May 28th, 2018 | Updated on June 4th, 2018
Growing a business is no easy task, especially for small business owners that are just starting out. Moreover, as a business owner, you have a lot of responsibilities on your shoulders, one of the most important ones being how you keep your finances on track, especially during the difficult first year.
Deciding how to prioritize your finances is an important skill that all entrepreneurs need to learn. Considering that so many areas of business require financial resources, you might feel like you don’t have a lot of capital to invest in expensive marketing strategies.
Thankfully, there are a few innovative ways that help your business grow without investing a lot of money. However, before that, it’s a good idea to create a reachable business goal so that you can stay motivated throughout the process.
It will require a bit of effort, but it will be greatly appreciated. Customizing these ideas and testing out different suggestions is the only way to find out which one of the following low-cost strategies can help your business grow.
1. Engage on Social Media
Social media is one of the quickest methods of building an audience and growing a business. It is relatively low cost and truly effective. The secret that one has to keep in mind when it comes to social media is to create engaging content and post frequently. Once you manage to raise a few people’s interests, you are on your path to success.
It is very easy to spread the word across social media, and that is why you need to focus on captivating your audience with your content. After all, content is king! If you don’t know which platform to create a presence on, you need to focus on the one which relates most to your target audience, such as Facebook for connecting with fellow parents and LinkedIn for networking, instead of trying to create audiences on every single platform and failing to post on a regular basis.
2. Create Original Content
Content helps you build a relevant image, so you need to ensure that your clients remember the informative and interesting content you create, and they always come back for more. Since you have a lot of expertise in your field, you could create a few engaging videos and share your knowledge with the public.
The main ingredients that create great content include strong headlines, engaging, thought-provoking information, images and video and last but not least, skim-easy articles. Contrary to popular belief, short blog posts are appreciated by a lot of people because they contain only relevant information, rather than chunks of difficult to read text.
3. Utilize Online Tools
Business owners are very lucky to live in this modern society and can take advantage of technology to grow their business. There are a great number of online tools that they can utilize without spending a big part of their capital. For example, if you use social media to promote your business, a tool like Hootsuite helps you manage your content on different platforms at the same time.
It’s like having a personal assistant that helps you get some peace of mind. On the other hand, Google Maps marketing is a great tool for a growing business. This innovative tool helps you boost sales, add images and create business promotions, all related to the location of your business. When you add your business to Google Maps, it enables your information to be shown to users as a recommendation of where they should go, for example.
4. Speak at Events
There is nothing quite like word-of-mouth marketing, and the best person to do that is you. Volunteering to speak at different events helps you build connections with fellow business owners who are in the same field and expand your client base. In order to do that you need to be confident, organized and proactive.
Although delivering a speech is not the easiest thing to do, you need to remember that you are a true professional in your field, and with the help of your expertise, you can answer every single question that your audience might have. Over time, you’ll learn how to manage your emotions and be more confident.
5. Have a Mobile Billboard
Lastly, it is important to mention the power of mobile business promotion. You don’t necessarily need to own a van to be able to do that; even your personal vehicle can help you spread the word about your great services. The most important details that you need to include are the name of the company, the services that it provides and some contact information.
Just think about all the people who see your car on a daily basis. Moreover, if you live in a crowded area and if you’re often stuck in traffic, you’ll get even more exposure. Spending a bit of capital is truly effective in this case.
When it comes to growing a business, a lot of small business owners think that the most effective methods are those that require spending a lot of money, yet these examples are proof that it’s not always like that.
