If you’re not in the position to hire an entire marketing team then this step of managing your business can feel a little daunting. However, the good news with a small business is that just the efforts of one person can make a huge difference. If you can devote an hour each day to your marketing then you will certainly begin to notice increased sales and more customer leads. We’ve got some helpful marketing ideas that you can employ immediately and which shouldn’t cost your business a dime to implement.
Making Every Review Count
It’s always a wonderful feeling to receive a great review, but instead of basking in the joy of the moment, you’ve got to learn how to capitalize on it! Making a testimonials page on your website is is a great way to show off your best customer reviews. If you have customers who are happy to share a photo of the work that you’ve done, the item they’ve bought, or the service that you provided, then ask them to do so. Potential buyers love to see real photographs demonstrating your business.
Another way to show off your reviews is to make sure that, if your business is eligible, that it appears on Google Businesses. The reviews section here can be a little daunting for some businesses, but it generally does far more good than harm. If there’s a review that you feel is unfair or false then you can report it to Google and ask for it to be removed. In the meantime, whilst you wait for that to happen, you can also reply directly to the person who left the review and explain your point of view politely.
As well as reviews from satisfied customers, it can really pay to reach out to reviewers too. Getting your business reviewed by a professional can do wonders for your credibility with customers. There are all kinds of sectors where a professional review goes much further than a customer review. For example, the online casino sector has several professional review sites which can recommend which casino offers the best Pennsylvania poker online or where to find the most generous promotions; these opinions are often sought out by consumers.
Hold a Competition
If you’re concerned about reaching new customers with your marketing then holding a competition can be a great way to achieve that goal. Social media is a brilliant platform for spreading the word about your competition. Simply make a post explaining exactly what the lucky person could win and ask people to share it, comment on it, tag a friend, or like it in order to enter. This means that your post will reach people who are already friends with your existing customers, which makes it a great way to find potential customers with a similar profile to your existing ones.
Once you pick your winner, make sure to announce it on all of your social channels, ideally with an accompanying photograph of the lucky person and what they won. This will get you double the exposure for the same competition, so it really is an essential step.
Introduce a Refer a Friend Scheme
Refer-a-friend schemes
are a great way to instantly boost your customer base with people who fit your profile. To begin with, you’ll need to think of something that your business can afford to give away. A helpful way to look at this is to quantify what a new customer would be worth to you and give away something up to 100% of that value. For example, if you run a yoga studio and someone refers a new customer to you who ends up coming to six weeks of yoga classes at $20 per class, that referral was worth $120. It would therefore be totally reasonable to give the referer and the referee a free yoga class on the house. You’ll still be making money off your customers, but both will feel it was a worthwhile deal for them that could hopefully lead to more referrals.
Another way that you can make this scheme work is through a tier system. If you have customers who are likely to introduce more than one friend, then you can stagger your rewards. For example, the first time they introduce a friend they could receive 15% off their next purchase with you. The time after that they might receive 50% off, and once they’ve introduced five friends they could choose a free gift. Be creative with your scheme, but remember it has to be attractive to your customers, not just to you!
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