20 Marketing Techniques to Help Grow Your Small Businesses
20 Basic Marketing Techniques to help take your Business to the Next Level
Are your small business marketing techniques feeling a little stale? Have you been struggling to come up with new ideas to promote your business? Below is a comprehensive list of 20 marketing techniques that you can use to help recharge your marketing efforts.
Take Care of Your Clients
We have all heard that it is easier to keep a client then find a new one. Perhaps the best one of the best marketing techniques is to remember to always, without exception take care of the customers you have.
Become an Expert
Working to establish yourself as an expert in your industry can be a unique way to market your business. Boosting your credibility with the public can often times help boost sales. As an expert, you can offer your services to a variety of sources including media outlets, event planners and even friends and family.
Use Friends and Family
Family and friends can be extremely influential in helping to get the “word out” about your business. However, seeing as this is also one of the most important Marketing Techniques, we would recommend that you utilize your connections wisely. Most family and friends won’t appreciate being overexposed to your product. However, you might be surprised at the connections that those close to you may have.
Low Hanging Fruit
Don’t be afraid to network with other businesses to see if there is a place that your services and products might fit within their business model. Oftentimes businesses can be overloaded with work. When you make yourself available to these businesses, then you have the possibility of picking up extra work.
Cold Calling
Cold calling is one of those marketing techniques that tends to have a bad reputation. However, taking 1 hour out of your day to reach out to new potential customers can make a huge difference to your bottom line.
Donate
Whether you donate your time or your products, this can really be a great way for your business to build a good reputation within your community. You may also be surprised at all the opportunities that can come from donating.
Freebies
We recommend that you always carry branded promotional items wherever you go. There are so many inexpensive options available for small businesses. We’ve heard from customers who were contacted for services because they had left a sticker at a client’s house 10 years earlier. People love freebies.
Throw a luncheon or BBQ
Get to know the businesses in your surrounding area by throwing a BBQ or luncheon. You can even suggest other vendors help sponsor part of the luncheon. Most people love free food almost as much as they love free stuff.
Email Campaigns
While spam is certainly annoying, most customers don’t mind receiving legitimate emails and offers from companies that they know and love. Reach out with special offers and events once or twice a month or during holidays.
Free Ebook
As an expert in your area of business, offering a few tips and freebies in simple ebook is a great way to promote your business to your customers.
Facebook is a perfect place to reach out to friends and family. Let them know about your business and proudly share updates and information from your page to their page. With Facebook it is really important that you personalize your business by letting people know that there is a face behind the company. Use your page to help promote employee events, business events and educational articles that your friends and family might find interesting.
Twitter is a great resource for reaching out to industry leaders. It is worth it, to spend the time commenting on tweets as well as retweeting some of your favorite tweets to your followers. Don’t be afraid to reach out to people personally with postings they may be interested in. Once you have established a relationship don’t be afraid to promote your products and services.
Linked in
With LinkedIn you can join many different professional groups to meet new people. Spend time looking for groups who share your business interests. Stay active in the group by answering questions and share blog posts or special events.
YouTube
Youtube is a great place to showcase your products and even your business expertise. While your videos don’t have to be superior in quality, we do recommend that they look professional.
Develop a Customer Referral Program
Don’t be afraid to reward your customers who are eager and willing to refer new customers to you. Offering a pricing discount on products and services can be a great motivator to those who want to share your product with others.
Online Contests
Online contests for free products and services can be a great way to get customers involved with your small business. Popular online contests include photo contests, writing contests and even video contests.
Business Awards
Applying for a business award can help increase the status of your business within the community. Most business awards require that you go through an audit of your business practices before receiving an award. Passing the audit to receive the award further increases the reputation of your business with the community.
Host an Event or Class
Providing educational classes is a great way to meet those who are possibly looking for your services and products.
Generate Positive Reviews
Positive reviews can really help your business grow online. Reach out to loyal customers and let them know that you would really appreciate if they took the time to write a positive review of your company. We highly recommend that you don’t coerce or offer free product in exchange for reviews. The reviews need to be genuine and natural.
Guest Post on Different Blogs
When you guest post on a different blog, you can reach an entirely different audience. Look for blogs that share similar interest as your business. Provide content that is well researched and intriguing. Don’t be afraid to ask for a link back to your website.
Getting the Cash to Promote Your Business
All these ideas can really help you to expand your business. However, if you are stuck not promoting your business because you do not have any extra cash on hand, then SecureGlobalPay has a solution for you.
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