Marketing on a Shoestring

Everyone is talking about marketing right now – and why is that? Perhaps it’s because without an effective marketing strategy you just won’t have any business? Perhaps there is a real need right now, which a lot of big marketers are filling? Or perhaps it’s just me, after all what you ‘sort for’ in life will turn up on your door-step!

So, I find there are a couple of responses to the very word ‘marketing’; one is to glaze over (often the very people that could do with more business), and the other is to leap up with excitement and enthusiasm at the very utterance of the ‘M’! Ask yourself which one you are…

If you are the first you are unlikely to be reading this anyway, so I can assume then I have excited readers…!

As you must be aware these days there really is no excuse about not having the money for marketing, because there is so much you can do for free, or on a very low budget. Here’s what you can be doing that’s free:

• Going face-to-face networking (the free events, which there are plenty of…)
• Asking for referrals (from your family, friends, current customers, business colleagues)
• Online social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, E-cademy etc)
• Give a talk on your favourite subject that relates to your business (and is NOT a sales pitch)
• PR – write some articles for the press, online and off

It is often said that new businesses should be spending 50% of their time marketing, and you could easily be very busy if you put into practice even a fraction of the above.

Of course if you have some money to burn, then you can go up a stage; get a website built, some cards and flyers, a brochure and perhaps book yourself a stand at a relevant Business to Business show. You can also spend upwards of £1,000 on joining networking clubs and broadening your area.

Start small and work your way up. I know a very successful business woman who now commands £3,000 per day up-wards for her services and still doesn’t have a website, or any printed material what so ever. She has worked hard at building relationships – that is all.

Good luck with your marketing – I will be doing a Conference Call on this shortly, so watch out for announcements.