Major corporations stay in the public eye and make millions year after year largely because they can afford to pay for large-scale marketing campaigns including public relations, billboards, television and high-profile web advertisements. As a small business owner you unfortunately don't have that luxury, but it is not necessary to spend a fortune on marketing your business. Explore some affordable small business marketing ideas instead.
Preparation
Before you start to implement any new marketing ideas for your small business, it is important that you first develop a marketing budget. Know exactly how much you have available to spend and then you can divide that budget up on various marketing initiatives. You must also take time to both define and do research on your target customer so that you know craft your message and where to place advertisements. Finally, when you do try out marketing ideas, test them on a small scale first, then put more money toward the initiatives that work.
Street Promotions
One way to get attention for a small business on a tight budget is to pay for street promotions. Your main expense for promotions include people (you can pay a small hourly wage for workers) and fliers, which you can buy in bulk for a relatively small amount of money compared to other types of print advertisements. You can also offer free samples of your product.
Online Ezines
Another affordable method for advertising a small business is to set up an online ezine. An ezine is like a magazine only it is hosted online, which helps minimize your costs. You can write on issues that affect your type of business as well as specific products or services that you sell. Since the magazine is published online, you can get the attention of potential customers all over the world for little more than the cost of setting up a web hosting account and template for the ezine.
Social Media Campaigns
Another affordable small business marketing idea is to embark on a full-scale social media marketing campaign. Using social media is free and some websites offer special tools made for business users, like business fan pages. You can manage your own campaign or hire a social media savvy high school or college student at minimum wage to do contracting work on behalf of your company.
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