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Marketing on a budgetSeveral businesses spend millions of dollars a year. While high-impact marketing methods of television commercials and magazine advertisements may sound like a good idea, there are some other ways you can reach your target audience if you are on a budget. Marketing on a budget is not as hard as some businesses make it seem. To get started, spend some time on good market research. A lot of businesses will spend marketing dollars without realizing they only targeting 25% of their customers. Look for your niche market, which can normally be found with online marketing efforts. Social media sites provide numerous opportunities to find your target audience and build a strong connection with them. Plus, you have the ability to learn some things about your target audience like their buying patterns and what you need to do to improve your products or services. Start attending conferences that your niche market attends. If you are unable to attend conferences and promote your business, send brochures and flyers in your place.
Relationship-building and good networking will really pay off for any company that needs to cut back on their marketing budget. Networking will allow you to call up some other companies you have connections with and talk about splitting high-cost advertising expenses. Think of magazine and newspaper ad costs and how nice it would be if you could cut that in half by partnering with another company. If you are in business for a good cause, like a non-profit organization, you can usually get newspaper companies to donate a few free ads to your business. Don't be afraid to use your network to your advantage and save some money. The other benefit of partnerships is that you normally have the opportunity to gain exposure to a whole new audience. Use your existing customers to help you find new customers. Referral marketing is pretty easy to do; you just need to offer your customers some type of incentive in order to gain a large number of referrals. Surveys can help you gain referrals or you can do promotions like phone companies and cable companies do. They will offer $50 or more off your monthly bill if you can refer some friends to the company and get them to sign a contract. The best part about customer referrals is that you really don't need to do that much, most of the hard work of "selling" the business is already done because your existing customers will convince their friends of your company's value. Email marketing is another great way to promote your business for a low-cost. Marketing to your existing customers is the best way to earn money through an email campaign because most of them will sign up for your service and they actually want to receive your emails. Purchasing email lists is risky since so many people send unknown emails to SPAM filters and they may never reach the in box. Use email marketing newsletters with promotion codes to track the responses you actually get from this type of marketing campaign to see if it is a worthwhile investment for your business. |
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