Advertising your new small local business

Setting up a new business can be very demanding. You work tirelessly in getting everything ready and just when you go public; the next challenge is presented to you immediately – how to attract customers? Advertising your business to potential customers can be a daunting task initially. Your budgets are small, there’s an established competitor and you are unsure about the right channel. Often times business owners will jump into pay-per-click advertising which is usually very expensive if you don’t select keywords/ads/landing pages carefully. It becomes even more painful if you don’t know how to bid manage. If business owners go the way of traditional media, they are unable to gauge the impact it is having on the overall sales. Offline marketing is usually hard to track and it is mostly expensive. Costs associated with mailing out brochures/leaflets or advertising in a local newspaper can hard to absorb for any new business owner. So now one may ask what’s then is the best method to market initially. Here we give you few steps you can take to ensure your name gets around without really breaking your bank. These are cost-effective methods that can get you started.

Start your social media accounts

Work on creating Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Make sure you they are advertised on your website. Share these with your friends & family and try to get as many likes and followers as possible. This will get you started.

Allocate a small budget to advertise on Facebook

On Facebook, you can find your target audience and set daily budgets. Set aside $5-$10 each day to show your ad to potential customers within your community. Focus on being local first. Don’t go too broad. The advantage with Facebook ads is that you can get instant results and track to see how customers like your website and business.

Write for your own blog and syndicate your ideas

Write about your business and showcase your authority on the subject. No matter what you are selling, showcasing your knowledge about your own products will hold you in a good light. Along with this, go on relevant blogs and post your comments on discussions. Have conversation with others and let them know about our business. Don’t start posting your website URLs everywhere. Just engage the users with your comments and knowledge.

Look for referral tie-ups

You can always find a local shop or service that can provide you with referrals. For e.g. if you have started a new shoe store, a local bakery that has a ton of foot traffic won’t have issues giving you some exposure. A shop would be okay to have your business cards at the check-out counter for their customers as long as they can receive similar treatment from you. Find such established shops in your community and approach them for a referral exchange. This is where your sales skills will be tested but it is free of cost.

As you complete these steps, you will then have the task of scaling your business. As you build on your sales, you can then opt for other online marketing channels to grow your business further. Investing in a long-term SEO and pay-per-click ads will be the strategy as you want to drive more and more qualified traffic on your website.