5 Budget Friendly Tips for Marketing Your Small Business

A business is a business regardless of its size. But when it comes to marketing, big companies are able to splurge more on their marketing tools while small businesses have a much smaller pool of finances to be resourceful in. Limited resources shouldn’t be seen as a challenge – it’s actually an opportunity to be more creative with how you market your business.

Lacking some creative juices for marketing strategies? Worry no more with these budget friendly marketing tips!

1)      Don’t underestimate old school marketing tools. I’m not asking you to print 10,000 flyers or brochures. You can start with 100 and distribute them in places where there are a lot of people and high volumes of foot traffic. Supermarkets or coffee shops can be great spots to start and both of these tend to offer community bulletin boards to post materials on. Continue to carry business cards everywhere you go since you never know just who you may meet when you’re putting up these flyers. Get as creative as possible when going the paper route –  why not make a calendar with your company details in it for 2013?

2)      Utilize social media. Social media has made it easy to reach a broad audience and spend a relatively small amount of money, if any, in the process. Create a blog on your company website and put all your company updates in there. Include activities and plans which you think might interest more people and create Facebook and Twitter accounts to promote the posts out on.

3)      Create promotions and great deals. People love promos! If you’re selling a product, you can create a Buy One Get One deal. For services, you can have a ‘Bring a friend and get 50%’ promo. Of course, you should be able to study your promos first. Make sure that you would still get a steady stream of revenue brought in from it. After all, it is your business and you need to make a profit from it!

4)      Create local events. Do you have friends who sing? Why not invite them to come up with a small concert at your storefront on a weekend you offer a big sale? That will lure in customers both new and familiar alike. Promote your products by providing free samples or trial sized items and offer up additional coupons for discounts on your next purchase.

5)      Build good relationships with your customers. Nothing beats great word of mouth! Make sure that every customer will have a good experience by using or experiencing your products or services and develop a rapport with them personally. Invite them for coffee or send them personalized emails of thanks. With that simple gesture, you will be able to retain your current customers who will refer you to their relatives and friends.

Marketing your business shouldn’t be taken for granted – your customers are your backbone to the success of your company!

Barbara Watson is a small business owner. She loves to help small time entrepreneurs in making it big in their respective industry. Apart from that, she is also a regular contributor for Phoenix Kiosk. They have a great team that will help your business with software and hardware needs.