As a small business, you may not always have the money to put adverts on the FA Cup final or send a blimp past the Olympics to get people to care about your vision. Since this is the case, we need to focus on the most time and cost effective solutions to the problem of being able to promote the company enough to generate the income needed to be successful.
1. Twitter
Just having a Twitter account is a great start. It may have a poor reputation of being the narcissist's meeting point,
but there is actually a lot of value that can be gained from having a way to communicate with your peers and letting potential clients know that you exist.
It's also very handy for providing a way for customers to contact you for support while publicly showing your interest in keeping them happy.
2. LinkedIn
If you're mainly looking to network within a professional environment and swap virtual business cards with people you're interested in working with, LinkedIn is a slightly better option than Twitter. As it was designed specifically to help small business owners, freelancers and other entreprenurial forces find each other, you'll find a lot of value in the service even if you just use it as a head hunting post for new employees.
One very popular use is searching for a prospective interviewee on LinkedIn and using it as a quick way to gauge their experience and how they interact with peers without having to wait for them to come in and tell you for themselves.
3. Facebook
But since I mentioned checking up on clients and employees, it would be almost impossible to leave out Facebook. As one of the largest social platforms in the history of mankind, it's almost a crime not to take advantage of the site and use it to locate targeted users to speak to directly. Having someone post regular updates on Facebook and keeping your followers entertained is absolutely invaluable in how useful it is for promoting a positive image of your company.
The idea is to find people who are interested in what you do, finding a way to entertain their curiosity, and then garnering your follower base to let them spread the word to other Facebook users. Social proof is very important in marketing, so if you can find a way to stay relevant and have scores of people commenting on your page, it's almost harder to not make sales than to prosper.
4. Word Of Mouth
No matter how advanced technology gets, word of mouth will always be intensely important for small businesses. It is (and always will be) free, so there's really no reason to avoid interacting with people and leaving them feeling positive enough to risk their own reputation and recommend your company.
Whether you choose PR stunts like give-aways or competitions, utilise any of the previous social media ideas to galvanise your customer base, or just ask friends and family to help you out, there are very few advertising forms that can compare to somebody telling their close friends how great your company is.
5. Traditional Advertising
If you find the right local station or newspaper, you'd be surprised to see how cheap it is to take out a prominent advertisement in an old media source. Given that thousands of people will listen to local radio in some areas, and a lot of local newspapers are free, there is a massive pool of potential customers who will be able to find out exactly what you do and hunt you down.
Keeping your advert short, catchy and interesting is always the key. You only have a few seconds to grab their attention, so make it bold and keep it informative. Humour is an added bonus, since it gets people asking their friends if they've heard your hilarious ad, turning it in to word of mouth and radio advertising all for one price.
