Small Business Marketing on a Budget
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Marketing is a critical piece of your business success, but it can also be an expensive part of your business costs. You know you need to market, but it is hard to spend a lot of money on a particular tactic when you don’t know for certain if it will really work. There are many affordable marketing strategies for a small business with a tight budget; it is just a matter of selecting those activities that offer the greatest value for your marketing dollars.
What are some traditional marketing tactics?
When most people think of marketing, they think of specific advertising tactics such as:
- Print
- Radio
- TV
- Outdoor/Billboards
- Transit/Bus Boards
While you might be most familiar with advertising as part of marketing, there are other common ways to market, including:
- Direct mail
- Telemarketing
- Direct/Door to Door sales
- Indirect sales (referrals and word of mouth)
The activities listed above form the core of traditional marketing tactics, and for many businesses they can be very successful at attracting customers. For the typical small business, however, these traditional tactics can be cost prohibitive or even ill suited to the particular business model. Your goal as a small business owner, then, is to find the best combination of marketing tactics to grow your business in a cost effective manner.
A word about professional advertising agents
Before we dive into more specifics about small business marketing, let’s take a moment to talk about professional advertising agents or ad sales representatives and the role they play in your marketing activities. Their job titles may differ from company to company (customer satisfaction consultant, personal representative, service consultant, partner service representative, etc.) but their job is always the same – to sell you advertising or related services.
Most ad sales people work on a commission basis, so they are motivated
to sell you more and more advertising because it generates higher
commissions. They also generally have a minimum quota that they are
required to fill on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis in order to keep
their job. All of this combines into a great deal of pressure to “make the sale” whenever they approach a business owner.
They will almost always position themselves as “partners” in the
success of your business with the sole desire of seeing your business
succeed, but never forget – their primary motivation is to meet their
quota and generate sales commissions.
Now, this does not mean that all ad sales people are bad, crooked,
dishonest, or otherwise shady. The really good ones know that they have to work hard to serve you if they are to keep you as a long-term customer, even if sometimes that means you do not buy a particular advertising package from them. In fact, a good ad sales representative can be one of your best resources and biggest supporters in the world of small business.
Because of the tremendous selling pressures placed on ad sales people,
they can be very persistent in trying to get you to spend your money with
them so you need to set boundaries and be very firm in your interactions. If you choose to say no to a proposal, just say no. You won’t hurt his or her feelings; on the contrary, when you are thoughtful and decisive the sales rep does not have to waste time or put extra effort into trying to “close the sale” with you and can instead focus on other ways to better meet your needs. Just as your time is valuable, so too is their time valuable, so don’t waste it just because you’re reluctant to say no or set boundaries on how best to interact with you.
In other words, treat them with respect but establish the expectation
that they will treat you in the same manner.
Marketing on a budget
Okay, on to the details of small business marketing. There will always be more choices for you to consider than there is budget to implement them, so you have to establish and set some priorities.
Start with the “must do” things, those activities that you have to
implement as a basic part of doing business. These will of course differ
depending on your business. For a small retail operation the “must dos”
might look something like this:
- Telephone book/yellow pages listing
- Signage that is visible from the street
- Advertising that reaches your target market(s)
- Web site and online commerce
For a small home based operation the “must dos” might look a bit different:
- Telephone book/yellow pages listing
- Web site
- Online advertising and promotion
- Networking and interaction with your target market(s)
If you are having trouble identifying your “must do” marketing
activities, try asking yourself these two questions:
- What is my target market? (Hint: there may be more than one)
- What is the best way to reach my target market(s)?
Use the answers to guide you and help you identify your “must do”
marketing activities.
Regardless of what things you come up with, the next step is to look
for the most effective and cost effective ways to do them. Remember that
the least expensive option is not always the most effective, but neither
is the most expensive option. Your goal should always be to balance cost
and effectiveness to generate the maximum return on marketing expenditures.
Cost-effective and innovative marketing activities
All it takes is a little creativity and imagination to come up with the marketing activities that will be most cost effective for your small
business. Here are a few suggestions for your consideration:
Local Cable TV advertising – This is surprisingly affordable and allows you to carefully target your market. For example, if you have a sports equipment store you can place your ads on sports-related channels or during specific sports-related programming.
Cooperative advertising – Many manufacturers offer what are called cooperative advertising dollars. This is money that they use to
reimburse you for advertising costs when that advertising is used to
promote their product or service. Depending on the manufacturer, you may
be able to get reimbursement for anywhere from 20% up to 100% of the cost
of a particular advertisement.
Joint marketing – This can be a very effective way for small
businesses to work together to maximize their marketing efforts. For
example, the stores located in a particular strip mall might plan a joint
promotion for a particular weekend, and then pool their dollars to
advertise and market the promotion.
Cross promotion - Two businesses that complement each other in
some way (a housecleaning service and a home organizing service, for
example, or furniture refinisher and an interior designer, for another
example) might choose to cross-promote each other’s business with each
other’s customers.
Community and charity events – These can be great ways to market your business without spending a lot of money, while at the same time supporting a cause or activity that is important to you. Donate a
certificate for your services to a silent auction, or help to sponsor a
community clean up day. Be sure, though, that in return for your donation or sponsorship dollars that you get good visibility for your business.
Promotional items – Pens, pencils, magnets, hats, t-shirts, toys, calendars and such can be really good ways to market your business. They are relatively inexpensive to have customized with your logo and phone number, and as they get used they continue to promote your business. For example, an attractive customized wall calendar will keep your business visible (literally) to your customers all year long. Or, a hip t-shirt that will be worn often is just like a walking billboard – your message goes along with the wearer everywhere he or she goes. The key to effectively using giveaway items, though, is to select things that are useful or unique so they aren’t just thrown away as junk.
The internet – This is perhaps the easiest and most inexpensive
tool for marketing and promoting a small business. The influence of the
internet in advertising is evident in how many companies are turning to
the internet for name branding and marketing alone. Join an online forum
that relates to your industry, and then actively participate in the
discussions. Express yourself thoughtfully so that readers can tell you
are capable and professional, and include a link back to your web site as
part of your signature or user profile.
Internet advertising pros are paid handsomely and are quickly becoming the future of the ad world. All it takes is creativity and some basic web knowledge. Another great way to use the internet is to write a weekly or monthly newsletter (it doesn’t have to be long, just interesting) and post it on your web site. Give readers the option of signing up to be notified when a new issue is up on the site. Or, try starting an online blog. Make a point of posting short, interesting things to your blog on a regular basis so that you can develop a growing readership, and include a link back to your web site at the bottom of each blog entry.
Summary
Marketing a small business without a huge marketing budget is easily
done, if you use a little common sense and creativity along the way.
Always stay focused on who you are trying to reach and how best to reach
them. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on marketing if you ensure
that the tactics and activities you use are reaching the people you want
to reach.
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