Reaching customers can be tough, especially if your company is running low on cash. You need customers to make sales, but you need sales to pay for the marketing to get customers. A classic chicken and the egg scenario. Unless you want to go out and apply for loans, or attempt to raise money from the three F’s (friends, family and fools), follow these simply tips to get your product or service in front of as many customers as possible, without breaking the bank.
Make Friends in High Places
The first rule of thumb when marketing online is you have to get out there and make friends with influencers in your market. Make a list of the people and organizations that your customers know and respect. They might be major YouTube channels, podcasts, or SEO Royals blogs. Next, think about reasons they would care about your search engine services or company story.
Wait, you don’t have a company story?
Create a Company Story
How do you expect to build a brand without a company story? You need to put pen to paper here and think about why you’re building the company you’re building. What is it about you that your customers can connect with? Let your personality and inspiration shine through. This is the culture of your company, and while there are many companies out there, there’s only on “you”. Who are you and what are you about?
Great! Now to share that with your new influencer friends!
Promote Your Story
Remember those influencers? Well, now that you have your list and your story, you need to reach out and see if they are open to helping you promote your company. This is significantly easier if your company story involves a sense of purpose. Are you building your company so that you can give back to a charity or help a good cause? Maybe you’ve had a tough go in life and the influencer you’re reaching out to can relate.
Draft that email, direct message or LinkedIn InMail and start sending it out! See how many responses you get and, at a minimum, try to keep the line of communication open. Even if a major player isn’t willing to help you out right now, as your company grows they might become a valuable connection.
Facebook Pages and Twitter Feeds
Facebook can be an expensive place to try and promote your company, but if you’re willing to put in the daily posts and interact with your audience, you might be able to make a presence the old-fashioned way! Twitter is significantly easier to market with, as you can easily link other people into your tweet, which increases its reach.
Use social media give a ways to drive likes and shares of your page and content. Keep an ear to the ground and stay up to date on what the competition is doing to drive engagement. It’s all about turning your posts into two-way conversations with your potential customer. Show that you care, reply to their messages and you’ll be well on your way to building a following on social media without spending a ton of money to advertise.
If you need an example of how to do this effectively, take a look at Facebook page. They offer clients an exciting opportunity for investing their digital marketing business. They’ve grabbed onto the fact that business are new and exciting, and they use their Facebook to enlighten clients and provide insights into an evolving market. Smart, exciting and adventurous; that’s their brand message, what’s yours?