Whilst advertising can be a costly component of your business plan, there are plenty of ways to market your business to the masses which won’t break the bank. We asked the team at Audience for their top 5 ways to shout about your business without straining your budget.
1. Publish content
If you don’t already have a blog or website, what are you waiting for? This is an invaluable way to draw eyes to your business and get people interested in what you have to offer. Best of all, domain name registration is free on WordPress and Wix, which allow you to customise your website to align with your particular business type. If writing isn’t your strong point, ask someone on your team to create interesting and topical articles to drive traffic to your site. You could even go one step further and experiment with SEO techniques if you have the know-how.
2. Social media
As a business owner, the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are your best friends. Again, these platforms are completely cheap, if not free, and provide your business with essential exposure to a vast audience. Such channels enable you to share images, videos, special offers and new products which will quickly get customers through the door. It also means you can easily humanise your brand by posting employee or staff party photos, showing the people behind the business in order to connect with your viewers on a social level. Aim to post around once a day; enough for you to remain on your audience’s radar without getting on their nerves.
3. Industry partnerships
By teaming up with a business related to your industry for a joint project, you get access to a different customer base and ultimately, will receive twice as much notice! Often, business owners pay big money for double the exposure, but if you have contacts within your sector don’t let them go to waste. Projects could come in the form of special events, online webinars or promotional giveaways.
4. Online contests
Although you may need to cough up some cash for a prize, the amount of attention your business will receive will be well worth it and more importantly, it’ll be a whole lot cheaper than paid advertising. Social media is perhaps the best way to hold a competition, inviting followers to ‘tag’ their friends and ‘share’ the post to be in with a chance of winning. One participant is then chosen at random to be awarded the prize. There are plenty of online tools, such as Rafflecopter, which will help you set up a competition.
5. Host an event
Putting on a special event or class will create a real buzz about your business and attract a whole host of people with similar interests. This will inevitably strengthen your buyer community and customer loyalty. As people generally travel with others in tow, your reach will extend to friends and family of already established customers. A great way to promote this would be creating flyers through Canva and posting them on notice boards throughout relevant places in your community, be it the library, local college or coffee shop. Want to discover extra methods to widen your influence as a business? Check out more ways to grow your recently purchased business