Business promotion is to running a successful business as practicing scales is to playing the piano well; it may not be a thrilling activity in itself, but you just have to do it! You should spend at least an hour a day on business promotion or planning how to promote your business (and more is better, if you can fit the time in)!
The first axiom of business promotion is that you have to do this consciously – you can’t rely on other people to do it for you, no matter how great your product or service is.
The second axiom of business promotion is that like every other aspect of your business, it’s a budgeted activity. But promotion doesn’t have to be expensive.
Here are inexpensive ways to promote your business; all most of these will cost you is some time.
Promote your business whenever you communicate
You have business cards, but you also put out a lot of other documents in the course of doing business. Check these to make sure you’re using their promotional possibilities to full advantage.
Is your business name, logo, contact information, and slogan present on all your correspondence? Any document that you send out (whether electronic or printed) should have a letterhead with all of your company information.
And don’t forget to make sure that your email has a complete signature that provides all your business information and a promotional tagline. You can also add a section with links for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest so the recipient can connect with you on social media.
Turn your vehicle into a mobile billboard
Mobile business promotion isn’t just for delivery vehicles and BRTs. Think of all the people who see your vehicle when you’re driving around – especially if you live in a place where people often get stuck in traffic!
Modern vehicle wrap advertising consists of applying removable “stickers” containing your business logo and information. Wraps are digitally printed onto a specially-applied media and will not harm the vehicle paint job.
Use Social Media
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube are great ways to promote your business.
Create regular posts on a all platform, engage with people, organise giveways, talk about your business and let people notice your presence. If you are skilled with taking video or know someone who is, you can record video promotions of your products or services and post them on YouTube.
Promote your business by blogging and writing articles
Writing articles on topics related to your business expertise is an excellent business promotion technique.
Well-written articles can provide free advertising and build positive word-of-mouth. If you’re a realtor, for instance, you could write a piece on preparing your home to be shown. If you’re a website designer, you might write a piece about assessing website usability.
The more specific your topic, the better. Write a short biographical note, or “blurb” about you and your business to go with the article. Then send it out!
Give our freebies
We’re all familiar with hearing or reading advertisements that promise that the first 50 people to visit a particular store will receive a free (____). You fill in the blank. It could be anything from movie tickets to gadgets.
We’re all familiar with this kind of spot promotion because it works. People love to receive things that are free.
Besides using freebies as business promotions, you can also use them regularly as customer “rewards”. Combining business promotion with customer rewards is definitely a win-win situation.
Send out press releases
Sending out press releases is another great way to get some free business promotion.
The caveat to using press releases as a business promotion tool is that your press release has to actually contain information that is newsworthy, and be engaging enough to get people’s interest.
Has your business recently expanded? Do you have a new product? Have you been involved in some promotional activity such as sponsoring a charity event? Have you or your company recently won an award? All of these are examples of “news” that you can capitalize on to get some free promotion for your business.
Press releases can be published online or in print.
Share your thoughts!
