When you’re starting a small business, it can be hard to find new customers and clients. The number one reason why a lot of businesses fail is because the owners did not put effort into marketing their business or they didn’t know how to effectively promote their business. Today I want to share with you all 20+ ways to market a small business.
I hope that these advertising methods will be helpful within promoting your small business and making more money.
20+ Small Business Advertising Ideas
Market to your business to your friends and family.
This is usually a no brainer. The people you know will hopefully be some of your first customers. Have them buy a product from you and share reviews about it on their social media online. It’ll definitely help with pulling in more potential customers. Ask someone you trust to evaluate if you need to do anything differently with your website setup too. I know I personally have seen a few websites that weren’t user friendly which made me not want to purchase from them. Remember that the way the website looks and the responsive time of the website is extremely important. By having people you know test out how to make a purchase from your website, your product, or your service you can assess any issues before too many people come into contact with it.
Advertise your business locally in nearby stores and restaurants.
A lot of times I see advertisements of other businesses in restaurants, comic book stores, and a variety of other stores. Ask different business owners if you can place flyers in their store. You will probably get a lot of no’s, but there will also be a few,
“Yes, you can have flyers in here.”
Promote your business at nearby festivals and events.
Festivals and events with a lot of foot traffic can bring you in business. Plan months in advance to setup a booth at these events. Usually these events have a sign up sheet months in advance so enter your submissions in early. Bring business cards and your product or examples of the service you offer to showcase to potential customers.
You can also have outgoing people pass out flyers about your business as well. Just make sure you get authorization to do it though.
Network at events.
Start conversations with different people you see and throw in a little discussion about your business if you can. Have business cards ready.
Host an Event.
One of the things that bring people in is some sort of event that is fun. You could potentially host a class showcasing tips for a service you offer that can help people then feature your complete service at the end of the class. Or you could host a Summer event with music and food, then invite business owners to the event and pitch your service/product to them. Another idea would be if you have a product for Mom’s, you could have a Mom related event and offer a discount on your products for one day only.
Use hashtags for your business on Instagram.
Hashtags can bring in a lot of potential customers. If you’re promoting a local business, use hashtags for popular areas nearby and use geotags of the area. Do research on hashtags to evaluate which ones bring in views. Also don’t forget to participate in #smallbusinessSaturday & #smallbusinessSunday for more visibility.
Advertise your business on your car.
Have a decal made for your business and place it on the side of your car. People will see it wherever you drive. You can have a decent sized bumper sticker created as well.
You can also pay other people to advertise your business on their car too.
Start a website or a blog.
Starting a blog or a website is great for new customers, especially if you know how to write and how to do SEO (Search engine Optimization). By posting content connected to the blog, you could get more customers if you write keyword articles or post about events and share to social media.
16 Reasons Why You Should Start a Blog | Blogging for Beginners
Have influencers post about your business on their networks.
Influencer marketing is pretty awesome because most influencers have a focused audience already. All you would have to do is either give them a free product, money, or both to talk about your service on their social media platforms. You can find bloggers, Pinterest influencers, Instagram influencers, Facebook influencers, and Twitter influencers that you can use to promote your product/service. I would recommend using at least 20 different influencers to spread talk about your business. I will say that you definitely have to be realistic with your expectations. Don’t just expect only one influencer to deliver you tons of clients. It can take a bit of time. The more influencers who talk about your product/service, the bigger chance potential customers will see it.
If you need an influencer or a blogger, you can work with me!
Check out my stats today!
Post about your business on Pinterest.
Pinterest is absolutely everything when it comes to promoting practically anything. I am in love with Pinterest. There are millions on top of millions of people who will make a purchase from Pinterest. I’ve had a few people buy items through affiliate links on my Pinterest account which increased my income. I have to mention that it also brings in lots of traffic. My other website receives about 8000+ views monthly from Pinterest alone.
Check out my blog posts that I’ve written about Pinterest. They’ll help you with marketing on there.
3 Ways to Find Pinterest Keywords to Increase Your Website Traffic | Pinterest Strategy
2 Things I Did To Increase My Pinterest Monthly Viewers to 5 Million
Work with a PR rep company.
Hire your local Public Relations company to get the word out about your business. They’ll be able to develop some tactics for marketing and even be able to get your business in the right hands for publicity.
Host a giveaway online.
Giveaways are a great way to gain visibility for not only your product, but also your social media accounts. Run a giveaway and constantly promote it. At the very least you’ll gain more followers and more visibility from potential future clients.
Target people interested in your product on Twitter.
One of the things that I personally love to do is target people on Twitter.
For example, let’s say you create crocheted items and many of your items are for babies. You could type in the Twitter search bar “baby shower gift”, “gift for baby”, “I want crochet”, and potential buyers will pop up tweeting about these topics. Skim through the tweets and respond to their tweet mentioning your business or a product you have while attaching a link. Then it’s up to the person whether they buy the item or not.
Join your local Chamber of Commerce.
By adding your business to the Chamber of Commerce in your area you’ll be able to network with other local businesses to create ways to get potentially get more customers. You’ll also be able to potentially join in on events where multiple businesses can collaborate and be seen by potential customers.
Post videos on Youtube about your business.
Creating videos for Youtube is really similar to starting a website or blog for your business. You can make a variety of content where you can mention your business or showcase events that happen/happened at your business. If you’re selling an actual product, I would recommend honestly even just becoming and actual Youtuber where you connect with people, but you’ll also be able to give viewers the option of buying your items if they’re interested or just want to support you.
Send flyers in the mail.
I have had a variety of businesses just stuff a flyer in my mail box. Every now and then I will actually purchase or use a service that is on a flyer. Don’t think flyers aren’t a good idea because they definitely can be depending on the service.
Create a Facebook page and share posts to Facebook groups.
It would be ideal to join local Facebook groups and share your content to those local groups by advertising your product or service. Join a variety of groups where you think potential buyers will be and create content for those groups where you can either relate to people and get them to your Facebook page or where you can create content with your product/service. Make sure to look at the rules for self-promotion. Some pages don’t allow it and if you do self-promote without paying attention to the rules, you could get banned from the page. So just a heads up.
Advertise on the radio.
Marketing your small business on the radio is a great idea, but it can be expensive. See how much it costs and plan a budget for it. Also pay attention to the time in which the advertisement will air. Timing is everything with this type of advertisement.
Advertise in a local newspaper.
In my neighborhood we have a local newspaper in every county and some cities also have their very own newspapers as well. Then there is also valpak.com, Metrotimes, and an assortment of other places that offer ad placement. Do your research to find out where you can advertise locally.
Pinterest Ads
I just recently ran a Pinterest ad where I received 54 clicks to my website for $6.54. I would definitely recommend trying out Promoted Pins on Pinterest. I am planning on writing about my experience of using Pinterest ads soon. It’s a great way to target specific buyers for sure.
Google Ads
I always read about how beneficial Google Ads can be. I’ve create Google Ads before for companies, but I’ve never actually purchased any personally myself. They are extremely targeted and are great if you want to spend some money. Just keep in mind that the ads can be pretty pricey didn’t on the keywords you’re targeting and your budget.
Facebook Ads
I know of a few people who use Facebook Ads for their businesses. These ads are also pretty targeted and you could potentially get a decent return, but it hugely depends on the photo you use for your ad and your ad copy (convincing description) that people read. Convincing people to click through the ad is key so you have to entice potential buyers.
Twitter Ads
I honestly don’t hear too much about Twitter Ads. I know I always see ads for restaurants and movies that are coming out. Every now and then I see spammy looking ads that don’t look too enticing. If you plan on using Twitter ads, I would recommend creating an attractive video or photo with enticing info that I would actually want to use or see. If you’re promoting a product for a dog, show a photo of the dog using the product or the product being used with the dog. Don’t just share a photo of a product in a white background.
Marketing Tip: When you’re marketing a product, make sure you promote photos that are in a casual setting and don’t have a white backdrop. I know I personally tend to stay away from those types of products. I want to see photos of what the product looks like in real life. White backdrop photos don’t catch my attention and a lot of times potential customers will doubt if the product looks the way it should or they may think you’re scamming them as well. I personally prefer to look at customer photos than look at white backdrop photos when I am about to buy something from a website where I’ve never purchased something from myself, especially if I can’t find any views about it online.
Instagram Ads
I have heard mixed reviews about Instagram Ads. I recommend using an eye catching photo and marketing to people who look up specific hashtags/topics that are extremely related to your business.
Put effort into marketing your business daily.
Don’t just post about your business on social media once a day. Do it multiple times everyday. Keep at it and eventually someone will see all about your amazing business. Share in groups on social media. Write about it on your website or mention it on Youtube in your videos. Post flyers up about it. You can even do cold calling in the phone book about your product. Just get the word out there.
So those were my 20+ Small Business Advertising Ideas. I hope that you guys found this helpful for marketing and promoting your small business.
If you have any other small business marketing ideas or if you have tried any of these ideas, leave them in the comment section down below.
Great tips. These tips are ones that I need to put into practices.
These are all such fantastic ideas to get your small business off the ground and running. I see a lot of moms using the power of social media to really give their brand a boost and it seems to be a great tool if used properly.
These are amazing tips to market a small business. I will be using some of these tips as these can apply to blogs as well.
Great tips, I guess when you have a small business you need to try as many things as possible to get customers in the door.
Treating your customers well is great for marketing too. Given the wide scope of social media, there’s no better way to advertise than thru the words of a stisfied customer.
These are the tips one needs to start their own business: few, precise and well explained!
So true. If you want to build your business, these are really the things that one should do. If only I can get family and friends to support me.
These are all awesome tips! I’ve definitely been working on my marketing game lately and these will be great for me to put into action. Thanks so much for sharing with us!
Good suggestions for marketing a small business. In fact social media is so strong, we need to understand how to utilise it.
These are all great ideas for small business advertising. I always forget the power of snail mail.
These are all proven effective ways to have a successful business. I’m not saying it’s easy but having this guide makes it less complicated.
These are pretty brilliant ideas. Most vintage businesses are beginning to get the hang of the social media marketing formula, it’s the way to go.
Wow, This is a humongous list of ideas and thanks for providing it. It’ll surely help many small business owners.
Such great information that I can use in the future. Starting a small business is a great way to become a successful entrepreneur 🙂
These are all excellent tips! I also like businesses that give back to the community, so helping to sponsor school events for example. It also helps to get the name out, and parents love supporting businesses that help their kids!
There are so many options for promoting you small biz these days. You just need to find the right outlets that will attract your ideal customer.
These are awesome tips for marketing. Thank you so much for sharing. I will definitely be passing this information along to my friends.
That was pretty amazing! I will definitely keep those tips in mind. Thanks for sharing! Wonderful blog