Now is the time of year people start thinking about what’s next in their careers. For some, there may be a next step up the ladder to consider, but for many others, the idea of starting a business is at the forefront of their minds.
What we know for sure is, no new business will get off the ground without a structured and robust marketing plan. The six tips in this article will help ensure your business starts off on the right foot.
Keep Your Business Card Ready
A business card is an effective way of demonstrating your professionalism. It plays a fundamental role in quickly sharing contact information and helps you represent your business credibility. When you meet potential customers, it’s harder to convert them into regular customers if you don’t have business cards to hand out.
Credibility and representation play an essential role in promoting your business. Business cards are a cost-effective way of marketing your business. They are extremely affordable as you don’t have to spend a lot of money on getting your business cards printed. In addition, they will help you find your leads.
Try Email Marketing
Email marketing is a crucial part of any marketing plan, and it isn’t something that will go away anytime soon. It is one of the top three demand generation and awareness activities marketers use, and this is very unlikely to change. Building your list may seem like a difficult practice, especially if you’re starting from zero, but there are ways and means of getting people interested.
Using your social media channels, you can offer incentives and freebies to get people interested in your business. You can build landing pages on your website which provide premium content in exchange for email addresses. These are just some of the methods which help drum up interest and get people talking about your business.
Create A Referral Program
Small business marketing tips usually include offering incentives to customers for referrals. But if you have a small business that is only starting, it isn’t easy to afford incentives for every customer that gets you a referral.
If your business has a minimal budget for marketing, you should not spend it on attracting customers directly. Instead, you should opt for a smart business plan that allows your customers to do the marketing for you.
This way, your business will get more customers without spending a lot of money on marketing. You won’t be spending your limited budget on a full-fledged referral program. Moreover, people are more likely to trust referrals from friends and family. To let your customers know about the referral tactic, you can send them emails as a reminder.
Utilize Social Media
It goes without saying that modern business needs a social media presence to back up their website and other business activities. Social media is much more than those vanity metrics—likes and shares. It is something you can develop as a critical way to reach your audience and position your brand.
Social media is also one of the leading platforms for 21st-century customer service, and you can use it to develop further niche marketing strategies such as influencer marketing. Social media can also feed directly into the content and knowledge strategy of your business. As you can share your content with ease and set yourself up as an expert in your field, adding value and genuinely useful knowledge to the community and your followers.
Do Blogging
Content marketing has many forms, and thankfully none of it costs a fortune. So if you do not have a significant budget for marketing, creating blogs for your business is going to work wonders. Content marketing will allow you to market your products or services on your blog subtly.
In addition, since you will provide more information regarding your business, you are more likely to attract customers. Moreover, since content marketing has various forms, you must set up some blog goals. For example, you can ensure that your blog post asks every customer to subscribe to your business email.
Offer Discounts and Bonuses
Another good marketing strategy for small businesses is offering giveaways and discounts to your customers. It is a quick and effective way of attracting new customers.
Offering free trials or giving away works wonderfully because your customers can trust your brand. In addition, once you offer them a free trial, your customers know that your business isn’t a scam. Moreover, if you’re aware that you’re offering a good service or product, free trials will only attract more customers.
You can also offer monthly giveaways to keep your customers engaged. Clever marketing tips for small businesses ensure that you get your customers to perform some action to help your marketing plan. For example, you can offer a free product if your customer refers your business to two more people who also make a purchase.
Key Takeaway
The new year is naturally a time to consider taking your hypothetical venture and testing it out to see whether there’s a viable business there. Some people pool talents accumulated from their careers to launch a niche business, while others simply have the entrepreneurial spirit to give anything a go. These marketing tips, however, will give you an idea to make your business thrive better than ever.
