If you have been in business for any meaningful amount of time at all, you know that marketing has changed drastically in the last 5 years. Technology, as well as, consumer behavior makes marketing an ever evolving challenge. Lets examine how to advertise in today's market, without breaking the bank.
#1 Have a Great Website
Your company website is headquarters for all marketing. Therefore, it needs to be spectacular! Most websites I visit are difficult to navigate and do not lead the customer towards any action. To get the most out of this asset, it should have a few things:
A dynamite home page with a call to action
Service page that shows why you're the best at what you do
A blog that gives visitors real value, blogs should not be a sales pitch
Whitepapers or E-Books that collect contact information
Happy customers, telling in their own words, why they choose you
Videos that build trust and explain why you're in the business you are in
Websites should be professionally done, so search for experts who can build one for your business. With a budget ranging from $1,000 to $5,000, you will be blown away at what these experts can do!
#2 Consistently Blog
Today consumers are looking for solutions to their problems. Blogs are a great way to provide solutions and establish your expertise on a given topic. As stated earlier, they are not where you give your sales pitch. Blogs should be purely educational and give value to the reader. The wonderful thing about blogs, is once your write them, they site on the internet acting like a billboard. Free advertising forever! Once your website is up and running, blogs can be written at no additional costs.
#3 Create Videos
Videos are another great way to build trust with your customers. When someone can see your body language and your passion for how you serve customers, they will begin to trust you and your brand. If you have a smart phone in your pocket, you can create quality videos. Same as with blogs, you want to make these videos educational and upload them to your website and YouTube.
#4 Write Whitepages/E-Books
Everyone loves receiving free stuff! So give your customers valuable information about what you do for free. These whitepages and e-books don't have to be extremely long, but they should be professionally done. Give the reader insight into their problems, and solutions to fix them. Write on topics your customers are interested in and ask for their email addresses in return for the free info. As you collect a database full of emails, you can begin drip marketing to these prospects and filter the customer through your sales funnel.
#5 Conduct Interviews
A great way to establish yourself as an expert, is to find other experts in their field and ask to interview them. Take for example Still Water Financial Operations. We are a business that is dedicated to growing small businesses. We often work with bankers to make sure these businesses are appropriately financed. Therefore, we conduct interviews with bankers, asking questions about small business financing. Make sure to upload these interviews to your YouTube channel and ask the individual you interviewed, to share with their network!
#6 Testimonials
Your customers love you for a reason. Ask if they are willing to get on camera and state why they love doing business with you. Most will answer yes! Video testimonials are another great way to establish trust and make your business look more approachable. Upload these testimonials to your website, social media and YouTube channel.
#7 Help A Reporter Out
Help A Reporter Out, HARO, is another great way to establish your expertise. HARO is a website that brings journalists and business experts together. Journalists will post their questions online and you have the opportunity to write a response that may get published. It is a great way to get your business name into popular magazines and blogs. All free of charge!
Summary
You don't have to have a large marketing budget to consistently bring in new customers. We recommend spending money on a professionally built website, but the other 6 strategies come at no cost to your business. Simply, be consistent and show yourself as the expert in your industry. By providing your customers with value before they make a purchase, you will gain their trust and close more sales.
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