3 Affordable Long-Term Advertising Strategies

Advertising on a budget means carefully considering your long term goals, as well as your short term ones.  While every business focuses on generating profits, one sale today from a customer that never comes back won’t help your long-term business prospects.  On the other hand, a customer that cannot afford to buy today may be able to make a purchase in the future when the economy turns upward.

Subsequently, all of your advertising strategies should be aimed at making a lasting impression with the client – not just making a temporary sale.

Smart Long-Term Branding

Your advertising is effective only if it builds and cements your branding strategy.  People will often buy a brand that they recognize.  For example, think of your favorite carbonated beverage.  Chances are the first brand that popped into your mind was either a Coke or a Pepsi product; you probably aren’t thinking about the off brand that your grocer also stocks.  This instant association is the power of branding.

Branding simply involves getting your name and logo out everywhere.  Your logo should be on everything – every product you sell, every brochure, every business card, and every ad in the paper.  It can even go on your office stationery.

The Keepsake Advertisement

Another way to maintain your image with the customer is to give them something that they can keep for an extended period of time.  Let’s face it – most catalogs, sales ads, and bulk mail end up in the recycling bin shortly after their arrival.  This means that you will need to get creative with how you approach the customer.

Many companies find success using an annual calendar.  The calendar will be used by the client all year long, and you can include special savings or coupons on each page to encourage them to call.  Many realtors use notepads or refrigerator magnets as a way to keep their name in front of their customers.  Post-its, T-shirts, ball caps, stickers, magnets – anything that appears to have more value than a sales flyer is often held onto longer, giving you more opportunities to reach the customer.  Maybe they can’t buy today, but they’ll be thinking about you tomorrow.

Customer Loyalty Programs

All customers like to feel appreciated, and creating a customer loyalty program is a good way to build repeat business.  Some businesses do this in the form of a discount card that members can use to receive special deals.  Your local sandwich shop may have a punch card that rewards you with a free meal once you buy 10.  Members-only mailing lists with special promotions are also a big hit.

The advantage is that any of these programs is easy to implement – all you need is some printed postcards to take down the client’s information.  Punch cards or savings cards are easy to have printed.  And once you have the client’s personal information, you can contact them at will – sending them reminder letters, sales ads, and other communications throughout the year.

Remember, the goal is to build customers that will last a lifetime.  Focus on building long term customers with your advertising strategies to see the most success.

Building Customer Loyalty to Maintain Your Business

In a soft economy, it can be difficult to maintain customer loyalty.  Some customers will shop elsewhere if the prices are right, and others will stop shopping at all.  Thankfully, here are some strategies that you can implement to keep customer loyalty high.

Reliability

Over time, customers start to expect a certain level of quality in your product and/or services. Whether your customers are shopping in your store or visiting your website, they need to have the same quality experience every time.  This means having a consistent product or service, as well as staff that delivers stellar customer relations each and every time.

Credibility

When it comes to your business, you have to be as good as your word.  Every promise that you make in every ad, every brochure, and every business card you must keep.  Don’t try and have a secret agenda, and be accurate about any claims you make.

Responsiveness

Since customers tend to be more careful about their purchases when their belts are tight, you need to take any concern that they have seriously.  The easiest way to do this is to make it convenient for them to track their order and stay in contact with you.  If the customer has something that they perceive to be a problem, work with them to fix it immediately.

Empathy

When speaking with the customer, you have to understand how they are feeling, which means picking up on verbal and nonverbal cues.  If they seem anxious, then you should be reassuring.  If they are excited, then get excited right along with them.

Good Employees

Any business owner realizes that the employees he or she hires are a part of the business.  This means finding people that not only have the skills you need, but that also have the personalities required to work with the customer.  This may involve stealing employees away from other businesses; always be on the lookout for someone who would make a positive addition to your team.

Employee Training

Some companies make the mistake of only training their employees immediately after hiring.  Training should actually be built in on a regular basis and be ongoing.  You can never have employees that are over-trained – the better trained they are, the more effective they will be.

Employee Loyalty

It may not make sense to consider employee loyalty when it comes to customer loyalty, but remember that loyal employees are happy employees.  And happy employees will be more in tune with the customers, easier to work with, and willing to go the extra mile when it comes to delivering customer service.

Ease of Service

Lastly, you should make things as easy as possible for the customer.  Reduce paperwork where you can.  Ask for feedback on what they like and what they don’t like.  Make sure that it is easy to contact you – every piece of advertising should at least have your phone number, if not emails, websites, addresses, and other ways of contacting you.  The easier you make things for the customer, the more likely they will be to continue to buy from you.

Cutting Prices to Increase Profits

In a soft economy, you will find that customers are less likely to part with their hard-earned dollars.  For small businesses, this can mean a decrease in profits that could put you in serious jeopardy. One way to combat this is to cut your prices.  Keep in mind that cutting your prices does not always equal cutting your profits.  Here are a few scenarios where you can cut costs and see big rewards.

Increase your sales numbers

Will cutting prices allow you to sell more of your product or services, ultimately raising your bottom line?  Calculate the anticipated rise in volume versus the discounted rate to determine if your bottom line will enjoy growth.  After all, in economics, the supply/demand graph indicates that a lower price will sell more widgets.

The “economy” option

Another way to cut prices without affecting your profits is to create an “economy” version of your product.  This is a product with fewer frills and is offered at the same time you offer the original version.  This gives your customers a more affordable option without diluting your main product, and it may keep your budget-conscious customers from shopping elsewhere.  Those who are loyal to your original product can still enjoy it at the normal costs, but those who are looking for a better value can cut a few frills and go with the second option.

Create a package deal

If you offer multiple products or services, considering offering them up as a bundle package with a percentage off what it would cost to buy each item individually.  You’ll see magazines doing this frequently; they’ll offer an annual subscription for 30% off the individual issue price.  Customers who are interested in the value of an item will often choose the package deal, and you may end up selling them products or services that you normally would not have if they were buying everything individually.

Cut your costs

Another thing to consider if you want to drop your selling price is to look for ways to cut your production costs.  In some cases, it may be easier to cut money from other aspects of the business than from the product itself.  For example, take a look at your marketing.  Will a black and white ad bring in as many customers at the full color one?  Could you go with a two-color brochure instead of four-color?  Do you have the photography skills to take your own images instead of hiring a photographer?  By looking at ways to cut your business’ costs, you can make sure that you can safely cut your prices without cutting your profit margin.

With an ounce of creativity and a dash of economic understanding, you can grow your profits, regardless of the economy outside.

How to Build a Better Brand

In order to build a relationship with your potential customers, you need to start creating a brand identity.  The stronger your brand identity is, the more people will relate, which means they’ll continue to use your products and services even if you are more expensive than the competition. There are numerous ways to build your brand.  Here is a look at some of the inexpensive options you have that can make your business better.

Get affiliates

If your business is online, having affiliates allows someone else to do the advertising work for you.  Affiliates help to generate traffic, and they get a small percentage of the sales they generate.  Plus, since affiliates can market in a wide variety of places, people will start to notice and recognize your brand.

Create a blog

You can easily set up a blog for little to no cost and write your own articles about your business.  For a small fee, you can also hire a professional writer.  Blogs allow customers to see another side of you and get them excited about what you sell.

Stickers

You can’t say enough good things about stickers.  Stickers are inexpensive to print, colorful, and get a message across. Plus they can be stuck to nearly anything and anyone.  Stick them on anything you mail out, hand them out to customers who shop your store, or give the stickers away on the street to generate interest in your product.

Promotional gifts

Anything that you can print up and give away to customers, prospects, and suppliers can be a great way to build your brand.  Whether you are printing up baseball caps or note cards, post-it notes or T-shirts – the more places you can slap on your logo, the better.

Newsletters

Newsletters are a smart way to keep in touch with customers and potential prospects.  It can include articles, upcoming events, or even special coupons.  You can choose to print and mail a newsletter or do it all virtually via email.

Holiday gifts

Everyone loves gifts.  Make sure you remember your clients throughout the year with little gifts.  Smaller holidays could be observed with a box of chocolates featuring your logo sticker placed prominently on the front.  For a larger holiday, consider giving out gifts that will last longer – such as a promotional calendar for the client to hang in their office.

Thank you notes

Remember back to when you sent great-grandma a thank you card for the $5 she mailed you for your birthday?  She surely appreciated hearing from you, and your clients will feel the same.  Take the time to send a postcard or a note to every customer that makes a purchase.  This will help them feel appreciated and will help you to generate repeat business.

Logos everywhere!

Everything related to your company should match.  A printing company can assist you with establishing logo congruency. Your business cards should match your stationery, which should match your brochures, which should match your website, which should match your T-shirts – and the list goes on.  It may seem repetitive, but this is how your logo and your product become engraved in the minds of your customers.

How to Effectively Define Your Target Market

An important part of making marketing successful, even if you are on a tight budget, is to define your target market.  The targeted demographic will have an effect on the type of marketing that is most effective, the products you use, and how much money you spend.  Thankfully, even small businesses can learn from the larger ones when it comes to what works and what doesn’t.

Keep in mind that marketing isn’t always about the quantity of the people you reach, but rather the quality.  A small business cannot compare to a multi-million-dollar conglomerate, and therefore their target market is much more precise.

Discovering your target market

To have the most successful marketing campaign possible, you have to find your target market.  The target market is the customers who have a need your business can satisfy.  Your marketing goal is to identify this market and set your focus of the campaign on them.  To do this, you have to consider four variables – your product, your location, the promotion you want to do, and the cost.

The product means coming up with something that the customer sees as having value and satisfying their wants or needs.  The location is a combination of being in the right place at the right time.  Your promotion is your way of communicating with the customer and doing so effectively.  The last thing to consider is the price.  You need a price that satisfies your profit margin without being so expensive that the target market does not wish to buy it.

You also have to consider the segmentation of the market.  Every market can be broken down into smaller categories, including geographic regions, specific demographics, or product types.  What you want to do is identify what traits your ideal customers have in common so that you can market to those traits.

Playing the mass market

Mass marketing is a strategy that works well for larger companies, where it is assumed that just about anyone could be a customer.  Car companies and soft drink companies, for example, often appeal to the mass market.  However, this only works well if you have a large amount of capital to back this marketing form, and it can be a great risk for smaller companies with less marketing funds.

Segmenting your market

In order to better understand your target market, it is useful to segment it.  This allows you to focus on the market most inclined to buy your product, giving you the most bang for your marketing buck.

Geography is one of the first segments that are applied to the market.  This can be dividing your target market to a specific region, city, or even neighborhood.  Different marketing techniques will be required for different geographical locations, and small businesses usually will achieve the best results by marketing locally.

Demographics are another segmentation that is commonly used.  It looks at the age, gender, race, nationality, education, and more of the target market.  For instance, if you are marketing towards teens, your marketing strategy will be vastly different than if you are marketing to senior citizens or if you are marketing primarily to women over men.  This does require you to understand to whom your product will most appeal.

Segmentation can go even further depending on the results that you are trying to achieve.  The better you understand your market, the better you can target your marketing, and the more successful your marketing strategies will be.

Inexpensive Ways to Expand Your Marketing

Whether you are trying to start up a new business or keep a struggling one afloat, even in a downturned economy, you still must market yourself.  However, how can you spread the word about your business when profits are soft and costs are high?  Here are some ideas of way you can expand your marketing without expanding your budget.

Build your identity

If you are starting a business, you must have an identity to which customers can relate.  The most important part of this is having a set logo, color palette, or slogan that is easy for your customers to remember.  This identity will be placed on every business card, piece of stationery, brochure, or advertisement that you publish.  If you don’t have a definitive identity, your printer may be able to help you come up with a logo design that works for you.

Business cards

If you spend money on nothing else, you should always invest in business cards.  Business cards allow you to share the identity you have created with everyone you meet.  You can hand them out to people that visit your business, give them away to contacts you meet on the street, and stick them into every single envelope that leaves your business.  They are inexpensive to produce, can start the brand recognition process, and provide the recipient with all the contact information that they need to reach you.

Create a presentation

You can easily create a slide presentation on your own computer or have a marketing company put one together for you.  This presentation should briefly go over the products and/or services that your company offers.  It should be short enough that you can email the link to prospective clients or show it at sales meetings.  Remember to have your business cards and other marketing materials handy to present as well.

Brochures

Brochures are another marketing tool that are relatively simple to produce and not too expensive to have printed.  Your brochure should highlight specific products or services that you offer and include eye-catching pictures.  Text should be short, easy to read, and to the point, and the entire brochure should be visually attractive.  Brochures can be sent in the mail to interested clients, set out on a counter for customers to pick up, or left behind after you have given a sales pitch.

Website

A website is one of the ways that you can tie all of the previous items together.  Domain names are relatively inexpensive, and you can print your website information on your business card.  Once on the site, customers can learn more about your business, order brochures, view your presentation, or contact you. It allows you to have a constant presence on the internet to garner clients once unreachable through traditional methods, as well as a way for customers to contact you without having to pick up the phone.

With a little planning, a good printer, and some well thought out designs, you can have a marketing plan that is inexpensive to implement yet highly successful.