Small business usually means small marketing budget. This calls for creative marketing ideas.
Christina Walker of Writtent, understands what that means and outlines 25 marketing ideas that might work for your small business. Here are my top 13 favorites from her list:
- Create relevant content on your website. Blog categories or an on-site news/updates are excellent for this.
- Reuse content. If you have great content but no one is consuming it, repurpose it. Blog posts can be collated into an ebook, a magazine article could be reprinted and distributed as a booklet….
- Enter business award competitions. If you win, you get a badge on your website and a lot more sales. Even if you don’t win, you can still get lots of publicity if you place high enough and broadcast your participation.
- Network at your local Chamber of Commerce. This is a classic marketing idea for small businesses because it can yield big dividends. Association with the Chamber will make your events more credible, and you can find new partners or clients, or discover opportunities to teach or speak.
- Join associations and use the provided resources, including local networking events, online forums, and job boards.
- Build a referral network. Referrals and word of mouth are the most powerful advertising, so build relationships with professionals and other businesses you would happily refer your customers to–and who can send referrals your way, as well.
- Make partnerships for co-promotion. Several related but non-competing businesses working together on a promotion can afford bigger ad space, better prizes, and other advertising expenses.
- Be a people person. Never stop networking, follow all leads, and participate in conversations wherever you find them. Don’t be afraid of the phone, internet, email, or face-to-face meetings.
- Open as many communication channels as appropriate, including but not limited to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, a toll-free phone number, live chat on your website, email, and related forums and blog comments.
- Donate to charities. Send out press releases for each organization and/or time you donate. Alternatively, you can donate a specific percentage of all sales to a certain organization or cause and make customers feel like they’re doing a good turn by purchasing from you.
- Survey your customers for great ideas. Listen to what they’re saying on Twitter and Facebook for honest market research.
- Use bumper stickers and window decals. In addition to putting on them company vehicles and owners’ cars, give them for free to employees, partners, stakeholders and investors, charities you donate to, and other contacts to display. Go a step further with a partial or full wrap on your company vehicle. You brand will really stand out.
- Ask for testimonials and reviews. This includes recommendations on LinkedIn. Create a testimonials page on your website and use the best reviews in as many promotions as makes sense.
The Original Vancouver Car Wraps specializes in vehicle wraps, signs, banners, displays, and more. As a local Vancouver based company we’re looking to help BC businesses get more exposure for their business and better advertising value for their dollar using vehicle wraps. The possibilities for your advertising creative are endless. Contact one of our Vancouver Car Wrap representatives to see how we can best help you!
