Marketing doesn’t have to be hard or expensive. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most effective
As a business owner you are involved in multiple projects and perhaps you are also looking after trivial things related to hiring, expense& office management. Sometimesit’s just jeopardize your timetable and you end up rescheduling important tasks for later. Limited manpower can really put roadblocks in the daily schedule of startups teams and small business owners.
Recent survey conducted by Yodle has enlisted some top priorities and worries of business owners. The survey result shows that 42% of business owners are looking for their business growth and they consider marketing as their biggest challenge followed by concerns of keeping their current clients happy and retaining the workforce for the longer run.
Source: Yodle annual business sentiment survey (Augut, 2013)
Did you know that over 90% of people head straight online before making any final purchase decision, some review search engines for best deals/prices while others check for business authenticity and reviews on forums such as Yelp!.. Although it’s a comprehensive and intense topic but there is no longer any doubt about how people narrow their search for product online. Those businesses that have content rich website and those which regularly update and interact with customers through social media always have the edge over businesses who stay off touch.
In this article we are going to discuss 6 ways through which you small business owners and team can market themselves.
1. Online Listing
Gone are the days when customers have to flip through hundreds of pages to find business information, people now head straight to online listing sites which helps them find everything and anything related to the business.
I am listing 8 online listing directories that are must for your business online health. Some of listing services may not work for your geographic location and you may need to find listing service that cover your area;
- Google Places for Business
- Yahoo! Local Listing
- Yelp
- MerchantCircle
- Yellow Pages
- White Pages
- Superpages.com
- Yellowbook
2. Search Advertising
Search advertising as you might know is the method of placing ads against user’s queries on search engines. Say for example with Google Adwords you can deliver your ad at a time when a user has typed a very relevant query on searchengine, the more relevant your solutions the better your ad response will be.
3. Online Videos
Good video that not only carries good message but also contains an element of humor tends to outsmart many marketing strategies. Your marketing video should be short, purposeful and contains a valuable CTA to motivate the viewers to take action instantly. Many businesses have dedicated YouTube channels for their video advertisements, product details and testimonials that help them standout.
4. Free Content
Who doesn’t love free content, right? Create a lot of free resource related to your product/service and how it helps your customers in exchange for their name and email address. Meanwhile user can download guide from your website or it could be delivered right into their mailbox with no cost involved. You also can integrate and segment your email marketing list to build and maintain your email database.
5. Leveraging the power of Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the cheapest and arguably most effective for long term customer conversion. Success of email campaigns largely depends on how we utilizes it as part of business overall marketing campaigns. Many businesses hesitates and open limited avenues of their product/service through email which is a vital mistake for their email marketing success. A recent study by McKinsey and Co revealed that email marketing is 40 times more successful then Facebook and twitter marketing combined.
Check out the following email marketing solution perfect for small businesses;
- Cake Mail
- Mail Chimp
- Vertical Response
- AWeber
6. List your Business on Location Based Services
Listing your business on location based service could help you get found locally. Not only you would need your presence on such platforms but leaving and maintaining a good users/client feedback is also a must to make it useful. Some location based services includes;
- Yelp!
- Foursquare
- Loopt
Conclusion: Although there are countless marketing strategies but small business due to shortage of time and resources could only consider only that guarantees highest return for their time. Whether you are just starting up or leading a team with limited resources who wants to grow their business, this list could perfectly help you get started in the right direction.
Part II of the article will bring some more important marketing avenues that small businesses will find useful.
This article was originally published on 7Design blog.
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