There are certain weapons that every business needs to thrive. One of them is marketing, but there is a problem. To be successful in marketing, it is a common train of thought that you have to spend a lot of money to succeed. As a smaller company, the odds are that you don’t have the sort of finance available to invest in a high-cost, high-quality marketing campaign. But, luckily, there are alternatives to forking out every penny have in your pocket. In fact, you can even be successful at marketing on a shoestring.
Search Engine Optimization
In basic terms, the more people you can attract to your site, the more chance you have of making a conversion. Traffic, as it is known in the industry, is essential to success even if you don’t place too much emphasis on the power of the Internet. For all of you who are looking to make online sales, search engine optimization funnels people to the business end of your site. Once they are there, you can encourage them (subtly) to create an account or buy one of your products or services. If you work offline, your website is a great tool to help raise awareness of your brand, and SEO tries to tell as many people as possible. Take a look at http://www.firstpage.hk to find out more about SEO and its importance.
Social Media
The main cost of marketing is buying the advertising space. Whether you like to advertise via the billboards in the middle of town or on primetime TV, it is going to cost you a small fortune. For big businesses, this isn’t a problem as they are more than ready to splash the cash. For you, it is a problem. But, step forward social media to even the score. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are just as effective at raising awareness because they circulate tons of people. Between the three of them, they reach billions of people a day. And, it costs nothing to set up an account. Check out http://www.ebizmba.com to see just how popular social media sites are today.
Create A Killer Pitch
You should always be on the lookout for people to pitch to because opportunities are all around you – you just have to find them first. Everyone you meet is a potential customer you may be interested in your company, so you need to improve your public speaking talents. Research suggests that the average person loses interest after ten seconds. So, you need your pitch to engage and entertain them in a succinct manner. It might surprise you how often an ‘elevator pitch’ works.
Collaborate
Even though it is business, it doesn’t mean you cannot collaborate with other businesses. The key is not to ask your competitors because that gives you no edge. You want to talk to non-competitive businesses in the area so you can cross-promote your marketing efforts. For example, you can link them on your website, and vice versa, to reach a new and ever expanding customer base.
All of the above are free and easy to implement. Honestly, there isn’t a person alive who can think of a better way to market their business without spending a fortune.
