- Nia S. Lewis
Grow Your Business Without Spending any Money in 2019
If you’re an eary-stage entrepreneur just starting out, you may not have a ton of money readily available to spend on marketing to grow your business. This week on the With Purpose Podcast I share marketing tips that work without spending thousands of dollars! Since I started my first business in 2013, I have to say the most valuable lesson I’ve learned so far is that it does not take thousands of dollars, or even hundreds of dollars to get your business to the forefront of your target audience’s attention.
With patience, and by fostering meaningful relationships you can spend little to no money to get more traffic to your website, increase your customer base, and ultimately grow your business using these three tips:
1. Start a Facebook group: I started a Facebook group and grew my group to over 1,800 members in under a year. This is a community that I foster and provide valuable content to regularly. If you’re not willing to nurture a targeted group now to benefit your business later, Facebook groups aren’t for you. In order for a Facebook group to work for your business, you have to create a group based on a theme related to your business, for example, if you sell nail polish, you might create a group for nail art lovers.
The goal in creating a Facebook group is to build a community of potential customers who share common interests. It’s important that you make the group about your members, NOT about YOU. Focus on providing content your members want to see related to your industry, such as sharing original blogs you write, or outside content they would be interested in seeing. Only share information about your products specifically once or twice a week. If you make yourself a trusted resource in your industry, your group members will undoubtedly support your business.
A few more tips about Facebook groups:
I drove traffic to my Facebook group to increase membership from my personal account, from other groups, and from my website.
Most members found my group because my group name was catchy. It’s important to come up with a catchy name, and to add keywords in the description for your group.
It’s important to keep engagement going consistently. Post in your group at least once a day.
2. Word of Mouth Marketing: Sometimes we get so caught up in trendy digital marketing tactics that we forget all about the basics… word of mouth. What’s unique about word of mouth marketing compared to all other forms of marketing is that word of mouth is completely organic. This means that your customers say good things about you to others because they truly want to, not because they’re being paid to or because they receive any benefit from spreading the word. One happy customer can lead to a plethora of client referrals, so I encourage you to always provide great service, at all costs. We can use social media to spread word of mouth recommendations faster. Here are a few tips you can use to enable word of mouth marketing in your business:
Ask every one of your customers to leave you a review on Facebook, or Google Reviews. Take this a step further and ask your customers to post that same positive review on their personal Facebook page for all of their friends to see.
Word of mouth is difficult to track, however, you can enable it with a referral program. You can also ask happy clients to refer you to others. If you ask and they like you, they will do it. When you get a new customer, simply ask them how they found you.
3. Use Pinterest to drive traffic to your website, social media pages, or to your blog: Business owners and marketing professionals alike have a hard time understanding how Pinterest works, but once you get the hang of it it is an effective platform to use to drive more customers to your website, and ultimately increase your customer base. I could dedicate a whole blog or podcast specifically to using Pinterest, but here are some tips for navigating the platform that will help you:
Pinterest should be used primarily for driving traffic to your website, social media pages, blogs, podcasts, or products.
It’s important to create graphics to share that are eye catching. Graphics should be accompanied by a click-worthy title. Use Canva.com to create visually appealing graphics.
Getting people to click on your content is the easy part. Getting them to follow your boards and trust you enough to support your services requires GOOD CONTENT. Refrain from sharing clickbait. Focus more on sharing graphics that display interesting aspects of what you offer, and actually DELIVER.
Use Tailwind.com to schedule re-pins and original pins that you create in advance. To be most pleasing to Pinterest algorithms, you want to pin and re-pin a consistent stream of content daily. This is best accomplished by scheduling content ahead of time.
Follow the 80/20 rule. Don’t feel stressed with coming up with TONS of content. 20% of the content you pin should be originally content you come up with. The other 80% should be re-pins relevant to your industry from other creators.
Remember, none of these tactics will make your business an overnight success. You have to be committed to consistently fostering these connections each day. It may take 6 months to enjoy the fruits of your labor, but I can assure you that with patience and commitment any of these recommended tactics will work to bring you increased growth in your business. Remember, more money does not = more success! Use what you have access to now to the best of your ability to achieve the results you desire. Don't let lack of funds hold you back from starting your business or pushing your business goals forward.
To learn more about how you can grow your business on a budget, listen to this episode of the With Purpose Podcast on the Apple Podcast App, iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, or using the player below. If you were inspired by this episode, share your story with me via email: hello@niawithpurpose.com
If you want to start a business, but don't know where to begin, send me an email and let's chat! I offer one-on-one business coaching: hello@niawithpurpose.com
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