To promote a product, business, or service, gone are the days you put holes in your pocket all in the name advertising. Here are few pocket friendly ways to promotional strategies that you can use in your endeavor to attract customers, increase your sales, and generate more profits.
It doesn’t matter if you sell online or you have a physical store .
The best part is that most of these strategies will not cost you a penny .
Here are the steps to promote your brand for free .
Promote yourself on social networks
Social networks are the perfect marketing tool for the 21st-century entrepreneur.
Opening an account on a social network will not cost you anything, and you will reach hundreds and even thousands of potential customers. But you must know how to use them effectively. To promote a product or a business on social networks, it is not enough to create a profile and wait for the fans to arrive.
Create a profile on up to 3 social networks (Facebook is almost mandatory, and it would also be a good idea on Twitter and Instagram)
Do not post a simple link to your products or your business: accompany it with an attractive text that makes your fans want to click on it
Also, share publications of other pages with interesting content
Show information that makes your fans interested in your product or business (for example, photos of how your products are created, videos using your articles)
ALWAYS answer the questions or comments that your followers leave you
Create contests or fun events that your fans can interact with
Post interesting content (motivating phrases, amazing photos) for users to share and thus reach more people.
Encourage buying with discount vouchers
A discount voucher is a tool that can make you not only get more sales, but also retain customers.The secret for this promotion strategy to work is to limit the time in which this discount can be used (for example, a discount that lasts only 5 days), and only a small number of people can use it. This will create in the client a sense of exclusivity (only he or she can use it) and of urgency.
How to offer this discount? There are several methods:
Through your Facebook page (only for followers)
Sending an email to the subscribers of your newsletter on your website .
Giving a discount voucher to customers who make a purchase in your physical or online business
Delivering a limited number of discounts on a street near your physical store.
Do give away on popular bloggers and YouTubers
This is a method that both large and small companies use because the results are very good and hardly cost money. It consists of locating blogs with good visits and popularity, but related to your business, and contacting bloggers to send them your product for free in exchange for talking about it to their readers.
If you produce consumable item, look for NGO and send them some of your products in exchange for them to tag and acknowledge you. If you sell apps for the cell phone, look for YouTube channels where they talk about technology or video games and give them free access to your app so that they can show it to their audience.
Offer free samples to your buyers
There is no better way to attract customers and buy them again and again than allowing them to try your products first. It is true that not all businesses can do this (a computer store cannot give a computer as a sample); But if your merchandise allows it, giving a sample of it is an excellent promotion strategy. The free samples can be given in the same physical store when a person makes a purchase - this way the client will feel special and will return to buy you - or distribute samples at home in the mailboxes of the houses.
If you have an online store, send a sample with each order or allow people to request a sample without having to buy. In case you sell digital services or products (ebooks, mp3 music, consulting services), give free access to that service for a couple of days or send them a part of that service for free (for example, a couple of chapters of your free ebook).
Collaborate with other businesses
A good idea is to look for other businesses that are not your direct competitors, but have customers in common with you, and collaborate with them to send you customers of the other. For example, if you have a cell phone store, you can partner with a computerness. When someone is going to buy you, talk to them about the computer store and give them a discount for that business, and have the computer store do the same for their customers, another example is a saloon giving out discount on certain hair wig and have the wig store reciprocate, this is an excellent way to motivate you, to become more known, and to increase your client base by helping other entrepreneurs like you.
Do demonstrations or small free courses
Offering free demonstrations of your products in your business is another good way to attract the attention of your customers to make your small business known.Not only will you be able to awaken your curiosity in your merchandise, but you will also make the desire to buy it increase when they see the benefits they can provide.
One way to do this is to offer small courses that do not last more than two hours in which you teach how to use that article. Make the demonstrations in days that you have more clients in your business so that they see the test more people. The large Apple company often uses this method and have verified that it is a great way to increase their sales. They usually do small workshops every so often (3 months, 6 months) that only last a couple of hours one afternoon, and show the operation of the new iPad, the new iPhone, or any other accessory that they have just launched on the market.
This few techniques seem simple but they work very effectively, and are used around the world by both large and small companies, as well as by people who are starting their way in the entrepreneurial world.
