With any business, marketing is key to the success of that particular business. However, as much as marketing is important, it can also be very expensive and can sink a company if it is not done properly. This quick list of marketing tips for small business can help make the most of your marketing efforts and get your business up and going in the right direction this year.
1: Write Your Own Press Releases and Blogs
Finding a good copywriter can be tough and not to mention expensive. And while it is awesome if you can find someone who will write great press releases and blog post for you, it is missing one thing. You. Your voice is very important when writing about your company. Plus it saves you a ton of money. I know you may not have a lot of time to squeeze in writing articles and blogs but it is pretty important. Write about whats new in your company, team members and employees, or a mission that your business stands for. Find some press releases on Google for examples and format them similar to ones that you like. Send them to local journalist and try to get some local coverage. Your local news channels like local stories and its great PR for your business.
2: Affiliate Marketing Programs
Affiliate networks like CJ Affiliate, Clickbank and ShareASale are a few popular affiliate networks that a lot of companies use to find their affiliate partners to advertise their brand. However, a lot of these companies have minimum sale volumes your company must have in order to qualify your business to be featured on their network. To work around this your can create your own affiliate program. This can be tricky for two reason but if done right it can be worth the hassle of getting it setup. The first reason is because you have to find a way to track all of the sales each of your affiliate partners have made for your brand. The second is actually finding the affiliate partners that will trust your brand to pay them out for sales they create for you. With that being said, there are a lot of small businesses that have figured it out and make good money from affiliate partnerships. A good place to start your affiliate program setup or questions answered is going on Fiverr.com and searching affiliate managers. Contact a few of them to see what their recommendations are and go from there. You never know until you ask.
3: Partner With Other Brands for Giveaways
Giveaways are a fun way to boost your social media audience and give your brand some extra attention. When you add that with joining forces with other local small businesses and do a combined giveaway it is a win-win for each brand. And the best part is that you all get to introduce your business or brand to each others audiences. Which in turn leads to a larger social media following and audience for you. A lot of times other small business owners are happy to talk to you and like to think of ways to enhance brand marketing. It literally just takes you reaching out to them and asking if they want to do a giveaway. Most of the time they will agree and you both will see a great boost in social views, followers, and sales.
4: Social Media in General
This one seems obvious but it can be hard to find the time to spend on your businesses social media platforms and creating content for those platforms. While it might be hard to find the time it is very important in this day and age to make this happen. Everyone is on some sort of social media, even your grandma is on Facebook more than likely. I recommend just taking at least 10-20 minutes a week and posting something. It can literally be anything at first and see if it can grow organically. If your not getting any traction then take a little bit of time and come up with a quick marketing campaign. This takes a little bit of creativity but can be fun if you make it fun. Once you have your campaign, post weekly about that campaign and post it on all your platforms you have your business on. This makes your brands message constant and the same on each one and can really take your brands message a long way.
Oh yeah, one last thing that also seems obvious but can take some time. Make sure that you respond to every comment, message, or tweet that is sent to your business. Especially at the start when your just getting your business or brand off the ground.
5: Guerrilla Advertising
Guerrilla advertising can be a lot of fun and can get a ton of PR for your business if it is done properly. Another great part about it is that a lot of times it is very inexpensive. The key to this strategy is creativity. The more creative the guerrilla advertising idea is the more PR you will get for it. With the large companies having an unlimited marketing budget it can be hard to compete with them traditionally. This is when this strategy comes into play and can get you the same PR that the large companies pay top dollar for. So roll your sleeves up and get creative on your advertising. You never know, your next guerrilla marketing idea could be the next awesome PR story.
Click here for some creative ideas to get the ball rolling.
A Savage Dad’s Final Thoughts
Marketing tips for small business can be useful for any entrepreneur in the first months, even years, of a business. It is important to get the most of each of your dollars and make them stretch as far as possible. What are some other valuable marketing tips for your small business that you’ve found helpful?
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