Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Marketing is a critical piece to your business. While many business owners have good ideas and services, marketing doesn’t necessarily come easy. The following contributed post is entitled, Little-Known Techniques You Can Use To Better Market Your Business.
* * *
Marketing your business can seem like a massive challenge sometimes. Getting the word out about what you do is tricky in a world where millions of other people are doing the same thing.
There are, however, a bunch of little-known marketing tricks that you can use to swing things in your favor. Mostly your competitors don’t know about these, so it often pays to use them whenever you can. But what are they? And how can you deploy them successfully to improve your business?
Referral Programs
If you want to build your audience fast, you’ll want to launch a referral program.
The idea here is to get your customers to market your business for you.
This strategy has two main advantages: it costs very little compared to traditional advertising, and it helps get around any branding issues. Prospective customers are much more likely to trust the opinions of their peers than they are any official marketing messages from you.
All you need to do is get a hardcore of customers who are entirely loyal to you and your brand. Startups, in particular, often generate a loyal base of people who are willing to stick with them through thick and thin. It is these people you want to target. Provide them with a kickback for every customer that they sign up and then wait for the revenue to start flowing.
QR Code Embeds
Digital marketing is a great tool, but it is not the only way to get the word out about your business. You have many other options.
Modern companies, for instance, still like to use direct mail. It tends to have higher open rates and more impact than traditional email marketing, making it highly worthwhile, even in today’s business environment.
Providing links to your business website through flyers you send out in the post sounds impossible, but it is not. All you need to do is use QR codes.
QR codes are essentially two-dimensional barcodes that can contain a vast amount of information. What’s more, most modern smartphones can read these codes. Thus, you can send out correspondence in the post with printed codes, have your customers scan them with their mobile devices, and then forward them to the relevant product, service, video, or article online.
Finding the best QR code generator can be a challenge, but there are plenty of options out there.
Make Your Beta Exclusive
If you’re a company that develops software, you might want to offer an exclusive beta. This marketing method allows you to attract the type of people who are most likely to want to sign up for your full service in the future. Plus, they can provide you with valuable feedback on the current state of your technology.
Give Away Stickers
Giving away stickers might seem like a ridiculous way to market your business, but it is highly effective. People naturally love stickers because it reminds them of their childhood. Plus, both you and they can put them in places where they will give your brand a lot of exposure.