Many small business owners are very excited about the products or services their companies may offer to customers and clients, and want to do as much as they can to get the word out. However, marketing is often quite costly and labor intensive, and therefore it might be difficult for some entrepreneurs to figure out the best ways to approach such efforts. Fortunately, there are a number of ways in which they can achieve these goals without breaking the bank.
One of the best things any company can do in this regard is to simply do as much as they can to streamline and consolidate marketing efforts, according to a report from Fox Business. The more that can be pooled into one collective plan, the better the focus of the marketing across the board will be, and the less it may end up costing.
“Today’s [marketing] spend is complex and includes management of marketing materials, printed materials, training materials and promotional items,” David Holland, CEO of branding and marketing firm DataSource, told the site. “Beyond print, marketers need an integrated plan to distribute elements across all channels: Web, social, mobile, email, promotional merchandise and more.”
What should be the focus?
When companies want to make their marketing efforts stand out from the crowd, it’s not unreasonable to want something that feels as fresh as possible, the report said. Thus, owners or other decision makers might need to look at what their competitors, both large and small, have done to market similar services or products, and then try to steer clear of such ideas, or anything that might be evocative of them. Originality is often key, and doing anything that reminds clients of other marketing campaigns is not likely to be well received.
It can also be wise to make sure things are kept separate – online campaigns versus print, for example – but still remain aware of what the other is doing overall, the report said. This can help to tie each individual initiative together thematically, while making each stand out from the other in their own unique way.
Owners worried about the cost of marketing, or any other aspects of their businesses, might want to consider the ways in which they could reduce expenses, such as by finding more affordable small business insurance. Shopping around for lower-cost errors and omissions insurance, for example, could save companies thousands annually.
