If you are a small business owner, you might struggle to find time and money to market and promote your business. Question spins in your mind: What should you spend first? Is it important to have a website for your business or run ads in local newspapers? One person you talk to say is a good idea to buy promotional items like a pen and give it. Other people you talk to to confirm that postcard marketing is a way to go. How can you, as a small business owner with a limited budget, get your products and services out to the public in a big way without breaking the bank?
There are a number of steps you can take to overcome this challenge:
Focus and define is not what you do or sell, but how it helps others. It is called a statement of benefit. Whatever type of promotional activities that you do for your business, know the benefits you want to share with your customers and sharing consistently can help your marketing efforts successfully.
Who is your best potential customer? As a consultant, I heard repeatedly from small business owners “Oh, everyone is my customer.” Even bottled water has a unique market (not everyone buys or appreciates bottled water, believe it or not.) So who is your customer? Are they local, national? Are customers, women, teens, children? How old are they, what they have, what problems do they have can only be solved by your business? Sit and write a short description of your ideal customer. As knowing the benefits provided by your company, knowing who your ideal customers can help you communicate with them better and more importantly, get rid of marketing opportunities that don’t reach them.
Focus your marketing efforts on the first big things. If your company needs a website, a professional rental in a budget that you can afford to create a great website that completes your business goals. If you have a retail store, concentrate on making an extraordinary store experience to build mouth referrals from the mouth.
Create a good website for your business. No matter what your business does, in the world today, people are online to examine everything in the sun. If your business doesn’t have a website, you risk losing potential customers. But don’t be satisfied with any old website or let your best friends slap something. First impressions are always lasting impressions, and careless sites can also turn off prospective customers.
Now when it comes time to choose marketing activities for your business, compare the audience or people who will be reached by the profile you made from your ideal customers. Will you reach your ideal customer if you run the newspaper ad? When you know who your ideal customer is, you can find opportunities to reach them through various marketing activities.