How To Spread The Word About Your Small Business

“If you build it, they will come.”

We’re not sure exactly who said this or what it meant, but know this: it does not apply to business. You might believe that simply opening the doors is enough to bring people through them, but the entrepreneurial graveyard is filled with bankrupt business owners who were astonished when it didn’t happen. No – real, lasting interest in your business is something you need to generate, not passively wait for. Several time-tested ways to create consumer demand are explored below:

Direct Mail

(visual.dichotomy)

It’s easy to dismiss “junk mail” as a totally ineffective nuisance – something most of us toss straight into the trash. But this simply isn’t true. Direct marketers aren’t stupid; in fact, they’re arguably the only type of marketers who know exactly what their marketing budgets deliver. The fact that “junk mail” is sent out at all proves that at least some people are convinced by it – enough people, in fact, to make it profitable. Otherwise, the companies sending it out would recognize it as a losing proposition and stop.

The key is to send direct mail only to people you believe are targeted prospects. Rather than blasting out packages to every house in town, try to obtain a list of people known to be interested in what you sell. Then, craft your direct mail campaign around what these people want to hear.

Locally Targeted PPC

(Search Engine People Blog)

Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing is another viable way to build immediate awareness of your small business. With PPC, you advertise to only people who are looking for the products or services you offer. What could be more targeted than that? Don’t just rush into it, though. If you aren’t careful, you can rack up thousands of dollars in click costs by advertising to people all over the country.

Instead, localize your PPC advertising. Using Google AdWords or Bing AdCenter (which controls both MSN and Yahoo!) you can restrict your ads to specific geographic regions – such as your ZIP code and those of surrounding towns. This way, only nearby searchers will see your ads (and you won’t be paying to advertise to people in Nome, Alaska.)

Radio

(mightyohm)

Radio advertising is another effective way to target people in a specific listening area. By deciding which radio programs to advertise on, you can also control (to an extent) which types of people hear your ads – another layer of targeting. Be warned, however, that radio spots are substantially more expensive than direct mail and search engine advertising. That’s why it’s better to hone and perfect your message on those cheaper mediums first.

Then (and only then) can you pay the costlier outlay for radio advertising, knowing with reasonable certainty that you have a winning sales message.

Television

(Alan_D)

The same is true of television advertising. In fact, it’s even more important, because TV commercials are more expensive than radio spots. Basically, if you have not yet found success with direct mail, PPC or radio, expecting the same unsuccessful message to magically work “because it’s on TV” is just an expensive exercise in wishful thinking.

That said, if you have run successful ads elsewhere, carrying this proven winner over to TV can be a real shot in the arm for a growing business, as TV audiences far outnumber almost any other medium. As with radio, try to advertise only during shows whose viewers are likely to want what you sell. For instance: a tax preparation firm might advertise during Bulls & Bears on Fox News. Running the same ad on the Home & Garden channel probably would not work as well.

Newspapers

(Alex Barth)

Newspapers are yet another potential advertising medium to consider. This includes not only major national and state papers, but perhaps more importantly, local ones. If you run a local pizza shop, for instance, what better place could there be to advertise than in the town paper that everyone gets for free? The ad buys in these papers are much cheaper than in, say, the New York Times. And for your purposes they are, in all likelihood, much more targeted as well.

Sponsorships

(Edwin Martinez1)

If you’ve tried some or all of the above strategies and need an extra boost, consider local sponsorships. It is common, for example, for nearby businesses to sponsor Little League teams in town. By doing this, you get your company name on uniforms, outfield signs or concession stands. These, in turn, get seen by all of the parents, friends and relatives who show up for the games.

Of course, this is not nearly as targeted as direct mail, because you have no idea whether anyone at these games is already thinking about what you sell. Therefore, sponsorships should never be seen as the core of your marketing strategy, only an ancillary “bonus” technique to amplify the other, more reliable methods.