Many budget conscious and ambitious individuals choose to escape the constraints their historically repressed salaries have placed on their lifestyle by going into business for themselves.
However, running a small business is the very definition of the long game. In order to become profitable quickly, startups need to storm out of the gate with their metaphorical guns blazing. They need to promote themselves in ways that will make them visible to the demographics that matter to them. However, we all know that weighty overheads are anathema to a small business that’s just finding its feet.
That’s why we’ve compiled this list of budget friendly ways in which new startups can promote themselves, grow their brand and hopefully take their small business to the next level without breaking the bank…
Attend networking events
Networking events are a wonderful opportunity to meet like minded people, learn and build contacts in a relaxed, socially charged atmosphere. They can work wonders in raising awareness of your business, your brand and your skillset. However, remember that they are not an opportunity for you to pitch. By all means go armed with some great business cards- check out business card printing from RCS Digital Printing. Nonetheless, you should go in expecting a meet and greet and nothing more. Go in with the mindset you’d bring to any social event. Be friendly, approachable, and meet people with the goal to build relationships. Conduct yourself well and the business relationships will sort themselves out when you’re ready to follow up.
Look for co-branding opportunities
Your brand is only in its infancy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t bring value to your market. You may want to consider allying yourself with another, more established brand with which you share that same market. Co-branding has a wealth of success stories of which yours could be the latest. You can introduce your brand and your product to a loyal following who are predisposed to like you by virtue of your association with a brand to which they’re already loyal. What’s more, you can build a strong relationship with your co-branding partner and bring value to their business, strengthening your foothold in the local business landscape. Speaking of which…
Get involved in your community
Involving your business with local community events is a great way to bring value to your brand and the area in which you operate. Helping out with local charitable causes, sponsoring local events and sitting on local boards are all relatively low cost ways in which to gain major traction in the locality which will also give your local SEO a nice boost.
Write content that builds value for your target audience
Finally, content marketing is not only a cost effective way of improving your SEO it’s also a great way to build trust in your brand and establish yourself as an authority in your field. However, in order to work well it needs to be of real value to the reader. It needs to provide them with useful information or help them to overcome a commonly encountered problem.
That means no fluff, no clickbait and nothing that doesn’t deliver on the promise of its headline. Just well written and expertly researched content that showcases your knowledge, experience and passion while also facilitating a useful function for the reader.
