Free marketing ideas for small business
Marketing for any business should consist of multiple channels, including seo, PPC, email, direct mail, flyers, road signs, tv, radio and just about any other medium that comes along.
All of these types of advertising should complement each other and back each other up, for instance your flyers, tv and radio advertisements should include at the least your website url and a phone number and on the opposite side; your road signs should mention your Sirius/XM radio spots.
By cross promoting your advertising you open up your potential customers to keep an eye or ear open to what they can expect to see and or hear on other marketing channels.
Know your audience
Without knowing whom you are speaking to, crafting a message to that audience is incredibly difficult and your ROI or return on investment will be extremely small if any at all or even in the negative. Research should begin with the goal of the message and work your way backwards to whom that message would be a perfect fit for. Often times some marketers will work the other way around and find a niche to craft a message around, either way is perfectly acceptable but the key here is that the people at the other end of the message are what counts, fill a void, make their lives easier or deliver a better experience and you have the beginnings of a great marketing campaign.
Being Memorable
One of the best ideas that I have come across in marketing is from The Purple Cow by Seth Godin, excellent book which I highly recommend. By following the crowd, by sticking to the norms you have zero chance of sticking out from the crowd and becoming memorable.
Some ideas to get you started thinking about being memorable:
- Novel or Funny Packaging.
- Counterintuitive slogans - think comedian Steven Wright, i.e. OK, so what's the speed of dark?
- Polarizing societal values - religion, politics, core belief systems, anything that strikes a deep nerve.
- Current pop culture trends - music, art, movies, movie stars, the elite class.
- Transformative technologies - systems and processes that undermine and swing entire industries. think FaceBook, Twitter, Apple iPhone and Napster.
- Thought and or Niche leadership - being the cutting edge instead of following it.
- Void and or Gap filling - every business niche has a gap or void to fill, find it and deliver.
- Extreme customer experience handling - going beyond what your ideal customer expects.
- Super communications - this is what web 2.0 promised and what FaceBook and Twitter can be for from a business stand point. Allow your customers to have real dialog with your customer service team. Allow your customer advocates to have a real voice; Google does this with their Google webmaster and Maps forums.
You will know a Purple Cow idea when it scares you and nobody else thinks it is either possible or just too far out in left field.
Your customers and potential customers want you to succeed; so that they know, that they made the right choice in allowing your product or service into their lives, That idea should be respected and nurtured.
Got any cool or unique marketing ideas for small businesses of your own? If so drop them into the comment section below and or click on the FaceBook Like or the Share This icon at the top of this post.
That's All for Now,
The Boca Raton SEO Guy