10 Smart Ways to Advertise your Business

January 12, 2023 Globalinfo247

To advertise your business is very important, It is one achievement to own a business but another thing entirely to get your products or services to the reach of your potential audience (clients, customers, buyers etc.) through advertisement.

Today, we are going to be looking at those smart ways you can use to promote your business to your audience.

1. Connect with Like Minds (Join Local Business Groups)

Joining local business groups will give you the opportunity to meet up with other like-minded people who already share some common ground with you (owning a business). Thou a lot of more general entrepreneur groups exist, there might also be some specific groups and meetups in your business line.

These groups are a great opportunity to bounce ideas off other smart people, share referrals, find talent, identify new opportunities and many more.

Connections tend to multiply, and if your group takes networking seriously, you can leverage your seemingly minor connections into much significant ones.

While these groups are typically best found online, it’s preferable to have in-person meetups for the bulk of your interactions.

Lastly, these groups can lead to joint ventures and profitable partnerships, which we will discuss more in the next section.

2. Partner With Other Businesses

Like I earlier mentioned, connecting with like minds gives you a lot of opportunity to learn more, understand better and turn out best. Those groups can as well lead to joint ventures, profitable partnerships or even working as a team.

There is no doubt that “Teamwork” is always more effective than singular effort, and combining resources with another business can help you do things you could never accomplish on your own.

It’s typically best to target companies in your local area, even if your clientele isn’t local. Your goal is to work out a complementary arrangement that provides mutual benefit for both businesses thereby technically expanding your own business in return.

3. Write A Column / Guest Post

In blogging this is popularly known as writing a guest blog and it can simply be explained as providing a valuable write up for another publisher.

If you are a decent writer, sharing your expertise in the form of weekly or monthly write-ups can do wonders for your brand.

This usually is not a situation where you get paid for writing and it’s also not a situation where you have to pay. These columns (write-ups) gives you the opportunity to make consistent contact with an audience, building an actual relationship with the publication’s readers and thereby promoting your brand and business because those audience then begins to think of you when they think of experts in your field and would want to patronize your business rather than that of your competitors.

On the more accessible end, local newspapers or non-profit magazines are often looking for quality contributors, therefore you can take a good advantage of that and dominate your business zone.

All you have to do is to ensure that what you write about is valuable to the target audience because this is not just an advertisement, it is your chance to access and build trust with an audience someone else worked really hard to build……Smiles!

Some of the articles you can write include:

How-to guides
Current events commentary
Interviews with interesting people
List posts
Reporting on trends or events etc. it all depends on your choice and what you are really good at.

4. Use Video Marketing Platforms to Create Video Advertisements

Video is one of the fastest growing forms of online advertisements and one of the most engaging as moving images are more eye-catching and entertaining to viewers than still. Thou producing a video advertisement is time-consuming and some-how more expensive to produce and target effectively but it generates the awesome results that were expected from the advertiser.

All you need to do is carry out a research about the cost, characters to use and locations to feature. Evaluate the cost implication and if it is something you can handle then go ahead and shoot your video, distribute them to the right audience and sit, relax and watch your result work for your business growth.

5. Get Free Publicity by Supporting a Cause

This sounds funny right?….but it works!!!

Not everyone supporting a cause is doing it because he or she chooses to genuinely do it, some actually do it to get the free publicity.

Now lets take for instance, someone sharing rice or other food stuffs to some rural widows and carried a camera man along to snap or video the event to share with the whole world…..is he/she doing that to support or feed the poor genuinely or trying to gain some free publicity by giving people the impression that he/she is a good and caring person? Lets face the fact here, what the person id actually doing is for publicity.

Now coming back to business, when thinking of offline ways to promote your small business, you sometimes have to get creative. Free publicity is a great way to get your name out in the community.

Doing things like sponsoring a group event or helping a good cause can get you free media attention. You can contact your local newspapers, television, or radio station, and let them know what you are doing in your community, then share interesting facts about your services or products and why you started your business.

10 Smart Ways to Advertise your Business

6. Promote Your Business with Paid Social Media Ads

Social ads are the source of most of the great results because using the paid social media ads to advertise your business will not only enhance the number of people to learn about your business but it will also generate new clients and sales for you thereby increasing your income (profit) and those who try to go with just unpaid social media struggle to see an impact on their business.

The key is identifying where your customers are and how they like to be approached. If social media is the answer to both those questions, it’s the perfect channel for your business.

Therefore when advertising for greater result, it is advisable to select your target audience wisely, choose those you know will be interested on your products and services and the location where you feel your business products and services are most needed.

With these target audience, your ads will perform better and reach those group of people that actually require your products and services because they are your potential clients and customers.

7. Make your Workers get involve with Staff Incentives

It is no longer a new observation to any business owner that referrals are one of the best ways to find new customers for your business and who better suited to obtain referrals to your business than your current staff?

Your employees know your product or service. They know your customer base. Some of them will take initiative without financial motivation, but most won’t, and those you bring in new business should be encourage to repeat the process with financial or otherwise meaningful reward.

Offer incentives to your staff members who refer new clients. Research proves that it doesn’t necessarily have to be monetary; incentives can even come in the form of:

A sleep-in day: staff get to to sleep in late for a certain period of time.
Membership to publications (of their choice).
Vouchers for massages, movie nights, restaurants.

Like any type of compensation, incentives are about matching your business’ goals to the goals of your employees. If you can find out what they want most, you can motivate them to help grow your business.

It’s also important to give them the tools they need, whether that’s a customized landing page, printed coupons, a special discount for employee referred clients, or whatever.

Ensure to get them trained and equip with the required information’s for the task ahead by holding training sessions to teach your staff how to effectively promote your business, but remember that this form of marketing will only work if they genuinely feel good about your business and are properly motivated to pitch it to friends, family, and acquaintances.

8. Promote A Free Consultation

When it comes to professional services, people want access to expertise and a lot of them also want it at no cost (free). Thou it might be free at the beginning, it can pay off later and as a business owner trying to promote his/her business, you can utilize this opportunity as part of your initial investments which will yield results in the nearest future.

If you have done a good job of positioning yourself as an expert or authority in your line of business, promoting a free consultation is a great way to generate new leads. If you have a good interpersonal sales process in place, it also sets you up to close a large percentage of leads.

A lot of service providers worry about disclosing too much info in a free consultation. They feel like potential clients will just take the info and run.

In reality, the exact opposite is true. While freeloader types might grab and go, they were never going to buy anyway. The type of people interested in paying for quality will be impressed by the value you provide in the consultation.

After all, if you can provide so much value in 30 minutes to an hour, they will believe that your claims are true and that hiring you is the right decision.

This can be used both online and offline. It can be advertised via pamphlets, newspapers, signs, or even word-of-mouth. And it can be prominently displayed on your website and social media channels.

This strategy won’t be ideal for every businesses, but if you offer an expert service or a high-priced service, it is very much worth considering.

9. Make Sure Your Business Is Visible in Local Searches

Small businesses should claim or create their Google My Business listing as soon as possible. These listings and reviews show up before websites on search. That means they can be more valuable than having a terrific website with amazing SEO.

Plus, with active reputation management, you can increase credibility by showcasing great reviews and star ratings. Be sure to add great photos and video to make your listing stand out. Even online and service industries can use this service without an address by creating a service area.

10. Webinars

A webinar is essentially a seminar that takes place online. It can be in the form of a presentation, demonstration or discussion.

Webinars are often used as lead magnets for email marketing and the right topic can drive a large batch of new subscribers to your list. It can also be used to build credibility with your current subscribers.

Webinars can also be recorded and used as standalone products or even a series of products. They are a great medium for both live and recorded training.

Webinars tend to be more engaging than simple videos, even if they are used in exactly the same way. The actual start time and live Q&A tends to make people feel like they are receiving significantly more value than if they were watching a video with the exact same information.

References

https://buildfire.com/marketing-strategies-for-small-businesses/

https://fitsmallbusiness.com/how-to-promote-your-business/