You don’t have to spend a fortune to market your business
Using some simple, low-cost methods can bring big results
In the current depressed economy, everyone is pinching pennies, including small business owners. When you’re on a tight budget, it can often be difficult to find money for marketing your goods or services.
That’s where an unsecured small business loan can come in handy. You can apply quickly and you don’t have to put up any collateral.
Once you’ve secured those funds, there are lots of ways to spend the unsecured loan effectively.
• Print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your target market. People will read the postcards if the message is brief. For very little cost, a small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your website and generate lots of sales.
• Vary your approach by rotating several marketing tactics. Make sure you take advantages of all the opportunities available for communicating your business’ value to your customers. Plan carefully and get feedback from your customers and adapt your efforts according to that feedback.
• Use buddy marketing. Include a leaflet or business card from another business when you send out brochures, agreeing that they’ll do the same for you.
• When you pick up your phone, answer differently. Include phrases that sell your latest offers in the greeting, and be sure to include the offer expiration date.
• Use stickers, stamps and handwritten notes on all of your direct mail efforts and business mail. The message should be short and concise so it can be read in less than 10 seconds.
• After they’ve made a purchase, send a second offer to your customers. When including an offer in a thank you note, make sure the expiration date for the offer is included.
• Create and mail out a newsletter to your customer base, including past and present customers.
• Trade your product and services to get others to use them. You can trade for advertising space or for another company’s services.
And last of all, be careful to enclose your company’s flyer, ad or brochure in with all of your outgoing mail. It could bring great rewards and doesn’t even cost any additional postage.