Low Cost Ways to Promote Your Business

Low Cost Ways to Promote Your Business

Promoting involves: all the tools available to communicate that your product or service exists. There are tons of methods you can use, some require a lot of money, but you don't have to break the bank to get the word out about your company.

Develop A Promotional Plan

Define objectives
To support sales increases
To encourage trial
To create awareness
To inform about a feature or benefit
To remind
To create an image
To change attitudes

Evaluate the different low cost tools

Business Cards/Flyers/Brochures
Use when you have special offer, pass out during events, post to bulletin boards, etc. Be sure they all have your logo, tag line, website, phone number.

News Releases
The media only want releases that have a clever angle or a hot topic. For example, if your salon just opened and you want the media to cover your grand opening, come up with an a catchy angle like, "New Salon Gives Makeovers to
Make You Look 10 Years Younger."

Networking
Networking is your opportunity to build relationships, and promote what you have to offer. Attend events or organizations where your target audience will be.

Public Speaking
Contact local organizations offer to speak about a topic you are knowledgeable in. If you'd rather jump out of an airplane than speak publicly, then join your local Toastmasters. Toastmasters will help you get over that fear and become a polished speaker. The cost to join Toastmasters varies with chapters, but you can expect to pay under $50.00 per year.

Discount coupons and giveaways
Discount coupons or giveaways can be used as incentives to get potential customers to try your services.

Online
1. Can't afford a website yet? Get a Myspace page.
It's free and a great way to showcase pictures of hairstyles, post tips, share information, and get potential clients from invited friends.
2. Blogging, forums and pod casting. More free tools to communicate your brand and connect with your target audience. Give advice and/or post comments.
3. List your website in free directories.

Email marketing and articles
Add a sign up link on your website or a sign up card near your reception area. Write articles on your areas of expertise and contact the editor of the local paper
and pitch your article.

Car advertising
For under $100 bucks you can purchase a magnetic plate to advertise your business on your vehicle.

Your business will likely show significant revenue increases in just a few months time with minimal effort and budget to promote. Without exposure, growth is limited.

For more "Low Cost Promotional Ideas" call The Marketing Lady at 469-287-1127 or visit her website.

Women Entrepreneur Resource

I found this great resource for women entrepreneurs. The Bootstrapper.

What's missing from your marketing?

I was recently speaking at a networking event in Dallas, TX when a small business owner approached me and asked, "what's missing from my marketing". This person owns a boutique women's clothing store that is not getting enough customer traffic into the store. I asked her what does she do in terms of marketing and promotions at the store. She responded with, a weekly coupon mailer, weekly newspaper ad and yellow pages listing.

My response:

If you are implementing marketing strategies on a monthly bases and not getting your expected results, it's time to do two things. First, start measuring the amount of customers your are getting from each activity to determine if you are getting a return on your investment. Do this by counting the number of coupons that customers bring in each month. It's hard to tell how many customers you are getting from your yellow page or newspaper ad unless you have a special phone number or coupon code.

Evaluate the number of households, location and other demographic information of your coupon mailer program. Be sure that the right type of customer is receiving the coupon. For example, if you sell clothing at a high price point, consider sending the coupons to households with women in high income brackets. In the weekly advertisement, add a statement to mention the ad and get a discount. What this does is provides an incentive for the viewer to come into your store and shop. It's also a way to track how well the program is doing. Evaluate your ad size and its location within the paper. Talk with your sales representative and let them know of your concerns about your ad with them. It is most likely, they will assist you in developing a more effective campaign.

The second thing you want to do is consider where your store is located. Are you in a strip mall, free standing building or a kiosks inside of a facility? What kind of customer traffic comes to that location? Are other retailers experiencing low traffic as well? Take an hour or so and evaluate your store's location. Evaluate the following areas:

• The stores next to you - being next to a store with steady customer traffic is best.
• General area traffic - if the overall traffic of your location is slow you might want to consider moving.
• Accessibility - can customers easily get to your store? is there adequate parking?
• General appearance of the area - your store might be in good shape but the shopping mall, parking lot, or surrounding buildings might not.

After re-evaluating these four areas, determine whether moving to a new location would help boost the sales and traffic you need. If all else fails, hire a marketing consultant to develop a marketing strategy to help you grow.

http://www.themarketinglady.com/

Promoting a Service

I was recently consulting someone who launched a new concierges business where she will run errands for busy executives and business professionals. She is working on her website and marketing collateral, and wanted to know what else she should do to promote her services.

Here's my response.
You are headed in the right direction by establishing a web presence and printed marketing collateral. Promoting a product means getting customers to buy an organization’s product and, in most cases, to remain a loyal long-term customer. To communicate effectively, you need to understand the elements of the promotion mix which include advertising; used to build up a long-term image or get quick sales. Just starting out you may not have the budget right away to do a lot of advertising, but the greatest benefit of using advertising is the ability to reach a larger audience and repetition. Sales Promotion could be apart of your promotion mix. Use this to get a quicker buyer response or to boost sales during slow periods. Sales promotions are attention getters, incentive to buy, and an invitation to take action.

Public Relations is another way to promote your concierges service by using press kits, speeches, charity events, sponsorships, media, events, community relations. With PR you can build your credibility and get free media coverage. In your line of business you will be doing a lot of personal selling. This involves doing sales presentations, offering sales incentives, attending trade shows. You will use personal selling to establish long term relationships that lead to long-term customers. Start with establishing your objectives. Is it to increase sales, create an image, or create awareness? Once you have an idea of your objectives, and then evaluate the different promotional tools and chose the optimum mix of promotional methods. The final step would be to integrate it into your overall marketing communication program.

Post your marketing questions to The Marketing Lady.