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Hey! Are you stuck in a dilemma between ‘investing huge amounts for the marketing and promotion of your startup to let people know about it and approach for your services/products’ and ‘waiting for an organic response that happens eventually’?
Experts say a big ‘No’ to both options that are confusing you. Spending lumps of money for promotions is an unwanted investment costing risk factor. And, to regain the amount you spend on such promotions takes time and thus goes devoid of that amount in the business processes other than marketing.
Waiting for things to fall into place without any effort is also a foolish idea. Miracles do not always happen and also not in everyone’s case. Hence, just sitting idle hoping that one day your startup will become famous and people will rush into your store is a dream that may remain.
If not these two options, then what? We will discuss that.
There are multiple methods that you can implement to promote your business without a hefty investment. I will share with you those tricks and trust me, it has worked for me too.
Customer Incentive
There’s no strategy more trustworthy than word of mouth. Make your current customers happy. You should ensure every aspect of the customer journey, starting from product quality, services, store, and customer relations to make them purchase again from you. The trust you build with them will gain you many more potential customers.
It is as simple as that, you might have experienced this- you face an acne issue and your sister says she used a product from a certain brand and that worked for her. You don’t need any validity now from any public figure or its ad because it worked for somebody you know and you trust that person’s word.
Affiliate Program
Affiliate marketing is a low-cost strategy but again based on the trust factor. You make your customer convince their family, friends, kith, and kin to be your customers through certain offers. “Refer and earn” is very familiar and this is essentially affiliate marketing. Through some goodies or compelling offers, your customers have driven as the marketers of your brand bring to you, new potential customers.
An added advantage is that affiliate marketing often works as a chain that the coming new customers and also convinces people from their circles to avail offers for themselves, again benefitting you.
Happy Employees
If your team is strong and motivated, then just as it is said, if your base is strong, you can easily build on top of it any number of floors. A motivated and enthusiastic team becomes the brand ambassador and helps your customer acquisition hassle-free. When your team delivers work on time, when your customer service team pleases your customers, and when all of them are aware of the aim and not just about their delegated duty, you see greater outputs.
Incentivize them and make them happy so that they will have a conviction to work for the growth of their organization and you don’t have to push them for it.
Read My Blog on Mistakes a Startup Should Avoid!
Expand Network
Expanding the network is exactly opening the doors to you. To grow your business you have to grow your network. Expanding your network will reach your brand to many more people. That will bring you more potential customers. It can be B2B or finding yourself in a group of potential customers.
Any occasion can be counted as an opportunity to expand your network. Talk to people about your business, your brand, and your products, and also listen to their interests, their domain, their business, etc. Conversations can sometimes lead and might open new possibilities for your business.
Passionate Seller
You have to be the best seller of your team. A true businessman should also be the best salesman. Be a passionate salesperson of your brand so that nobody can say no to your product. It is an art and one does master it. You thereby generate a sustainable and highly profitable customer base.
When you confidently speak about your brand and guarantee its benefits, people can’t refrain from believing you. Be the face of your brand and be its voice too. Take it to the masses confidently and passionately.
Online Listing
To be ranked while a potential customer searches for products or services add to your reputation and hence it is important. Most online business directories are free and it is not a tedious procedure to get it done. Be it when checking your ranking specifically or while checking products and services finding you as a top-ranked listed company, either way, it benefits you.
Getting noticed by the prospects is the first step in the right direction.
Social Media
We are familiar with the business possibilities through social media platforms and this is the very platform that made a lot of entrepreneurs succeed and sustain mostly with quality content alone. It won’t likely cost you a penny. You can reach a wider audience here who can ignite word-of-mouth marketing.
Make an effort to find your niche and be genuine about your services and products. Be active on your social media accounts updating consistently on your new launches, and offers, and keep reminding them about you through the same. Be there so that they can’t forget you and make compelling and interesting posts to drive business.
If you look around you can see many bootstrap startups followed these to reach where they are today. A little effort can take your brand to heights. The process might take some time but will it be efficient, especially to scale your business without promotional costs? Through these customers, your gain will be sustainable.
Believe in yourself, polish and update the quality of your products and services. Meanwhile, stay tuned for some effective marketing techniques in coming blogs.
