2010 won’t exactly be remembered as the year of great financial gain. Almost everyone’s business and/or portfolio has taken a major hit. In the wake of some of the worst financial news since the Great Depression of the 1930’s businesses are having to come up with more imaginative and lower costing marketing strategies to attract and retain customers.
Getting new customers can be even more challenging if you are starting a business with shallow pockets. Fear not. Your problem is not unique. Every business experiences low cash flow at one time.
Low cash flow or a small marketing budget doesn’t need to stop you from acquiring new customers. Below are seven proven low cost marketing strategies that are just as effective as the high cost ones.
1. Give away information for free. Post articles, information, news; any type of content not only on your own website but any place that will accept it. First write some content that demonstrates your expertise about a topic related to your business. For example if you sell accessories for boats write an article about the different types of boats and which types are best for which types of people. The main goal is to establish yourself as an expert in your field. You want people to view you as the man who knows everything about boats and water related activities. Then post your content anywhere and everywhere. Even give your competitors the content for free to post on their websites. It’s more important to get the word out that you are a leader in your field than it is to try to dominate your field at this point. You can post your content in targeted newspapers, magazines, and online content sites like Google Bookmarks, Digg.com, and ezine.com. Once you establish yourself as an expert or leader in your field people (read customers) will naturally come to you for advice (giving you consulting opportunities) or to buy products or services from you because they trust you.
2. Find subdomains of your market and personalize your current marketing materials to them. Subdomains are a smaller set within your customer base that are linked by identifying features like age or interests. Marketing to smaller sets of your customer base allows you to narrow your focus and create a highly personalized marketing campaign. The more you personalize a campaign the higher your chances are for winning a sale. To identify these subsets within your current customer base break your audience down into a number of subcategories to see if you can find specific subdomains with similar interests and needs. Using my previous example of a business that sells accessories and add-ons for boats a subgroup would be yacht owners within the larger boat owner market. Finding such subgroups can lower your marketing costs by allowing you to focus your marketing efforts in one specific direction. For example there is a subset of people seeking joint pain relief within the larger group of people who buy collagen related products. Collagen is not only for those buying beauty products but also for people buying health related products. I was able to identify this subcategory and personalize my collagen information business to market to those types of buyers which in turn increased my customer base and cash flow! Identify subdomains and personalize your marketing materials and strategies to those buyers.
3. Use press releases to put the word out about new products, charitable endeavors or news about your business. This advertising method is especially cheap because you provide the labor and the method of distribution is virtually free. When something new happens in your business like a product launch or reaching a milestone, write a press release detailing the news. Then distribute the press release online using free press release websites like free-press-release.com, PRLog.org, or 1888PressRelease.com. If you aren’t sure how to write a press release all of these sites have free templates available. Be sure to include your website in the article. In addition send the press release to your local newspaper but add information that localizes the story.
4. Create a flyer. A flyer is best for businesses that sell services but can also be used to sell information products. This advertising method is popular not only because it is budget friendly but because they are so versatile and can be tailored to any business. Flyers generally advertising one of three things: a specific product or service, general information about a company or brand, or an incentive (i.e. coupon). For example if your business is cleaning houses a flyer is an ideal marketing strategy. Flyers can inform potential customers about what levels of service are offered, general cost, hours of availability and contact information. In addition because flyers can only be distributed locally they allow you to hone in on your target market better. Templates for flyers are available online but generally they should contain an attention grabbing headline, at least one picture to break up the text, a few bullet points of information and your contact information. Remember less is more when it comes to what to put on a flyer.
5. Swap advertisements with competitors. This marketing technique might seem counterproductive but it’s really a great way to win new customers for free. The idea is to let your competitors advertise their business on your website, in your newsletter, articles, etc. while you advertise your business to their customer base in the same way. The swap is done totally for free with you keeping all the money you make from sales to their customers and them keeping all the money they make off of your customers. It’s important in this instance to view the other business as a partner rather than competitor. This marketing technique makes a lot of sense because you know going into it that you are marketing to a group of people who are already buyers or at least interested in your area of business. Just remember to agree on which ads you will be running to each other’s business ahead of time and what dates you will swap ads on.
6. Hold a sale. Offering occasional discounts on your products entice those customers on the fence to buy. Next time business is slow send out an email to your list with information about why you are offering this special deal and why they need to buy now instead of later. Emphasize the fact that this special offer will not be around for long. It’s important to create a sense of urgency so a person buys now as opposed to another time. In addition make sure your offer is aggressive. Knocking $5 off the price will not entice a buyer on the fence and make you lose credibility in their eyes because they do not view this as a real sale. Also emphasize the reason for the sale. There are a million reasons you can come up with for having the sale, just don’t say it’s because you want to make more money or to gain more customers. You can explain you are interested in getting rid of scratched or dented materials, making room for new inventory, holiday special, etc. Don’t hold these special offers too often as eventually you will devalue your product or service to the point where no one will buy it from you unless it’s on sale.
7. Coupons. The wife and I have been spending a lot of time and money at Baby’s-R-Us lately. We have a toddler and one on the way. Recently I purchased a swing from them and at the end of the transaction the sales associate handed me a store gift card for $10. I was amazed at how ingenious this marketing effort was. You can’t buy hardly anything at Baby’s-R-Us for $10. The idea behind the gift card is to entice you to come back and ultimately buy something that costs more than $10 from them. This marketing technique gets current customers to spend more money with the company because they have the perception that they are getting a deal. The customer feels like they’ve “won.” Coupons like the one I got can be used to bring in new customers as well. For example if I always shopped at Toys-R-Us but got a coupon for Baby’s-R-Us then I’d be more willing to check out their products and store. All a customer needs is a reason to come check out your business. Coupons are great because they can work for any type of business. No matter if you use an email coupon or a classic snip and save, they are a great way to attract new customers and retain existing ones.
Until Next Time…
Ethan Warrick
Editor & CEO
