New ways to market your Small Business

Being a small business,one cannot afford to spend a huge amount on marketing.So, one has to make the best use of the available avenues for marketing. Here are some of the different ways of reaching your target audience.

• Advertise regularly in a local newspaper : Look out for local newspaper/magazine in your area and the kind of audience it reaches.If this is the audience you are trying to reach , then start adverstising in it.The ad need not be a full page one .A small-sensible ad that brings out various aspects of your business each time is what is required. Repitition is the key here.People need to see your business time and again for them to remember your buiness.So, insert your ads periodically .
• Sponsor a Local Event : Sponsoring a local event like a flood light Football match, Cultural events in Schools/Colleges,Community Christmas celebrations can give great visibility to your business.
• SMS marketing : Send in a quick message about a discount that you are providing or some special offer to all your contacts in the area and request them to send it to their dear ones who may find it usefull.The message has to be non obtrusive and sensible.
• List you Business on Google Maps : As more and more people go online,it becomes imperative that you are present there waiting to grab your pie.So, it makes sense to make your prsence felt online.Google has an innovative feature -"Local Business Listings" where in you can list your business.Whenever a user googles out for something like "Florists in Daytona", it immediately lists out Florists in Daytona along with the Google maps.These maps can also take the user to your website/Blog,etc.Its a very innovative and effective way to reach your target audience online.And, above all, its free!
• List your Business on the Free Classifiede Websites: List your business on any of the Free Classifides websites in your city.This increases the chance of your prospective customers finding about your Buiness Online. You need not worry about the brand value of the websites where you will be inserting your free ads, because at the end of the day what matters is the Search Engine Optimization of the website, which leads the visitor based on the keywords to relevent Business Listings. Most of the Free Classfides Websites would have gone for search engine optimization.So, no need to worry.
• Word of Mouth marketing : Finally, there is the age old way of marketing thru words. You can turn this into a a very effective advertsing tool by bringing in some amount of discipline into it. Fix a goal that in one day, i will talk about my business to atleast 3 people.These need not be your clients or prospective customer.It can be your supplier, neighbour,etc. The aim here is to augment your mainstream Advertsing strategies with word of mouth advertsing. This can help you bring visibilty and build a Brand value to your Buiness in the long run.