Small Business Marketing Ideas that Will Save You Money

Small business marketing ideas are crucial to the success of small businesses. This is primarily because small businesses are different from big businesses, especially when it comes to budget size for marketing activities. While big businesses can afford to spend a large portion on marketing; unnecessary, unproductive marketing expenses can instantly kill small businesses.

Small business marketing ideas are what compensate for the limited marketing budget of small, new and yet-to-be-established businesses. Here are five examples of small business marketing ideas.

Social networking sites

Social networking sites are probably the most popular sites in the Internet nowadays, even surpassing Yahoo, Google and MSN. Small businesses can benefit greatly from these sites by establishing marketing presence as members of the social network. Small businesses can choose from several popular sites including Facebook, Friendster and Multiply. Of the many small business marketing ideas, this is probably the cheapest but most effective method to gain mileage for your company and products.

Buddy marketing

You can also seek out partner companies which agree to give out your fliers or brochures for as long as you include theirs in your distribution. This strategy is called buddy marketing. It not only promotes partnerships with other companies, but also provides a chance to reach a whole new pool of potential customers.

Use stickers

Use stickers, stamps and handwritten notes on all of your direct mail efforts and day-to-day business mail. Remember, when you put a sticker or handwritten message on the outside of an envelope, it has the impact of a miniature billboard. People read it first; however, the message should be short and concise so it can be read in less than 10 seconds.

Make follow-up offers after they've purchased

Customers often go back to stores or shops where they feel welcome and special. You can make your customers feel welcome and special by handing out handwritten notes to your customers, thanking them for their business and informing them of special private offers upon their return. The notes serve as a special personal touch as well as a way for them to avail of the promised offers or discounts. To create urgency, you can include an expiration date in your note.

Newsletters

It costs six times more to make a sale to a new customer than to an existing one, which is why one of the good small business marketing ideas is to concentrate considerable effort on focusing your marketing on past customers. Newsletters do exactly this, while keeping the costs down from frequency and high production values. Newsletters can be e-mailed to customers for a cheaper alternative.

4 Small Business Marketing Ideas

Starting your own business is not easy. Many people try to jumpstart small businesses without any success. Before you go out and venture on your own, you need to arm yourself with as many small business marketing ideas that you can get your hands on.

Whether it’s a small business or a big one, marketing is essential. This is how other people will get to know your business and effective marketing should entice your target clients to try out your service or product.

Marketing is even more important for small businesses because they don’t often have the luxury of huge budgets unlike big businesses. However, there are many small business marketing ideas to help you make the most out of your marketing efforts.

Below are just some of these small business marketing ideas that will surely benefit your business.

· Diversify

For any kind of business, a diverse set of marketing strategies would be best. Using the same marketing strategy for a long time could bore your target customers. It is always a good idea to keep your marketing pitch fresh and updated. This way, your customers will always be anticipating your new marketing ideas while wondering what you will be coming up with next.

· X-deal

An x-deal is also otherwise known as an exchange deal. With a deal like this, both parties agree on an exchange of service or product. You could always use your service or product to get advertising space. Since small businesses often have limited budget for advertising, this is a great way to advertise without spending.

· Events

One of the best ways to market your product or service is to host an event that’s related to the service or product that you are offering. Even if this marketing strategy comes with a cost, you get to have direct access to your target customers. Also, you are sure that the people who will be attending the event will be interested in what you have to offer.

· Buddy marketing

Partner with another business that’s related to your own business. You could agree to send out their marketing materials whenever you send out your own while they do the same for you. This way, you also get access to their clientele.

The above are just some small business marketing ideas that would help you get the most out of marketing your small business. Other marketing strategies like postcard marketing, direct mail marketing and many more would also be good to try so that you’d get an idea which would work best for your business.

3 Small Business Marketing Ideas with Minimal Costs

Small business marketing ideas can make the difference between profit and loss. Since small businesses primarily lack the budget for the usual large scale marketing strategies, they rely on less costly (preferably free) creative marketing alternatives to keep them afloat and at par with the big businesses. Here are 3 small business marketing ideas commonly employed by newcomers and small scale businesses.

Seminars or Open house

Hosting events is an excellent way to gain exposure and talk time with key clientele and possible customers, as well as circulating your company name. Plus, the media is usually interested in these small business marketing ideas so it usually covers events and seminars. Just provide a good enough or interesting enough reason to expect something from the event. This way, you double exposure.

Another possible thing you can do, if it's a seminar, is to charge a fee and set a maximum limit for the audience. A fee gives the impression of value while limits give the impression of exclusivity. This more or less segregates the audience into more prospects and common passersby. If you’re handing out brochures or flyers in the seminar which your company spent on, might as well give them to people with a better chance of buying than to those who just happen to be there by chance, right?

Bartering

One of the small business marketing ideas with little cost is bartering. It’s a really good strategy especially for those with limited budget. You can exchange your product for ad space or for another company's service or product. This way, you only spend on a few samples while also gaining exposure. Also, if things go well for both you and the companies you choose to barter with, then it also creates good partnerships and even future relationships with customers of other companies.

Mail Outs

Of the many small business marketing ideas, mail outs is probably the least bothersome. This involves placing your brochures, ads, flyers, or any promotional material in all your outgoing mails. It not only saves on postage, but it also gives your company extra mileage. However, it is more likely that most of the recipients will not be buyers. The good thing, though, is that the few who might be interested could at least get their hands on means to order or be informed of your products and your company. These people might later be your means to spreading the word around.

To minimize printing cost, you can send out surplus ad materials from other marketing gigs that were never used so you don’t have to make new copies.

Avoid Small Business Marketing Ideas with Large Business Costs

It is important to keep in mind that small business marketing ideas should always come with small business costs. It can be difficult to market a small business, and thinking like a large business will only give you high marketing costs.

When trying to come up with small business marketing ideas, it would be very beneficial for the success of your business to always remember that what you have is a small business and not a large one. Below are some tips to guide you:

· Think Small Business

Thinking like a small business means you don’t advertise like a big one. Large businesses allocate a huge budget on advertising which small businesses simply cannot afford. Some large businesses don’t immediately target sales with one advertisement. Sometimes, they have a series of advertisements meant to build up so that they can build buzz, improve reputation and increase potential future sales. With small businesses, every advertisement should be targeted to produce direct and immediate sales. You cannot afford to lose money on a single advertisement that will not directly bring in sales.

· Small Ads

It is okay to use small ads, it’s not unusual for a small business to do this. Bigger ads mean higher costs, which you’re trying to avoid.

· Partner with other Small Businesses

You would have a chance of creating greater advertisement power if you partner with another small business. Of course, it should be a small business that complements yours. Don’t get a competitor. Agree to publicize each other’s products or services to your respective clients. Since your businesses complement each other, there would be clients who would be interested in getting both of your services or products.

· Create Packages

This is a very popular marketing strategy, even for big businesses. This is especially effective if you have a wide range of services or products. Not all of your customers would be interested in the same services or products that you are offering. Offering packages could let them get several products or services beyond what they need. Also, it could cater to the different budgets of your clients, especially if you have ‘budget packages’ and ‘premium packages’.

There are many more small business marketing ideas that could help your business become successful. The key is to always remember the scope of your business and the needs of your target clients. Knowing your business and your customers well and applying that knowledge in marketing your small business is a huge step towards the success of your business.

Bad Small Business Marketing Ideas to Avoid

If you are thinking of starting your own business, you would probably come up with a lot of small business marketing ideas. Some of these ideas could be good, and some could be bad. It is important to steer clear of these bad small business marketing ideas early on. Below are some of them:

· Starting off without any plan

The first thing you need before starting your own small business is a plan. And it shouldn’t just be any plan to sell or offer a particular service or product. Think your whole business through, including thinking of marketing strategies for your business. You should also learn all that you can about the business that you will be starting. Study the market and the competition.

· Think about the money

The reason for starting any kind of business is to earn money, but it doesn’t mean you should think of that all the time. This means that bringing in money should not always be on your mind or on all your small business marketing ideas especially at the start of the business because it is understandable that you would be spending more than you are earning at the start. Any marketing strategy should be for the long run, not for making quick money.

· Stop learning

Learning is much more important during the start of your business. Never undertake anything in your business without learning all about it. Every marketing plan should be backed up by some sort of study of what works, of your target clients, of your products or service, and of current trends in the market.

· Ignore the competition

For small businesses, the competition is so much more important. Study what the competition is offering and try to put yourself in a customer’s shoes. What would make you go for your business instead of the competition?

· Forgo marketing

One of the worst small business marketing ideas is to skip the marketing altogether. Although there are few businesses that barely do any kind of marketing, it would take a long time and a lot of money to sustain a small business without any kind of marketing. Without marketing, the only people who would know about your business are your family and friends, which means that your pool of clients would also be limited to them. Marketing will help you reach out to other people who might be interested in what you have to offer.