Ok I am not how many of you have thought about this but video advertising is something many large businesses pay a lot of money for. As a small business owner you probably never thought about it because of its high costs. However the internet has broken these barriers and has enabled everyone and this includes Small Businesses to advertise through a video to their customers.
The great thing about this advertising method is that it’s free, as you probably guessed it I mean uploading a video of your business on video websites like youtube.com. Making a video and uploading is pretty easy and fast. Some videos on youtube.com get millions of views from people world wide and a lot of them are nothing special if you watch them.
Ok to put this into prospective youtube.com gets over 100 000 million hits a day and getting some of those visitors to view your business video will only do your business good. Upload your video on other video websites like Metacafe as well, don´t just limit yourself to youtube.com. So go ahead and give it a try.
I liked the video below from youtube, try and spend a few minutes viewing it because it is pretty informative.
For small business marketing is the lifeblood, it is important to understand that real marketing involves every aspect of your business including yourself. It is understandable that while marketing your business you want to make the most of the money you have budgeted for your advertising, therefore small business needs to plan wisely and slowly.
Spread the word
Networking is an important aspect, as it allows you to spread the word about your business. This may mean that you can join up local business groups and allow yourself to interact with different people. When you get opportunities to speak to small business groups or professional organizations then let nothing stop you from doing so.
Local Media
Take advantage of the media in the town or city you live in. This includes newspapers and magazines that are able to write profiles about businesses. Therefore make sure you contact your local newspaper pr magazine and request whether they would be interested in writing a profile about your business. Of course you must remember to be prepared for the interview and be aware of what your business has to offer.
Good offers
Make an offer that no other business has made, this may include giving a good away for free. Every costume likes the feeling of getting something for free. Foe example if your business involves sweets, then give some away to several different costumers.
Business Cards
It can be argued that business cards are the most underutilized tools for marketing your business. When creating your business card you need to know what valuable information you want on it. With a business card you can just hand it to anyone you want.
Use Internet
The internet has spread world wide, for that reason you should take advantage of it as much as you can. Thus, there is no excuse for not creating a professional website for your business. This allows people to find information about your business in their own homes. However, you must add all needed information about your business.
Ever thought about business cards being an important marketing tool for your business? Well fact is that they are as you also probably thought so. No real business person can be in business without always having a business card ready to give out to their customers and clients. I mean you wouldn’t want to write your contact information on paper every time you meet a new person.
Problem is that most business cards only do half the marketing job, which is giving people your contact details. Think about all the times you get business cards, what do you do with them? You probably put them in a draw and never see them again for a long time, the best scenario would be if you put them in a card file, then again how many time you go through that card file. So in a way the traditional business cards are a complete waste.
Now try and think about how to turn those business cards to real marketing vehicles, well main factor is making your business card visible to people and the only way you can do that is by getting people to make use of your business cards. So first of all think about what you could print on the card to quickly remind customers about the services you offer when they look at it. It could me a pizza picture on the card if you are in the pizza business.
The good thing today is that you can get information printed on pretty much everything. You may want to print them as stickers, because once stuck they will probably not be removed for some time. What about fridge magnets, most people have magnets on fridges so why not print your business information on a fridge magnet, the best thing about this is that you can be sure it will not be just placed in a draw as most business cards are, now imagine how many times a day people will see your contact information on their fridge.
However when it comes to marketing and in particular business information you can come up with just about anything, so let your imagination take you to somewhere different. Pens, message pads and mouse pads are some of the common accessories businesses print their details on. However you could get more imaginative and think about printing a calendar and offer it to your customers.
So next time you think about business cards think a bit more. A traditional business card is not sufficient anymore so think of alternatives.
As it is important for a person to present the right kind of image to people, it is even more important for a small business to present a professional image that will tell customers and clients that your business is the kind of business they want to do business with. For the time being I will touch on only one aspect of image and that is "projecting a trustworthy business image". Business in general is based on marketing and this is no different for a small business.
An experienced business person puts in a lot of hard work on making sure they look professional. However your business is not defined by just a few people in the organisation but many more so you need to make sure all your employees look polished and professional at their job. As a whole you need to make your premises internally and externally look presentable and professional. At the end of the day you want your customers to take you and your business serious. By doing this you will be showing potential customers that you are worthy of their trust and eventually business.
A good example of image would be an investment banker, they are always seen wearing a suit and looking serious and this shows that they mean business even though that may not be the case all the time. You do not have to build and investment banking image but you could build a very professional image. At the end of the day a successful image leads to increased sales because people think that what they see is what they will get.
If a decorator with ripped up trousers and a worn out shirt came to your house to give you a price estimate for a job, even though he might give you a reasonable price for the service the likely chances are that you will not pick him for the job because you probably will not take him serious. On the other hand his service may be the best ever but he was not able to sell himself so you did not pick him and the reason for that is that there is a lot of competition and you can pick someone else for the job who looks more trustworthy.