{"id":6930,"date":"2018-11-18T18:33:33","date_gmt":"2018-11-18T18:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marketingteacher.com\/?p=6930"},"modified":"2019-02-17T20:37:45","modified_gmt":"2019-02-17T20:37:45","slug":"promoting-and-advertising-your-start-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/promoting-and-advertising-your-start-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Promoting and advertising your start-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are many tools and techniques that will be useful to you when communicating with the outside world.\u00a0 Think about these tools as another type of mix, let us call it the promotions mix!\u00a0 Again, you will balance and blend these approaches to suit your business\u2019 needs best.<\/p>\n

Ask yourself \u2018why?\u2019 are you trying to communicate with your customers, and what are you trying to say?\u00a0 The whole purpose behind promoting your small business is to persuade your customers that your product or service has value to them, and more importantly to build long-term relationships with customers.\u00a0 How you do this is down to you.<\/p>\n

There will be some trial and error, and unfortunately you may invest in some promotions which deliver less than you invest.\u00a0 You will learn from your mistakes and develop effective promotional tools that suit you and your customers best.<\/p>\n

Which promotions work best for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

How do you select the best approach?\u00a0 There are a number of factors that you need to take into account when selecting the best way to promote your products or services.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take a look at a few of them:<\/p>\n

Cost.<\/strong>\u00a0 Of course if you have bottomless pockets you can do plenty of promotion.\u00a0 Therefore, you need to look at what are expected returns based upon your communications.\u00a0 Don\u2019t overspend!\u00a0 Look for ways that you can get your messages across by spending as little as possible. That\u2019s just good business.<\/p>\n

Your target market.<\/strong>\u00a0 The promotional tool that you select should be the most suitable one for your target market.\u00a0 For example, if you have a local business, then the local advertising will be better; that would include local newspapers, local Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, local billboards, local sponsorship, and any approach which will directly hit your potential customers.<\/p>\n

Availability of communications.<\/strong>\u00a0 Not all promotional tools will be available to you.\u00a0 Their may not be a local radio station in your area for example.\u00a0 A particular keyword in relation to Pay-Per-Click may be too expensive simply because your competitors are willing to pay more for it. More on this later.<\/p>\n

Look for innovation.<\/strong>\u00a0 Always think to yourself, how can I get some really effective marketing promotion by spending as little as possible?\u00a0 It might be as simple as sponsoring a local junior football team.\u00a0 You could send some very targeted e-mails to opinion leaders in your area that might have an interest in your product or service, and they might blog about your product.\u00a0 It is the role of the small businessperson or entrepreneur to look for ways of networking and maximising big bangs for small bucks.<\/p>\n

Offline tools for promoting your small business<\/strong><\/p>\n