your friends can see your business, you can also reach people outside your community with just a few taps and clicks. Here is a guide on how best to use the world's leading social media platform to grow your business.
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Online communities: Do not limit your activities on social media to only those you know or celebrities. Get involved in online communities, especially those that are outside of your immediate environment but not too far off. With time, you can choose to expand your community. Members of online communities are reported to have a sense of loyalty and commitment towards other members of their community. That is to your advantage, use it
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Blog comments: Be an active commenter on blogs that post articles or topics relating to the products you sell or the services you offer. With time people would get to recognize and trust your name and your brand even without having met you face to face and would be willing to patronize you.
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Affiliate marketing: Affiliate marketing is here to stay. The good thing is that affiliate marketers are great at what they do. Partner with a couple of affiliate marketers and see how fast your business would climb. Having a partnership with affiliate marketers is beneficial for both parties, as the business owner gets to have people who advertise and sell your products with little stress and the affiliate marketers make a profit for themselves by selling without even having a product or physical location. Learn how affiliate marketing works.
https://www.bigcommerce.com/articles/ecommerce/affiliate-marketing/
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Guest posts on blogs: This means creating content for a blog, usually written content. How does this help? When you write for a blog in your niche, you get a chance to introduce yourself especially as it is a guest post. Doing that gives you a platform to advertise yourself, subtly though. But with time, you get to be known as an authority in that niche and people in need of your products or service would come looking for you
Other non-internet ways of marketing are as follows:
- Follow up with one-time customers: To be able to do this, you need to have accurate records. SMS is usually better for follow-ups. SmartSMSSolutions has you covered on bulk SMS. Calling to find out why someone has not called back on you might seem a little too audacious. Rather send a text telling them about an ongoing promo or the arrival of the same goods they got the one time they came around. Look up these tips on how to successfully carry out a business SMS campaign. https://smartsmssolutions.com/blog/123-sms-marketing/marketing-by-sms/1569-top-7-important-strategies-for-successful-business-sms-campaign
- Regular promos and giveaways: Customers and clients love this the most. Nothing is as good as freebies. Prepare to give out some to get some more.
- Have excellent communication skills with prospects: When people walk into your franchise, what kind of reception do they get? What kind of interaction do they get with whom they communicate as they make their enquiries? We all know, first impressions are lasting. Give clients an experience they would not forget in a hurry and they would be sure to return with family and friends the next time they show up. See also how you can generate leads for your business. https://smartsmssolutions.com/blog/118-sms-marketing/small-business/1586-how-to-generate-quality-leads-for-your-business
Do not forget that communication is everything. Keep in touch with your community of clients via text messages. Remind customers of upcoming events and let one-time callers know what is new in your business by texting them. Bulk SMS texting is easier and more efficient with SmartSMSSolutions. Register a free bulk SMS account with us and see for yourself.