About This Lesson
Starting a small business is never easy, and it can be nearly impossible to be seen by your hopeful customer base since it sometimes seems like social media and the internet are over saturated with information. If you are having trouble marketing your business, here are some easy (and inexpensive) things that you can do to get your offerings in front of the right crowd.
Advertise on Social Media
This may seem like a silly idea since nearly every company has a social media presence and attempts to grow their customer base with social media. But the truth is that if you aren't out there too, you're missing out on a reasonably priced, and sometimes totally free, marketing opportunity for your business. In fact, 90 million small businesses use Facebook, and many simply use the free tools such as pages, messenger, and groups. If you don't have a business page, create one and post company news, promotions (particularly promotions that are only for social media followers), and any other information that you want your followers to know.
Try Billboard Advertising
Another strategy to build brand recognition is outdoor advertising, such as billboard advertising solutions. Billboards are a simple way to get in front of tons of people-whether they like it or not. Think about it- most people drive, take public transportation, and even walk or bike outdoors at some point during the week. They can't help but look at the billboards along their route, so use this to your advantage and create a really compelling message that piques interest.
Retarget Customers
Sometimes customers will happen upon your website, think it is interesting, but then get pulled away by a more pressing task and forget about what they were doing online. Retargeting involves serving ads to people who have visited your website to remind them that they once were interested in your products. These ads show up on other websites that they visit a couple of days to a couple of weeks after they visited and left your site. This is especially useful for those who actually did intend on revisiting your site, but for whatever reason-they forgot or they closed the browser window, perhaps- did not make it back. If they click the ad, they should be taken to a special landing page for repeat visitors. It is often recommended that you offer a special discount just for these people to entice them to make the purchase this time around.
Create Killer Content
If you have a website with a blog, use it! If you can optimize your blog posts for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), this is a great way to get some free advertising for your business right on Google. Certain keywords index very well on Google, and if you select the right ones and use them in blog posts, you will very likely have content on one of the first few pages- no payment necessary. Another reason to create great blog content is that by doing so, you can be viewed as a thought leader in your field, and someone who readers respect and may decide to do business with in the future.
Identify and Understand Your Target Customer
The last, and perhaps most important, piece of advice is that you need to truly identify and understand your target customers. It is a waste of everyone's time if you advertise to the wrong person, so do some market research and get a good grasp on who is really going to purchase your products or services before you even begin strategizing about content and other advertising. For example, you don't want to market dog treats to someone who doesn't own a dog, so ensure that you know your customer before you do anything else.
It can be tough to get traction for your business when just starting up. If you market to the correct people effectively, you will eventually have a very successful venture.
