Anne admired her new hairdo in the mirror as she finished getting ready for work. While she brushed her teeth she reflected on how long it took her to find a suitable stylist. She called numbers from car signs. She inquired at beauty schools. She read reviews online. She found the perfect stylist after asking her social media network. She was pleasantly surprised that the service she got actually was better than what her friends told her. She hoped she would get a chance to send her new stylist more clients.
Although the scenario described above is fictional, things happen like that everyday. Promoting your business doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. You just have to be in the right place at the right time. You have to give such great service that people are glad to recommend you to their friends.
1. Promote With Business Cards
One of the first things people do when they start a business is print some business cards. That is the easiest low cost way to promote your business. You should always have some business cards on you because you never know when you will run into someone that needs your products or services. Your business cards should have the name of your business and your business’ contact info on it.
2. Promote With Articles
You can promote your business by writing articles. Many people skip over ads but they’ll stop to read an informative article. Just make your article more factual than salesy. You can publish your article in other newsletters that your potential clients read. You can also publish your articles on the web in article directories. Your articles can even be published on other blogs as guest posts.
3. Promote Using Interviews
Another low cost way to promote your business is to give interviews. If people hear you speaking about your area of expertise, they will pay attention to you. This is especially true if your interview appears in a popular blog or on a popular podcast. Interviews give people a chance to see your personality. This is a chance for you to shine. Use your interview as a chance to show people how you can solve the problem they have. Use your interview as a chance to show how you help in the community. Don’t just use this time to sell or promote products.
4. Promote Using Promotional Items
You can also promote your business with promotional items. People always need pens. Tote bags are also good things to give away. Tote bags are especially good to give away if you’re at a trade show or a convention. While business cards are good, it is easy for people to lose business cards. If you have your business imprinted on pens, people will hold on to the pens, especially if they are good quality pens. You want your promotional item to be something that people will use over and over again so that your business is imprinted in your potential client’s memory.
You can even use your promotional items as prizes. If you’re at a trade show, you can encourage people to leave business cards in a bowl and then you can raffle off a shirt, pen or tote bag. This way you’re not only promoting your business to the winner, you have the chance to follow up with the people that leave their business card in the bowl. Just make sure that you let people know they’ll be contacted if they enter the raffle.
5. Get Clients Using Social Media
Social media is a great way to promote your business. Your potential clients are already using social media, so you are missing out if you don’t have a social media presence. You can find people that are interested in what you are selling by joining groups. There are lots of groups on Facebook. Just make sure you don’t go spamming groups. The best way to make this work is to make friends with people in the groups and then you eventually will be able to talk to them about your business.
6. Promote Your Business Using Videos
Videos can also help you promote your business. You can make videos demonstrating you using your product. You can show your customers using your product. Videos also help people that are visual learners see how useful your products are. You can post the videos on YouTube, Viddler, and several other video sharing sites.
Promoting your business is the most important thing you can do for your business. You have to constantly be bringing in customers or your business will not survive. Using low cost methods to promote your business is crucial because in the beginning you won’t have a lot of money to spend on marketing your business.
