HARDISON’S TIPS – MAY 26, 2021 – SALES AND MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS WITH NO MONEY
Marketing Without a Budget
Lock-in Frequent Buyers
We may first think of the airline frequent flier programs but these kinds of deals can work for anyone. Many decades ago my local record store (does anybody even remember what a record was?) gave you a punch on their frequent buyer card with every purchase—ten punches and you got a free record!
Offer Incentives for Referrals
The most powerful referral incentive works two ways. First you offer your current customers an incentive for bringing in a new customer. For example, bring in a friend to try out our gym and we’ll give you one month free extended membership! Then secondly they offer a deal for the new customer too. For example and the friend you bring in will get half price on the initiation fee! This way you are extra excited and incented to talk up the promotion to all your friends!
Start a Social Media Presence
Establishing a consistent Social media presence is easy, free, and allows you to manage your business’s community and online presence. Most of the businesses should have a social media presence on at least Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.
By regularly posting relevant content on these pages you should be able to gain some legitimacy in your market and -hopefully- become an opinion leader on the subject. In addition, having a good social media presence could boost your customer’s service as it has become common for dissatisfied customer to address issues directly on Facebook and Twitter.
Go All Out on Signage
Even if you don’t have a retail footprint you can use signage! Put in on your car or your truck! If you do home service businesses such as lawn mowing, ask your customers if you can put a sign up on their lawn.
And of course if you if are lucky enough to have retail space don’t skimp! Get a great sign and give it a lot of thought. Keep changing your window display…even if you are a service business. For example, one of my banks used to let business customers use one of their windows for free display…good for the customer! Great for the bank!
And think about temporary signage as well that may help you get around legal limits on signage…balloons, blow-ups, make some noise and get some attention! Signage at the point where your business is located can be incredibly powerful!
Make Customers Feel Special With Exclusives
Offering exclusive purchases or previews of new merchandise to existing customers is a great way to inspire a feeling of excitement and loyalty. To enhance participation, you may wish to offer a discount. If the exclusive offering is, in itself, extremely attractive, the discount can be small.
Host an Interesting Event
There are all kinds of different events you can host at your business to build traffic and get attention. Maybe a celebrity fundraiser? A single’s event? Girls night out? Bring your dog? Even for people you don’t attend the fact you are hosting an event builds a feeling of excitement and authenticity to your business!
Be Local on Google
You may have noticed that searches on Google and other search engines are becoming more and more localized. For this reason, if your business is local and targets a specific area it is imperative that you claim your business’s location on Google. It can easily be done by creating and configuring a Google+ profile. Doing so will allow you to show up more often in searches made in your area and should logically boost your business’s activities and revenue.
