Some Less Obvious Ways to Promote Your Business
Promoting your business is perhaps the single most important part of your business strategy behind providing a high quality product or service that people will want to pay for. If you can't promote your company effectively then of course no one is going to know it exists and this is hardly conducive to sales and profits.
If you really want to make the most of your business though then you shouldn't just rely on the most basic forms of promotion - thinking outside of the box can help you to really stand out and help others to find you. Here we will look at some of the less obvious ways you can gain exposure for your projects and connect with your audiences.
Fliers
One way of promoting a business that many people forget is to simply hand out fliers. Using fliers you can reach a large audience very quickly and actually put something physical in their hands that is hard to ignore. These can then be handed out at tradeshows, included with deliveries of products, given out in the street or even posted through letter boxes to very quickly reach a wide range of people. This works especially well for local businesses and there are plenty of companies online that will design and print your materials for you. Once you have your fliers it's then just a matter of thinking hard about where you are going to give them out - think about the target demographic you're aiming for and where those people are likely to be found in large numbers.
Magazines
Getting promotion in magazines is a brilliant way to reach a large readership and especially if you can get them to write about you (rather than just paying for advertising space). Try contacting smaller magazines such as hobbyist magazines and come up with an angle that they can write about. If they think what you're doing is newsworthy then they'll probably cover it in their pages and you'll reach a huge readership that way. If they also mention you on the website then that can be free link juice from a very reputable source too.
Partnerships
If you want to find yourself a new audience then you should look at how you might be able to partner with another business or service that is complementary to yours and propose sharing some of your custom. For instance say you ran a company that made toothbrushes, you could contact a company that made toothpaste and then offer to promote them if they mention you in return. This way you both get more customers and everyone ones.
Radio
Paying for advertising on television is beyond the budget of many smaller companies, but don't ignore radio. Radio has plenty of listeners, any of whom could become paying customers and if you can come up with a catchy jingle then you'll be surprised how many people actually check out your site. Again this is particularly useful for local businesses as local radio stations will charge less for advertising.
If you really want to make the most of your business though then you shouldn't just rely on the most basic forms of promotion - thinking outside of the box can help you to really stand out and help others to find you. Here we will look at some of the less obvious ways you can gain exposure for your projects and connect with your audiences.
Fliers
One way of promoting a business that many people forget is to simply hand out fliers. Using fliers you can reach a large audience very quickly and actually put something physical in their hands that is hard to ignore. These can then be handed out at tradeshows, included with deliveries of products, given out in the street or even posted through letter boxes to very quickly reach a wide range of people. This works especially well for local businesses and there are plenty of companies online that will design and print your materials for you. Once you have your fliers it's then just a matter of thinking hard about where you are going to give them out - think about the target demographic you're aiming for and where those people are likely to be found in large numbers.
Magazines
Getting promotion in magazines is a brilliant way to reach a large readership and especially if you can get them to write about you (rather than just paying for advertising space). Try contacting smaller magazines such as hobbyist magazines and come up with an angle that they can write about. If they think what you're doing is newsworthy then they'll probably cover it in their pages and you'll reach a huge readership that way. If they also mention you on the website then that can be free link juice from a very reputable source too.
Partnerships
If you want to find yourself a new audience then you should look at how you might be able to partner with another business or service that is complementary to yours and propose sharing some of your custom. For instance say you ran a company that made toothbrushes, you could contact a company that made toothpaste and then offer to promote them if they mention you in return. This way you both get more customers and everyone ones.
Radio
Paying for advertising on television is beyond the budget of many smaller companies, but don't ignore radio. Radio has plenty of listeners, any of whom could become paying customers and if you can come up with a catchy jingle then you'll be surprised how many people actually check out your site. Again this is particularly useful for local businesses as local radio stations will charge less for advertising.
