For millions of people around the world running a business from home is the ideal scenario. You get to save on the cost of office space and commuting, and of course, there’s the satisfaction of being your own boss. When you’re first starting out, finding ways to promote your business may not be top of your list of priorities. However, as the months roll by, you’re going to start to think about expanding and your future success. Finding more customers is going to become very important. You should also be thinking about how to keep the ones you’ve already got. Learning how to drum up customers is important for your future success. You’ll be pleased to know it’s not that difficult.
Have a Plan
Before you decide on a marketing strategy to adopt you first need to ask yourself a few questions. The first relates to your audience and who they are. You might think that you’re going to be targeting everyone, but this isn’t strictly true. Narrowing down your target market will help to focus your marketing efforts. Think about the problem your product or service is solving and who might have that problem.
Once you’ve identified your target market, you need to look at where they hang out. To run a successful business, you need to connect directly with your market. For example, the websites they visit, the blogs they read, and what social media platforms they prefer.
The last question is “How can you attract your market to check out?” This requires the writing of effective content.
Now you’ve answered these questions, here are some easy ways to promote your home business.
Write a Blog
For any new business having a website is vital. Without it, potential customers aren’t going to be able to find out about your business via the internet. With an increasing number of people choosing to search online for products and services, it makes sense to have an online presence. Alongside your website, a blog will keep customers coming back time and time again provided your content is interesting and thoughtful. To promote your business, and successfully use a blog, you’ll need to update it on a regular basis. A couple of times a week should be enough. As soon as customers realize you’re publishing articles of interest, they’ll keep coming back for the latest news and happenings. Starting a blog is easy, and there’s plenty of useful information online.
Make use of Social Media
Social media has certainly taken the world by storm. It seems like everyone, everywhere has a finger in the social media pie somehow. For many people it’s simply a way of keeping in touch with friends and family, sharing snaps of their latest experiences and what they enjoy doing. However, for the small business owner like you, it is a great way of promoting your business for free. It doesn’t matter whether you choose to create a profile on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or a combination of all of them. There are more than 1 billion active users of Facebook alone, which is quite a sizeable audience you could be reaching.
Face-to-Face Networking
While a lot of networking takes place online, there is still room for it to take place face-to-face. A good way of grabbing people’s attention is with a snappy business card. It should convey an image of professionalism and remind people of your business. If you add additional value to your business card, customers are more likely to keep it in their wallet rather than discarding it as soon as they get home. Add a calendar, tip chart, or appointment reminder, for example. Another way is with promotional products such as challenge coins, lanyards, patches, and wristbands. This online store, for example, has a wide range of products to choose from.
Promote Locally
For many small businesses, the local area is often overlooked when it comes to marketing strategies. If you want your business to appear in local searches online choose to list your business in Google Places and Yelp. The process is very simple. All you need to do is enter a few pieces of information, and your business will be there for people to see, both locally and online.
Retaining Existing Customers
You might not realize it but retaining current customers is much cheaper than finding new ones. You might not be able to expand your product line, but you can work at selling more of your existing product range. One way of doing this is with volume discounts. BOGOF (buy one get one free) offers, three for the price of two are great offers if your products cost very little to make. You get to ring up additional sales without too much of a dent in your profits.
Discounts and rewards are strategies that work for most types of customers. Rewarding customers is another popular way of keeping customers loyal. They are often used in car washes, hair salons, and craft stores, but you can also use them in your home-based business.
However, finding out what else will make them happy and stick around is a little more difficult. Customers tend not to be too concerned about giving feedback unless something goes seriously wrong, and then they want to shout about it from the rooftops. A good time to ask for feedback is a couple of days after a purchase has been made. Send out an email shortly after contact has been made with you is another well-timed communication. The experience will still be fresh in their mind,and therefore their response will be accurate.
When you’re running a home-based business, you can’t afford to sit on your laurels and wait for customers to come to you. Promoting your business will never end, but finding different ways to do it can be fun and exciting. It is best to try several approaches and then analyze the results to see what works best for your business. When all your new customers come knocking at your door, you’ll be glad you put in the effort.
Leave a Reply