Promoting your business is something that you will always have to do, whether you are a new startup or a household name. Even Coca-Cola and McDonald’s advertise their products every day. But how can a small business like yours get the word out on a tight budget? Are blogging, email lists and Facebook ads the only advertising methods you get to choose from these days? No way. There are tons of other options that you might never have even thought about. Here are five of them.
Text Message Marketing
Everybody knows about email marketing as a way of utilizing digital technology to grow your business. But how many small business owners are aware of text message marketing? If you’ve ever compared the amount of spam emails you receive every week to the amount of spam text messages you receive, then you know that the answer is, “Not very many.”
It’s true. A lot of businesses know about telemarketing by placing live phone calls, but very few of them use text message marketing—and they already have people’s phone numbers! And while many consumers are developing ad blindness when it comes to scrolling past marketing emails, most of them will still open up a text message and look at it. So this can be a golden opportunity for you to get your marketing message in front of more people.
Door-to-Door Flyer Delivery
In this age of digital marketing, blogging and Google ads, it’s easy to forget that older marketing tactics can still work well. Flyer marketing is one such tactic. When compared to television, radio and newspaper ads, flyers are dirt cheap. You can print up a thousand of them and have them delivered to homes in your service area for a few pennies per flyer. That is a pretty decent deal. If you include a coupon on those flyers, you can get a pretty good response.
Vehicle Ads
Placing ads on vehicles is another great way to increase brand awareness for a local business. The next time you take your vehicle in for truck or trailer repairs, you should have your brand logo and contact info painted on as well. With the low cost of vehicle decals, this can generate a great ROI. There are even entire companies devoted to vehicle ads, and many taxi companies and delivery services will place ads and mini-billboards on their fleet vehicles for a monthly fee.
Public Access Television
Running a weekly television show on public access TV can be a good way to help you build your brand, especially if you are reaching out to an older demographic or low-income target group—as they are more likely to watch these shows. The episodes can also be recorded and uploaded to YouTube, your company blog and your company’s social media sites. So you can get a lot of mileage out of this advertising method.
Smartphone Apps
The market in smartphone apps is still largely untouched by small businesses. Sure, large companies create their own apps, and video games are huge. But small businesses have been slow to jump into this market, leaving a lot of space for you to jump in before spammers ruin it for everyone. You can use your app to deliver coupons to potential customers. You can also push your blog posts and videos through the app. And since it’s your app, you won’t have to compete with other companies’ ads or have to worry about spam filters burying your ads.
If you’re looking for new ways to promote your business without spending tons of money, try these five marketing techniques and see how they work for you. You just might find the perfect method for reaching your customers and taking your business to the next level.
