Free or Low-Cost ways to market your business – Everyone wants to know those, right?
Most businesses are leaving cash and opportunities sat on the table by not using the following 10 marketing activities.
At Altrincham HQ we specialise in social media marketing and we don’t need to include every channel below in the top 10.
We hope this goes a bit deeper than post on LinkedIn or Facebook etc – but don’t forget that Social Media underpins a lot of these free or low-cost ways to market your business
You don’t have to do all of them, but if you pick 2 or 3 Free Or Low-Cost Ways To Market Your Business to start with, you’ll be marketing much more effectively than you are now.
1. Networking
Networking seems an obvious choice.
In any town there are free events or events costing between £5-15 an event
Well why the hell do most events attract 30-50 businesses when there are 500-1000 in town.
The actual only thing that puts most people to a networking event is the word networking itself.
At its very basic definition it’s going to meet people you know as well new people who someday might become a supplier or a customer that helps grow your business.
What is there not to love about that?
2. Blogging
This is my 567th blog for Altrincham HQ.
Do you think I’d do something that takes 1-2 hours each time an unthinkable 567 times if it didn’t work?
No
I blog because it helps myself as much as my audience.
It helps gain clarity on my business as well as educate other businesses as to how we can help them.
Some people who read your blog will never ever buy from you and that’s fine.
But every single blog I’ve ever published I know has played a part in a sale.
This one will as well.
Imagine for just one minute 567 sales that have either come directly or indirectly from a blog post.
We recently did a survey on social media and whilst only 43% of respondents had published a blog in the past month, 80% of respondents had read a blog in the past month.
Go where the eyeballs are.
3. Working with Micro-Influencers
Micro-influencers are those people with less than 25,000 followers (NB: some people define them as less than 100,000 followers).
We’ve got around 39,000 followers on social media so we definitely fit into that bracket.
Micro influencers in a business context are often influential in a geographical area or a niche area.
We recently worked with a foodie business who had both a local audience and a vegan audience.
What would it cost them to send out their products to an influencer – £5-7 including postage.
£5-7 to work with micro influencers who would post content to their thousands of followers and gain them a new audience / customers.
That’s an absolute bargain.
(Disclaimer: Some influencers will charge a fee as they spent huge amounts of time on content production – balance up the ROI if this is the case)
4. Hyper-local leaflet drops
“Alex, I don’t mind losing businesses to someone based on the other side of the country, but when businesses in my home town are going elsewhere it really p*sses me off”
That’s what one business owner said to us recently.
And they’re right – it is a p*sser when you’re great at what you, but people simple don’t know you exist.
Their solution – leaflet dropping businesses on the same street as they’re working with that day.
You’ll notice Estate Agents and Tradesmen do this all the time with “We’re just working on your road, so we thought we’d say hello” style marketing.
5. Case Studies Of Your Current Clients
Think back over the past week.
The past month.
There are specific ways you’ve helped clients, aren’t there?
There are 2 types of case studies you can write up for your website.
1. The all singing dancing one where the client is involved, they provide photos and quotes.
2. The confidential one where you don’t name the client, but still detail how you helped someone without names and quotes.
Both are powerful and both help potential customers decide to do business with you.
6. Referral Marketing
Do you have a formal referral plan?
More so than just leaving referrals to chance and being pleased when the odd referral comes in here and there.
This is one area I’ve been weak at, just because I’m so busy all the time.
When you’re busy you don’t think of the areas you can improve on and unless you’re in an organisation such as BNI (i’m not) referrals aren’t at the front of you mind every week.
Now as this blog is part of free and low-cost marketing methods I’m not going to suggest you pay £1000+ to BNI to get more referrals, but look at the obvious referral partners you already know. Partners that you could have more formal meetings with over work on a regular basis.
7. Collaborations
Collaborations take many forms
– Webinars
– Courses / Workshops
– Youtube Videos
– Podcasts
– Guest Blog Series
– Email Newsletter Shout Outs
– Buy from one – get a discount with the other
There are so many opportunities out there for collaborations.
Be clever about it.
What is a win win for both businesses.
8. Email Marketing
You have got an email list, haven’t you?
One that you use on a regular basis?
My mailing list has just under 1000 businesses on it and every email we send out generates a sale.
Software such as Mailchimp is free up to 2000 email addresses and you can use this along with a lead magnet to get people to sign up for it.
PS. If you like this blog and want weekly marketing tips sign up here http://eepurl.com/1kZUT
9. User Generated Content
How can you encourage your customers to post about your business?
Do your customers even know you’re on social media?
Are they the type of people who post their life on social media or do they need a little reminder?
The content from customers will often win you as many new customers as your own content.
Constantly wow your customers on every visit and embed shareability into your offering.
Is there something Instagrammable you can have in your business?
Do you have monthly specials or new product launches that encourage regulars to talk about you more than once?
10. Competitions
People love getting stuff for free!
And if you make sure the prize and competition promotes your business you’ll get way more in terms of sales than it costs to run the competition.
Prizes that offer a shared experience will often get more entries than products (unless expensive products).
Work out how you can involve your audience on a regular basis with competitions and keep them coming back for more.
If you have a smaller audience why not consider running the competition along with a micro influencer so you get the promotion from their page
At Altrincham HQ if the prize aligns with our audience we’re always happy to run competitions with local businesses
WHICH FREE OR LOW-COST WAYS TO MAKET YOUR BUSINESS DO YOU USE?
If we’ve missed any Free Or Low-Cost Ways To Market Your Business, let us know.
There may be something you’ve used that we could add to this blog or do a part 2 on.
Email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk
NEED HELP WITH SOCIAL MEDIA TRAINING FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Chat to us about Social Media Marketing for YOUR organisation , so we can better understand YOU and what will grow your organisation.
We can chat about whether online or Face 2 Face is better for you.
We can only find out what is unique to your business by chatting with you.
Look at our Social Media Training and Social Media Management services.
We offer Social Media Training on:
* LinkedIn
* Instagram
* Facebook
* Twitter
* Blogging
We can do this:
* 121
* Corporate Workshops
* Group Workshops
* Face to Face or Via Zoom / Skype
Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk
