These days, promoting your business has become already become a necessity. Word-of-mouth referrals have become quite limited; and you would need to reach out to more potential customers. It’s time to be creative and take on new marketing strategies. The challenge is, as a small business owner, resources are scarce. Funds might be low; or even non-existent. You may not have the financial backing that the bigger institutions have, but here are some low-cost marketing ideas that can make a big difference on how you can rake in more customers.

Engage in Social Media Marketing

Technology nowadays makes keeping in touch with your current and potential client base easier. We now have email, social networking sites, blogs, forums, Twitter, and Facebook, just to name a few.  Email, Twitter, and Facebook are the best, and easiest, ways to get in touch with your current and potential clientele, real-time. These types of social media allow you to quickly inform everyone about your new products, new promotions, or updates on your business with no cost and very minimal effort. You can also come up with fun refer-a-friend programs to encourage your customers to ‘re-post’ or ‘re-tweet’ the updates to their friends. Now, that’s word-of-mouth marketing on a virtual level!

Treat your Website as your Resume

Having a website for your business is your resume to potential customers. It should contain a summary of what you are as a business. Moreover, like a resume, it acts as a subliminal sign that says “Buy Me” or “Hire Me.” Always remember that for most potential customers, your website is their first contact with you and your business. With this in mind, make sure that you get great first impressions. Everyone knows how first impressions make a big  difference when it comes to handling potential business deals.

One way on how to keep your website in tip-top shape is to always keep your information and content updated regularly. No website updates equate to a dead business; and a very effective way of updating your website is to include targeted content. You might also want to consult online marketing professionals to fully maximize your website content and traffic.

Know where most of your Sales come From

Every new business lead should be surveyed as to how they were able to find out about your business. You can now then evaluate which marketing activities are bringing in the potential customers. Always remember to analyze your data and find out which of the strategies have the leads converted into actual sales. Once you’ve determined this, get ready to allocate more resources to that activity.

Connect with Industry Experts

Selling great products or services have no point if no one has any idea that they exist. You can use public relations channels to get your message across to peers and experts in your industry. Credibility-wise, having a third party, most especially an expert in the field, endorse your product or service is way better than cheesy advertising. In order to do this, you can put together some email contacts of your industry experts and get to know some contacts on where these leaders publish their work. When you have significant, newsworthy updates regarding your business or products, they are the people you want to reach out to.

Be the Expert

Create more credibility for yourself and your business by offering to speak at conventions, seminars,  conferences, and trade shows. Once your name is out there, peers and customers will always be asking for your take on certain issues.