If you’re in the process of setting up your own business, obviously you’ve thought long and hard about the logistics. You have a product or service that you know people want. You have a target market you know will be interested. You have the resources set up to produce at a volume that will sustain estimated demand. You’ve researched the proper licenses, website setup, and payment method setup to get your concept off the ground. That leaves just one thing: How will you let people know about your business?
Fortunately, in this day and age you don’t have to hire a marketing team or take out expensive print ads. You don’t have to travel to conventions or hold up a sign on the street. Lets face it, you don’t have too much money to waste in starting up your business, so thankfully many of the most effective marketing channels to advertise the start of your business can be utilized for free. Just some of the tools you can use are:
- Word of mouth – Word of mouth is very important and doesn’t take any outlay of cash to achieve. Simply let your friends and family know that you’re up and running and selling a product or service. Have them tell their friends and family. And so on. Before you know it you will have a nice grass roots campaign going of people talking up your business, visiting your site or location, or sending others to the site or location on referral.
- Social Media – It doesn’t take any cash to set up a Facebook account Nor do you need a staff to run a Twitter account. Just set up a variety of social media sites for your business and start posting! Friend all the people you can. Tweet to all the people you can. Get that link or location out there in front of as many people as possible. Clicks are important, and the more your site racks up, the more people you are pulling into your product’s orbit.
- Blogs and message boards – If you’re selling a specific product or service, chances are there are dozens of blogs and forums online dedicated to your core market. Find out what these are if you don’t already know them. Set up accounts on the forums and post in the blog comments. Put your business name, link, location, and product specifics in front of your core audience through these posts. You’ll be surprised at how many clicks and visits you can get by just a simple post on the right message board.
Pay To Play Marketing
If your budget is a little larger, there are great ways to market without having to hire a staff, and often at miniscule rates. Most of the sites online that cater to your market accept online advertising. Call them up and see how much it is. If it’s in your budget, a well placed ad on one of these sites can bring in an amazing amount of people to your new business. Every click recorded is another individual who knows you’re up and running and is most likely interested in what you’re selling.
You can also look into Facebook and Google ads. Each offers a relatively affordable package and you can track click statistics as you go. For example, if you’re starting a painting business, you can have your ad pop up when individuals are searching for painting services in your area. These clicks are invaluable to a new business, since word of mouth familiarity may not yet have spread for your business.
Gone are the days where you would have a war room full of marketers gearing up for the big business launch. Now you can perform all needed marketing tasks ay the startup point of your business with a couple clicks of your mouse.
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