How to Get People Interested in Your Small Business
Promoting your business can be tough. With so many advertisements, people become blind, deaf and numb to the barrage on their senses. Advertisers have started tricking people into seeing their products by cleverly placing them in TV shows and movies. An example of this would be when David Duchovney is wearing a Snuggie in an episode of “Kalifornication.” For those of us who don’t have tens of thousands of dollars to get famous actors to extol the virtues of our products, we must embark on a more guerrilla style of marketing. The question is, how do you get people interested in your small business?
Make People Care About Your Business
Manufacturing in the United States is going by the wayside, especially when it comes to paper products. Choose a cause that many people care about and relate it to your business. If you plan on using only American companies to manufacture your products or if you plan on being a green company, share the news. People will connect with you business if they have similar beliefs and support the same issues you do.
Hand out Inexpensive Promotional Items
People like free stuff, even if they don’t need it. This is especially true at conventions and fairs where businesses can buy booths to advertise during the event. While some people like to hand out pens or candy, some businesses are finding that buttons from www.custombuttonco.com create moving advertisements that can last a long time. Buttons are less expensive than t-shirts but allow enough room for you to put a picture and slogan, which something like a pen doesn’t have room for.
Use Social Media
Starting a social media account like Facebook or Twitter is free and can be quite successful. Social media is much cheaper than using radio or television to advertise your product and can have the same effect. If you post about issues that are both popular in the news and relate to your company, people will re-post stories and share your page. You can also post contests or giveaways on your page that will encourage fans to share your page with their friends and create more exposure for your business.
Support a Local Charity
People love charity and they love it when big businesses support the little guy. If you start supporting a local charity when you are first starting out, people will see you as a company that wants to help and do good. You don’t have to do something huge that will cost you a lot of money like hosting an event or charity run. Something as little as having a day where you donate 5-10% of all your sales to a certain charity will encourage people to come out and support the cause.
Network with other Businesses
One of the best ways to grow your business is to network. Get connected with other businesses in your sector that have been successful. Try networking with business that support the same causes or have the same customer base as you, but don’t sell a directly competing product or service. This way you can share customers or even trade services with one another.
Employee Appreciation
If you are a business that requires employees to run, start by treating your employees very well. Offer them benefits that other businesses don’t offer. This could be as simple as free employee lunches or an awesome employee break room. If you treat your employees well, they will work well for you in return and will be loyal to your business.
There are many ways to market and promote your small business. You don’t have to spend a lot of money just getting started. Start small and use free or low cost ways of getting your name out there. Work you way up from there. People need a reason to care about your business, when people can truly care and connect with you, you will be successful.
Source: smallbusinesscan.com
