The right marketing campaign is essential to anyone who owns their own business – in fact, it is so crucial it can either make or break our business. The trouble with conventional marketing is that it can be very expensive to do right. There are many things to cover, and this can add to the confusion for small to medium sized businesses who are inexperienced in the marketing field.
A specialist marketing company may be able to help, but only adds to the cost, and they still aren’t guaranteed to get you the results that you want. Many of the favorite traditional marketing techniques include radio advertising, local newspaper advertising or local television advertising.
- Radio has a good reach for the price, but it can be difficult to develop a memorable marketing campaign without the help of professionals (at considerable cost for studio time, etc.).
- Local newspapers can be a cheap option, but ads can be buried in pages worth of other ads.
- TV is a more expensive manner of regionally targeted advertising but is no doubt still a relatively attractive option if you have the budget.
If you have already tried these marketing styles but want to maximize your impact while minimizing your cost, we have the right guidance for you.
Non-Traditional Marketing
The unique marketing styles of today can boost your business without having to spend tons of money on an elaborate marketing campaign. Here are some of the most common – and not so common – styles of modern marketing.
- Online marketing – This alone could take a full article just to go through all the different ways companies market themselves online, but we’ll stick to the cheapest, most effective and least dubious ways to advertise.
One of the simplest ways to get your name onto the web is to have a website. A good online presence seems obvious, but not every company bothers with this process. Some are put off by the complexity of creating a website themselves, or others are concerned about the costs of letting professionals design and maintain one. The truth is that these days a website can cost as little as free, and there are plenty of guides out there that practically walk you through the process. Both Google and YouTube are a good source of information for these.
If this is all seems all too much for you, don’t worry as there is another way to get your name on the net for free. You can often join forums that are relevant to your business and put your services up in their classified section (only post where it is appropriate though or you risk being banned or having your post removed!). You can also list your company on one of the many classified websites on the Internet. You can find these easily with a quick search, and it’s often a very straightforward process to add your company to the listing.
- Other unique marketing methods – This is a bit of a catch-all for non-standard ways to advertise your business.
One of the quirkiest ideas we have come across is paying people to wear a t-shirt with your brand or company name on it!
In a similar fashion, people will drive around with your company details on a vinyl wrap on their car! Your business doesn’t even need to have a fleet for this method which is one of its many benefits. If you do have a car fleet, you can get your brand out there by arranging for your fleet to be wrapped in the same branding. This method also applies to businesses who have larger vehicles, as all types can have a vehicle wrap no matter the size.
Benefits to These Marketing Methods
The above marketing methods can increase awareness of your brand for very little cost, getting you the most value for your money if you are on a tight budget. In particular, illustrating your brand on a vehicle is probably a method you have seen many companies do.
What separates the vinyl wrapping from the other methods is the fact that it has long-term market exposure for a single upfront fee. Other styles of advertising have a relatively brief shelf-life requiring you to spend more money to maintain their benefits. What’s more, your business doesn’t even have to own any vehicles to do this, making it a particularly attractive option if your business is based online or in a small retail unit. You can get the business message out locally without spending a fortune.
Hopefully, this has cleared up some of the confusion with the marketing industry and given you some great ideas to increase your brand awareness. Marketing is a tried and tested method of increasing your revenue by building your company’s brand awareness – you can’t go wrong by using this article as a starting point!