Marketing Tips for the Beginner Business to Save you Time (and Money!)

 

Creating a new business can be a time consuming and a costly endeavour. While it is impossible to avoid putting the long hours into your business and forking over some of your hard-earned dough, here are some tricks and tips for saving you time and money in the process.

Creating the perfect logo

So you’ve just thought of the perfect business name, and you’re OBSESSED with the newest super hip logo designs. THINK TWICE BEFORE YOU DO IT! Despite the fact that up-to-the-minute designs are “trending” right now, they won’t be trending forever. Swoops, vibrant colours, logos with shading, glowing logos, overlay logos, are just a few cringe worthy designs that were created 10 years ago when WordArt and comic sans were still totally “wicked”. Sadly, some of the companies that went with this style of logo were forced to re-brand or were stuck with a dated looking logo. Most will agree that when we come across a logo that looks like it crawled out of a 2003 PowerPoint presentation, we perceive the company itself as archaic and amateur. Of course selecting your logo doesn’t sentence you to a life time commitment to any one style. You can change it whenever you would like, for a cost. We see successful companies change their logos all the time to rebrand and stay relevant. But for smaller companies, this can mean major money.

Online presence

First off, websites:

Websites are always evolving, and they can very quickly become redundant. There is unfortunately no way around the constant need to keep up-to-date with your site. One day the “it” website format is information overload, tabs everywhere, everything in your face, when the next day most may opt for a more scarce, artistic, “blank canvas” look that make you want to dig around to find out what exactly the company is about. While there may be no real solution that fully cuts out the need to periodically freshen up your website, there are some great ways to build a website to save yourself some time and money. Hire a web designer or create your own website on a platform that is easy to manipulate internally. If you contact a web developer to build a site, make sure that you are able to log in on the front end easily to make changes as you see fit. Spending thousands of dollars on a high end complex website is great, but what are you going to do when you need to freshen up the look of your site? Will you need to constantly pay for upgrades or tweaks to your website? These are must-ask questions to think about before you settle on a web platform or web designer.

Social Media:

Regardless of what is happening on your website, it is important to remember that your social media world is a totally separate entity. While it’s a good idea to keep the same tone throughout your website and social media platforms, there are so many other things to consider in your social media profile. Having a healthy social media presence can boost your company to the next level. Heck, some companies even solely exist on social media (not that that’s my recommendation). These platforms are where your potential clientele first interface with your company, so if you want them to scoot over to your website, you will need to be reaching out to them effectively through these platforms. Now how is this going to save you time and money? The trick is to not spread yourself to thin. You see new companies spreading themselves out on all different platforms, but they don’t have any one platform with any real content or depth. A few posts on each platform and a response rate of a few days will not cut it in today’s social media world. Find out where the bulk of your market is, (whether it be on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Linkedin, etc), and start there. Do some research. You don’t want to have 10 accounts running and not have time for any of them. You also don’t want to have a bunch of accounts and none of them accurately reflect your brand. Doing so can cost you a lot of time, and you will likely miss the opportunity to connect with potential clients. Pick a few strong platforms that you want to be very up-to-date on and engage the market there. Once you build a few strong platforms it s easier to expand and see what your reach is like from there. The same principal also applies for using paid advertising on social media. It is impossible to know how well social media advertising is going for you if you don’t try a variety of different tactics. You don’t want to set aside a budget and spread it over 7 platforms and not be able to afford to follow-up round on your campaign. Start with a platform like Instagram or Facebook. Do different trial posts, changing the reach settings slightly each time. See what works and what doesn’t. Be strategic.

Business cards/ promotional material:

“Why spend $50 on 100 hundred business cards when you can spend $1000 on a lifetime supply of business cards?” Incentives and bulk pricing are just so slick. I will admit, I have had more than my fair share of useless products delivered to my door from a spontaneous infomercial purchase. With your promotional material, you want to be careful with your purchasing. Purchase what you need for the foreseeable future, and maybe a little extra for reserve, BUT THAT’S IT. So many businesses go with these bulk advertising packages at discounted rates, but quickly realize after about a quarter of the product has been distributed, it no longer reflects their brand or style. Your flyers, handouts, and look-books want to showcase your most recent work and recent styles. If you purchase too many, they will either gather dust in the back closet, or you will be giving them out after the style has already expired. Be smart about your material.

Advertising

Advertising for your business is something that is clearly integral to your success. You need to get your name out there, but what is the best path to take? Even the biggest and most successful companies struggle with this question because the market place is always changing. Be efficient. The same principle applies as with your promotional material: you don’t want to be locked into an advertising deal for a number of years when that avenue of advertising might not be relevant for the whole duration of your campaign. Market trends switch quickly. Print ads are EXPENSIVE. If you decide to go with a print ad make sure you have a way to track how many actual leads come to you through that marketing method. When renewal time comes around, you will want to know if the $5000 dollars you spent on a half-page ad brought you any real clientele. The leads you receive off of these magazines and blogs can also be misleading, or clientele you do not want.

You may receive a ton of email leads, but that may not mean your advertisement is as successful as you might first think. The clients may not be in your area, they could be fake leads, or they could be contacting you with an undervalued perception of your business. These are leads you don’t necessarily want, and you will need a way to know if you’re putting your marketing dollars to good use. Your advertisements can also target the right populace at the right time, but not have the right feel. If you are going to put hundreds of dollars into purchasing an ad space, spend the money to have a quality ad created. if you are not getting any leads from your advertisement, look first to the ad itself, and then to the place advertised. You need a good portion of your budget to be to create the perfect ad for the adspace purchased.

Don’t spend more than you have:

Statistics issued by Industry Canada indicate 15% of small/medium businesses fail in the first year, and 49% will fail by year five. These numbers are huge. One of the major issues responsible for the failure of so many small businesses is poor money management. This can be a direct result from inadequately allotted budgets within a new company. You need to be smart with how you spend your money and put a lot of thought into what the best method may be to find and retain new clientele. Build a solid platform first. Having a strong social media presence, a functioning and well-designed website, and being present and active in the industry puts your best foot forward. By having an effective website and being active on social media you will automatically be taken more seriously and give the impression that your company is thriving. People will not know that you cannot afford to advertise all over. If you advertise all over and it leads this potential clientele to a mediocre website, they may not see you as professionally as you would like. Have a solid platform first so that when people do link into your business, they are finding a site that reflects your professionalism.

Not having any of your marketing budget left over for advertising does not mean you are at a standstill. By upping your SEO, clientele will have a better chance of landing on your fancy well-put-together website. There are so many great blogs with a huge fan base that accept public submissions. Use this to your advantage. This is a free way to expose your company to new followers and this in itself can improve your SEO. This will only take your time, and not your money.  Next: research, research, research. Find the most relevant hashtags and keywords that people are searching, and use them in your posts, blogs, and website content. Find a relevant trend that you can participate in that doesn’t compromise the integrity of your company. Make your blogs and posts easily shareable, so if people find your work interesting, they can pass along your links to their network. Try and drive traffic to your site using common tools that don’t require any financial investment at all.

Written by:

Kaley Campbell, WPICC

Office/Event Manager