PROMOTIONAL IDEAS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
Small businesses find it hard to get their footing in the first few years of business. This is due to the fact that they run, mostly, on tight budgets. It is however encouraging to see a small business giving it all it takes to be the retail outlet or the choice of customers within their sphere of influence. Here are some promotional ideas for small businesses.
Direct marketing: this is basically marketing without the involvement of wholesalers, distributors or retailers. This is marketing directly to the customer – both present and prospective. Advertisement is to the general public but direct marketing works personally to the customer. It is the goal of direct marketing to reach out personally to the customer
anywhere – at work, at home, on the road and any where possible. This operates basically with newsletters and mailing lists. The business manager creates a mailing list which is a large database for present and prospective customers. These persons have the freedom to unsubscribe at anytime whatsoever. The mails contain information on products, offers, promotions and upgrades.
A tradeshow is a product exhibition show: It is that event where a manufacturer, a retailer or any person with something to sell gets to exhibit that product. When a company starts producing a product or introduces a new service, one of the ways the new product or service is introduced into the market is its exhibition at a tradeshow. At a tradeshow, potential buyers and those looking at connecting with producers and retailers walk around the exhibition stands to have personal looks and strike networking interactions or just buy the products.
Social media: the social media is a very large platform where millions of persons converge every minute to discuss, interact, do businesses, have fun, get entertainment and information. The social media can be leveraged on to advertised as the algorithm of some platforms could be made to depict a particular advertisement within the exact geographical location and to other filters suggested to the technology. Advantageously, advertising on the social media is not expensive and it could be done anywhere. The potential is also enormous as it can get to as many persons as possible.
Personal selling: this method is very effective as it brings together the seller and the buyer – the manufacturer being the seller and the final consumer being the buyer. It helps create a relationship between the two. It is basically the direct communication and interaction with customers – both present and prospect. By this method, customers can be informed and persuaded about products and promotions as they come up. Personal selling as being reputed to be expensive but compared to its effectiveness, it is a method a manufacturing company should consider. This could be by rack jobbing. Rack jobbing has proven to be effective for its economic advantage and the opportunity to meet new customers.
Whatever kind of business it is, the ideas can be used relatively for the promotion of the business.
