The world, and the way we do business, has changed drastically since everyone was flying fast and free back in 2005. If you had a pulse, banks were more than happy to give you money back then. Now, you better have an MBA, $100,000 in the bank, and perfect credit to get a small personal loan. Its not a secret that small businesses have taken the brunt of the recession on the chin. Those that have survived are looking for new ways to drum up business. With all of the technological advances, its imperative that small businesses adapt to reach the maximum amount of customers. Better yet, the technological advances have provided a multitude of free marketing options for your small business to use.
1. Create a Facebook Page- Facebook has over 800 million users every month. By simply having a Facebook page, you can begin to access those users. Its a market that businesses around the world cannot afford to miss out on. Companies like Ford, Chevy, Budweiser, ABC, the Chicago Cubs, and many others have Facebook pages. They use them to tell their customers about special offers they are running, and you can do the same thing. This is an extremely powerful marketing tool, at no cost to you, that you can’t afford to miss out on.
To build an audience on Facebook filled with your current customers, simply send them an email from your Facebook page with an invite. Most customers will “Like” your page right away. If they don’t, its easy to offer a special promotion to customers who “Like” your page (ie. 10% off coupon). By “Liking” other pages like yours on Facebook, and commenting on their posts and Timeline, you also build an online presence that will help you tap into potential customers.
2. Create a Twitter Page- This is another extremely popular social media website. This site adds 11 new users every second to its already impressive user base well over 300 million users. Twitter allows you to access all of those users with a simple usage of popular topics proceeded with a hash-tag. While building a properly functional Facebook page can be time consuming for the initial setup, Twitter takes much less time to do. Better yet, Twitter posts are limited to how long they can be. So you can give your customers short snippets of information in just a few seconds to keep them up to date on the latest happenings in your business.
3. Market on Your Invoices- Every business has to make money. That is the point of being in business; to be a profitable organization. Why just send out an invoice without telling your customers about your latest sales promotion or product offering. Most invoices will have the total down towards the bottom of the document, and that is exactly where your customer is going to look first. Position a coupon near the total of the invoice that reminds your customers why they are using you in the first place.
4. Valued Customer Discount- With the economy just starting to bottom out, a good customer is hard to find. This discount, whether it be 5% or 20%, will help build your customer relationships even further. Even the big box stores know that customer service is the number one way to make a business visitor into a lifetime customer. Customers love seeing how much money they have saved when they make a purchase. By simply putting a line item on your receipt or invoice in red ink, you’ll show your customers exactly what they want to see; that they got a good deal. You can take this to the next step of customer service by calling it a “friends and family” discount. Show your customers how much you care and appreciate them for helping you through the recession. Developing a personal relationship with your customers will go a long way towards developing brand recognition.
5. Create A Blog For Your Business- Many people will tell you that blogging is a waste of time. That blogging will just detract your attention from other things you could be doing for your business. That’s because they don’t understand what a blog can be used for or how to market the blog easily. Instead of cluttering your website with customer reviews, weekly updates of projects your business is in the middle of, or various other less value added but pertinent information about your company, put it on your blog. By adding a link to your website, Facebook Page, and Twitter profile, you can drive traffic to your blog easily without having to actively market it on a daily basis.
Your blog, which you can acquire for free, can be your source of updating your business. List new products, projects, offers, customer reviews on your blog to keep your customers updated. It will also give your customers some insight on what you value as a business. Better yet, you can monetize your blog to add an additional revenue stream to your business. You can monetize it by displaying ads, adding a “Valued Customer” paid member section with special offers, and renting out space on the blog for other business partners to use.
All of these marketing tools can help grow your business exponentially, while not costing you a dime out of pocket to implement. Businesses should be proud that they were able to last through the recession, and those are the businesses poised to reap the rewards of a country rebuilding. There are many different ways to use the afore mentioned marketing ideas for your business. Each company will have to decide how to use each one for maximum impact. Facebook alone will pose a great opportunity for businesses, and that’s what I’ll dive further into in the next part of my series of marketing in social media.
