Saving money is a no brainer - that much is true, but how can you scrimp on the cash without sacrificing quality? A smart business person knows that marketing is one part of the puzzle that needs to be in place. Whether you are a one man show, or you have built an enterprise, without marketing your company it can be hard to survive.
New Media
Traditionally, if you wanted to get public recognition, you would have to contact your local and industry specific publications. Now with blogging, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter (just to name a few) anyone can get their message out to the masses. There may be skeptics out there still, but it doesn’t look like new media is going anywhere.
Facebook and Twitter have millions of visitors a day—if you aren’t certain your audience is engaging on these sites, there is a potential to expose yourself to a new demographic. For example, who would think a steel manufacturer would find value in social media? Michelle Wickum, the director of marketing for SteelMaster told Mashable, “it’s steel buildings…how is that going to tie to Facebook? It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but when we looked at the growth in Facebook and social media, we felt we had to get our arms around it.”
Wickum goes on to explain, “chicken farmers and woodworkers don’t typically think to use steel buildings, but when friends and colleagues share pictures of their SteelMaster buildings on Twitter and Facebook, the farmers and woodworkers become interested.”
Implementing new media techniques are extremely cost effective because many of the tools are free. The only money will be time spend on a project. If you can yield positive ROI from new media it’s worth a try. Many businesses are finding that they can get their message out on their terms instantly.
Data
Data is the bread and butter of a company. Without the proper data, you won’t know who is visiting your website, what your customers think, and a slew of other important information. The best way to get information is to ask for it - be strait forward with your questions, and ask what you need to know.
Urtak is a free service that allows you to put polls into your website. You can set up the polls to give you insight to what your visitors would like to see from your company. If you are curious if a new media campaign is beneficial, ask your clients if they are on Facebook, Twitter etc. Get feedback on new products, or products you are thinking about implementing.
For psychographic and demographic information Mashable recommends Hunch, stating that, “while most widely known for its powerful, Amazon-style “if you like this, you’ll like that” recommendation engine, Hunch also offers a widget that helps you extract demographic and psycho-graphic data that a cookie or JavaScript won’t.”
Data crunching doesn’t have to be an expensive task. Finding unique new ways to incorporate surveys into your website can help streamline your process and help you find cost effective ways to do so.
Article Writing
Article writing can go along with new media. The traditional tactic is to write articles about your company to help with brand exposure. This is still true today, but using social media to promote these articles you can find the most exposure for your hard work.
Article writing is also another way to help with your SEO efforts. Link building is a great way for your company to gain higher rankings with the search engines. With that being said, content should be your number one priority. If your content isn’t written well, or have valuable information, your efforts could be a waste of time.
Customer Service
Great customer service can be what makes or breaks a company. How many times have you heard someone say, “they have great customer service.” Finding a quality customer care representative is worth taking some time and effort. More times than not, it’s the customer service team that helps nurture any good or bad feedback your customers are facing.
Networking
Especially for start-ups networking is a must. Getting to know local people in your industry can really get things started for you. Networking events can become expensive, but the Internet can also be a cost effective way to do so. Entreprenur.com recently told a story about a BBC reality show that is similar to
the Apprentice. In this show a women who was in Hong Kong, knew no one, and was asked to start a tee-shirt company.
She decided to be proactive and, “went to an internet café, typed "business networking" into the search engine and called the president of one of Hong Kong's local networking chapters, wrangling an invitation to attend the next meeting.” It might not always be this easy, but it pays to be proactive and try new things. She ended up winning the round, and made 16 times more profit than her competitor. You may have to think of creative ways to market your business, but there are plenty of cost effective ways to do so.
Shannon Suetos is an expert writer on time and attendance systems based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as time card software at Resource Nation.
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This is part of a series called "The Entrepreneurs On The Start." This interview is with Isha Edwards.
