There are many things you can do to raise awareness for your business and it’s services and products. Many are free and some cost just a small amount to do. Although there might be a few ideas not listed that would be unique to your business, most will. I do not include mass media advertising like TV and Radio. I do include the marketing that ALL business should explore and try.
MARKETING ITEMS THAT ARE FREE – BUT DO COST YOU SOME TIME
- Post An Ad Showcasing And Promoting Your Business Services Twice A Week on LinkedIn, your personal Facebook page, your business Facebook page, NextDoor, X, and any other Social platforms that are appropriate, and open the post up to everyone – not just your friends.
- Post A Social Business Message Every 1 to 3 Days on LinkedIn, your business Facebook page, X, and any other Social platforms that are appropriate. Don’t make every post only about what you sell. Offer business and personal advice also, like Tips on Prospecting, etc.. If you do not post on the weekends, then do it 3 times a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday, or 2 times a week on Tuesday and Thursday.
- Blogging Weekly, or Every 2 Weeks – Don’t just blog on your website. Start sharing for free on the above channels – both personal and business. Don’t make every post only about what you sell. Offer business and personal advice also.
- Newsletters – There are many that will allow you to start for free – Take that blog you wrote and send it out as a newsletter, and sharing for free on the above channels. Don’t do weekly – only do every 2 weeks or once a month. Once your newsletter list gets large enough, there will be a cost to do this. The size is dependent on which service you choose to use.
- Attend Free Network Mixers – Sometimes, these are tied to networking groups or the mixer is their group. And some may have a small entrance fee, but usually not. Find some networking happy hour mixers, or such, in your area and network yourself with the guests. But if all you do is talk about yourself, it will not go well. You have to show interest in what they do also – and mean it!
NOTE: After a number of posts, you can repeat the ones you did before. Every 45 to 60 days, start over again with what you have already posted, and you can always add more if something becomes relevant and post it new, then it falls into the rotation to be repeated again and again. With newsletters, you can repeat every 2 to 3 years. The goal is to be top of mind when someone says, “Do you know anyone that does this or that?” or “Hey, I need someone that can do this – Oh yea, Bob at XYZ company can do that” (they see your ads all the time and just saw one yesterday). Coke stays top of mind because of non-stop promotions putting their brand in front of everyone and everywhere you go.
MARKETING ITEMS THAT COST
- Craigslist Ads – Run an ad or two over a monthly time frame, offering your business services or products – Only $5 Per Month per ad. YES, these can still produce and they are cheap.
- Google Ads – If you are a local brick and mortar store, keep the reach to 5 miles in the beginning to limit your spend for testing. With Google Ads, you can shorten that to 5 km. I do suggest you find someone like myself to assist in this because if you follow Google’s suggestions, you will NOT get the results you want, and if you do, you will be overspending by a very large amount of money.
- NextDoor Ads – If appropriate, they perform well for some business verticals.
- Facebook Ads – Although I am not a fan of Facebook Ads, they do produce for many businesses, but – you really need to find someone to assist you that knows what they are doing because you can spend a lot of money and get nothing for it, so limit your spend with slow testing to see if you can find what works and what doesn’t. Remember that with Google Ads and Craigslist Ads, people are searching for your offerings. With Facebook Ads, they are not. And – unfortunately, the more you spend on Facebook Ads, the better your results will be (although they will not admit this).
- Native Advertising – There are many services that will get your ad on major sites – like Fox News or CNN and such. Again, these are like Facebook Ads – people not looking for what you offer, but in my opinion, Facebook would likely be a better option due to repeated views of your ad.
- Geo Targeted Ads – Many of the same native ads companies offer this also. Draw an outline around a mapped location, set the hours and days, and when someone enters the area, your ad can be seen on their phones. Example: You visit the mall, and one of the mall’s tenants have this type of ad. As the mall guest looks at their phone and checks the news, they see your ad telling them to stop in for an instant discount at the mall. Also great for targeting clients that would have a strong interest in your offer. Example: You sell camping gear and you target camp grounds.
- Purchase A Cold Call List Of Prospective Clients – Call them or send mailers first (post cards / letters), then perhaps stop in to say Hi – Yes, these can still be effective for some business types.
NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES
Some will require you to pay a fee to join, or at a minimum buy a breakfast or lunch, and there isn’t as many as there was pre Covid.
- Join a couple of local Chambers Of Commerce or local networking groups, and perhaps one that only meets once a month. it’s very time consuming if you join more than 3. Attend regularly and strike up new conversations with people in them. Evaluate after a minimum of 6 months as to whether it’s worth your time to continue in each, and if it’s not, find others to try. You might also attend a new one each week or every 2 weeks, at least once, in an attempt to find really good ones to join.
- Do you know enough people to start your own networking group? Do it. As to if you should advertise it on Meetup.com, that is probably a good idea to try to attract a few new people to it and the cost is not that much for a single group.
PRODUCT SALES ONLY
Third Party Sales Platforms and Product Feeds : Google Products / eBay / Amazon / Walmart / Sears-Kmart / etc.
- If you sell products online, it’s an absolute must to put your items on Google Products – it’s free, and most Ecommerce systems have a plugin to do that with. Next would be eBay and Amazon, but remember their average commission is over 15%. Walmart produces very little for most businesses, and Sears-Kmart charges too much per month to be listed in my opinion.
TIPS
- Accept that B2B is more difficult than B2C because the number of prospects is so much lower and a bit more difficult to get to, but the average sale is usually much higher.
- Do the free, and nearly free things first (listed at the top of the page), but you will eventually need to do some paid advertising / marketing also. It will take some time and money to determine which ones will work for you and your business.
- Try to think daily who you know that could be referred to another person you know – Put this on your calendar to do every morning. If you don’t know that many people, then do it once a week, but put it on your calendar. If you don’t put it on your calendar, you are guaranteed to never do it … Why do it? … The law of reciprocity – What goes around, comes around – Give to Get.
- There are some really old marketing tricks that don’t work well, but …. like walking through an office building and dropping your business cards in the hallways or lobby, or leaving them on lobby tables and such … LOL. Be creative when you need to be – Everything works to some degree, but doing nothing is guaranteed to fail.
