This is part 2 of Common Misconception – Marketing is expensive. In part 1, I spoke about Social Networking, Email Marketing, and Article Marketing. Read on for more cheap marketing ideas!
Blogging
Blogging is a great way of increasing not only your brand awareness, but your traffic and credibility as well. You can blog about anything; Your business, industry related news, weather, or where you went on holiday last year. If you decide to write about your business, position yourself as an expert. This will also increase your credibility further. If everyone thinks you're the expert in your industry, they're going to want to purchase from you! Bonus Tip: If you are on a social networking site, publish a link whenever you submit a new post. If you are not, include your blog URL on your business cards.
Press Releases
Press releases are primarily used when businesses originally start up, to let everyone know where they are and what they do. But, you can also use press releases to position yourself as an expert. If something has happened in your industry, write to your local paper and ask if they would like an expert to write an article. Journalists are always looking for a story, so if you position yourself as an expert, hopefully they will be calling you for a press release, not the other way around. Bonus Tip: Form a relationship with a journalist; You want your name to be the first that springs into his / her head when an industry-related topic arises.
Superior Customer Service
This has got to be the oldest form of marketing around. Even back in Roman times, they probably thought of this as marketing. Think about it; If you offer superior customer service, and after-sales assistance, word of mouth is going to travel that you are a fantastic company which sole purpose is to add benefit and value to your customers lives. This is what you want. Also, with great customer service, the existing customers are much more likely to come back again and again. Bonus Tip: Give them something every time they come into your shop, but make sure it has your band name on. It could be a coaster, pen or just a business card, but at least when they look at it in a few weeks they will remember you and your fantastic customer relations.
Phone people
Ah! The good old phone. This is great for contacting existing customers, as well as future customers. You can build a relationship, and the added value of hearing your voice is something Email Marketing or any emarketing strategy can do; It makes it so much more personal. While you can personalize an email, you can never personalize it as much as a phone call.
Remember; Implementing just one of these strategies will work, but slowly. To make the most out of marketing, you must have at least 4/5 different methods.
