As an entrepreneur or sole trader the extent to which people know your brand remains vital to the survival of your business. The more popular and familiar your brand is, the more sales and profit you rake in.
Anyone or rather, any businessperson who understands the Problems and Prospects of Marketing in Nigeria understands this.
Without mincing words, adverting underscores the livewire of businesses and enterprises and the impacts of advertising in business cannot be overemphasized. Most entrepreneurs complain of having good products and services but the constraint has been getting their product across to people.
One need not be told that the most difficult aspect of running a business is the challenge of reaching out to customers and retaining them.
However, there are a handful of advertising strategies available to entrepreneurs that do not require huge budget to get their business running and wrapping up huge profit. In this article, I will show you how to advertise your business with little or no budget. Give them a go!
1. Turn your customers into promoters
The immediate people to easily turn into customers are your friends and family. Reach out to them and ask them to refer and promote your business.
It will be pretty hard for them to turn you down. Be rest assured of potential customers once your business is being advertised by a family or friend. By so doing, your customers automatically become brand ambassadors.
They would also enjoy benefits of recommending someone to patronize you and trust me, a long chain of customers await you without spending a dime on advert.
Ask Toyota Elizade how much the company has spent on advert. You will discover that Toyota has successfully turned her customers to brand ambassadors.
They do the talking on behalf of Toyota while Toyota amasses huge profit from the Nigerian automobile market. However, you will need to make your service positive.
2. Embrace all social media platforms
Social media remains a necessary tool for every business to prosper. It is pertinent that friends, family and colleagues are aware of your products.
Upload pictures of your products alongside your status updates about your product and services on Facebook; let the twitter sphere feel your presence by regularly tweeting to amass followers and potential customers.
Read Also: 4 Ways You Can Use Social Media to Grow your Business
3. Offer discount on your products
Nigerians love discount, I must say. The huge rush for discounted products from history has proven these products to spread faster. You can take advantage of this by rewarding the few customers you have got. For instance, “buy 5 clothes and get 1 free”.
In a quest to get one free, the customer might end up buying more than he/she initially planned. This tactic has helped a lot of businesses in the competitive Nigeria market. You can take advantage of this too.
4. Form business partnership/ alliance
As a business owner who intends to advertise your product and services, partnering with another business and building relationships with professionals implies you will have access to their network of customers.
This will enable you get more customers and share ideas on how to further grow your business chance. You can take it a step further by joining associations, local networking events, online forums, and job boards. The charm is this – the more people you know, the more customers you will have.
Read Also: 5 Ways to Build a Business While Still Running a Day Job
5. Have An Attractive Logo and Business card
An attractive logo makes a good impression and leaves an indelible mark in the hearts of your customers. What is your assessment of major brands in Nigeria?
You did agree their logo and business card is attractive. An attractive logo speaks for your business in your absence. Get enough business cards with you and as your speak to people about your business, hand them a business card at the end of your discussion.
6. Attend Events and Contact Volunteer Organisations
Conferences, events, volunteer organisations afford you the opportunity to gain recognition, contacts. Offer to be a speaker. Industry conferences, volunteer organizations, libraries, and local business groups often need speakers for meetings…
Read Also:12 Strategies to Grow Your Business This Year
7. Blogging And Writing Articles About Your Business
Hiring a writer or content developer for your business is not a bad idea. It doesn’t cost much to pour out your mind to a prolific writer to build up contents for you about your business, manage your blog and post articles daily about latest deliverables.
The goal is to advertise your business and by this, your business will spread faster than you can think spending less and achieving desired result.
Read Also: 6 Tips to grow your business using social media
8. Give free products as trial to people
In Nigeria today, consumers don’t mind (or would rather prefer) having a taste of your product(s) before purchase. Feel free to give sample(s) or trail to consumers.
People are more comfortable purchasing or patronizing a product they have been able to experience first or have a first-hand experience with.
Read Also: 10 Steps to Grow Your Business with Digital Marketing
9. Create a Google My Business Account.
You can also take advantage of “Google My business account”. If you want your business to show up in search engines such as Google Search Engine, a Google My Business account is necessary. This will not only make sure your business is visible on search, it will also feature on Goggle Maps and Google+ as well.
10. Use Email marketing
Finally, use email marketing campaigns. This often times has been overlooked by business owners whereas; it has the potential of promoting business(s) on the web.
Email allows you reach thousands of customers at the snap of the finger. Often times, smaller mailing lists are usually free.
The onus lies on you to encourage your customers to provide their email address upon purchase of (any) of your product(s). Other ways of getting their email addresses include using the ‘Sign up for more information’ or ‘Contact us’ column on your blog.
It is not always about the money to spend on marketing, it is about getting your business brand across using the limited free resources at your disposal.
These ten tips will help you advertise your business with little or no budget and ultimately make your brand soar high in the competitive market.