When starting a new business, it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you have to spend a lot of money in order to get things up and running. Marketing and advertising can be very expensive if you go about it the wrong way. However, when you’re starting up as a brand-new business, there is really no reason to sink a lot of your money into marketing until you do the basics first. Let’s take a look at some unique and innovative ways to promote your business without breaking the bank.
Promotional items
It doesn’t cost that much money to get some simple promotional items for your business. This can include things like personalized T-shirts, writing pads and pens. The idea is to get people used to seeing your logo and branding. One such company is Ideas by Net Promotional Items. They provide some cool promotional items and I personally know companies that use their products. You can order very inexpensive personalized T-shirts online. In fact, you could probably get 10 shirts for well less than $100 on sites such as Vistaprint.com.
Social media
Perhaps one of the best ways to start marketing your business is through social media. Even though word-of-mouth is still one of the best ways to get advertising for your company, virtual word-of-mouth might be even better. Get involved in social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, especially if your business is locally based. The idea is to get your friends and family to start spreading the word about your business so that the information goes viral. Create your own Facebook fan page and do things such as giveaways in order to get more traffic to it. For instance, you could offer to do a drawing for a free gift card or some other perk for every person who likes your page within a certain period of time.
Use video
Getting viral attention for your business is one of the most important things that you can do early on. Use video so that people can hear your voice and see your face. This allows people to build rapport with you even if they haven’t met you yet. Put these videos on your social media sites, but also on sites such as YouTube.
Get involved locally
Make sure that you get involved with some local networking groups or even your Chamber of Commerce. Face-to-face networking is impossible to replace. Being able to shake hands with someone and hand them your business card will go a long way to providing you with the relationships you need in order to grow your business.
Start a blog
In addition to your social media marketing efforts, it might make sense to start a blog where you give your opinions and expertise about your particular niche topic. Again, this will set you apart as an expert in your industry which gives you more credibility.
Publish your own book
It might seem that it would be very pricey to publish your own book, but that simply isn’t true. These days, you can use sites such as Createspace.com to self publish a real, physical book that you can put up for sale on Amazon. Not only does this give you an opportunity for an additional revenue stream, but also gives you the ability to look like the expert in your field. Think about your other competitors locally. Do they have a physical book that they can hand to people? The self-publishing process is actually free. The only thing you have to pay for is a sample of your book at the very beginning which costs less than $9.
As you can see, there are some great inexpensive, creative ways to promote your business and get your brand name out to the public. You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to do this!
Follow Us!