8 Simple, cost-effective ways to promote your SME

Published: 18 July 2013

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) contribute roughly 50% of SA's national gross domestic product (GDP) and employ 60% of the labour force. It is little wonder then, that entrepreneurship is fervently advocated within both the public and the private sectors. What does not make sense, however, is the fact that an estimated two thirds of SMEs go under within their first two years of trading.

Amongst the chief reasons cited for this alarming trend is the utilisation of ineffective marketing tactics by SMEs, resulting in little or no awareness of their brands within their target markets.

Fortunately, help is at hand – the following solutions are simple, quick to implement and cost-effective, if not entirely cost-free! It's time you started effectively marketing and promoting your SME to stay ahead of the competition and secure a widespread top-of-mind position for your brand!

1. Get social and engage

These days, most businesses utilise a variety of social networking platforms, including Facebook Pages, Twitter Profiles, LinkedIn Company Pages, YouTube Channels and Google+ Pages, to mention but a few. Social media presents a great opportunity to reach your customers on a professional, yet intimate level. Social media platforms provide a place for customers to really get to know your brand – if you do it right. The key to making your social media profiles work for you is engagement. Engage with your customers and they will engage (follow, retweet, like, share, comment, etc.) with you. This starts with relevant and interesting content and ends with reciprocity – respond and engage to any feedback and they will feel that they matter to you. Word-of-mouth is no less applicable to the virtual space than it is to face-to-face networking. Once customers start engaging with you, your reach and pool of potential customers will broaden exponentially.

A word of caution though – try not to use your social media sites as advertising platforms, but rather as brand-building or customer service tools. Discover what your customers are interested in and distribute content on industry news, trends, events and interesting articles.

All you need to do is generate a profile including an informative-yet-concise description of what your business does and a link to your website address (for more formal information and interaction) and other social media profiles. Assign a dedicated staff member to manage these profiles and keep them up to date.

2. Use email marketing

Email marketing is a great vehicle to keep your brand top-of-mind with your customers. Not only is this a cost-effective way to promote your business, it is also highly measurable, customisable, has a global reach, and can be targeted to as narrow or as broad a market as suits you.

The most important thing you need to do is start building a customer database to which you can distribute emails. Your focus should not be on the quantity of contacts in your database or the volume of output but, rather, on the quality of your database and the information you disseminate. Only email customers who have agreed to receive them and don't bombard your database with junk emails. Otherwise, your newsletters and other communication will quickly be marked as spam and ignored.

Distribute exceptional content or nothing at all. As with social media, valuable information will be passed along – and your brand will spread right along with it. To help grow your database, create a sign-up form for your newsletter on your website, give something away for free (like an eBook - see Tip 8), include sharing links in your newsletters, ask existing contacts if you can include them in your database, and promote your newsletter on social media platforms and even in your company-wide email signature.

However, do not forget to include an opt-out button on your newsletters for customers who no longer wish to receive them.

3. Get to know the media

Public Relations (PR) is a wonderful, cost-effective way to market your business both online and offline. By its very nature, PR utilises free publicity. To get started, identify magazines, newspapers, radio stations and online websites relevant to your industry. Next, introduce yourself to their various editors/journalists/managers and discuss your area of expertise as well as your desire to share this expertise using their platforms.

Your article/radio discussion/etc. will have the added benefit of putting your brand out there in a subtle, non-intrusive way. The expertise you share will lend credibility to your brand.

Just be sure that you are thoroughly familiar with the scope of the medium in question as well as its particular target audience. Do not bombard these contacts incessantly with irrelevant press releases. Build a relationship with them and let them know that you are the go-to person when they are writing a story or discussing an issue in your field. Prior to pitching an idea, ensure that any content you submit is newsworthy and relevant.

Press releases covered by the media often carry more weight in terms of credibility than does traditional, paid-for advertising.

When you do get media coverage, get permission from the source to upload it onto your website or include it in your marketing material and messaging, as well as sharing it on your social media platforms. This will cause the associated credibility to spill over into these other channels.

4. List your business on directories

There are numerous local business directories that enable you to list your business for free and increase your brand visibility. Some popular directories include Google Places for Business, Yalwa Business Directory, Bing Places for Business, Yahoo! Local, Business-index.co.za and Freefind.

Ensure that you include a good description of your business and why customers should contact you. Include contact details and, of course, your website address.

In terms of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), online directories provide a great opportunity to enhance your organic listings through external link-building. SEO involves identifying keywords and key phrases that customers most often use when searching for the service/product that you offer and ensuring that your listing includes these. Update your information regularly to make certain that customers can contact you easily.

5. Network, network, network

The popular old adage, “It's not what you know, but who you know”, has never rung truer than right now. In today's crowded marketplace, networking is an extremely powerful way to acquire new business and generate fresh leads. Be proactive and attend local events applicable to your industry.

Networking allows you to raise your profile as a knowledgeable individual in your particular industry and make meaningful, mutually beneficial business connections. The individuals you network with will have networks of their own, opening doors to even more connections! And, best of all, the relationships you develop are personal connections.

The Regenesys Leadership Conversations and Forums present great opportunities for businesspeople to network with like-minded individuals and engage with key industry experts. Visit our events calendar for our upcoming events which present a perfect opportunity to network with business leaders and grow your connection base.

6. Ask for referrals

Tap into your existing network base for a bountiful source of new business. This means asking your contacts for referrals. Higher sales conversions can be expected from referrals, as they tend to be more qualified. Learn to ask your existing customers for referrals or implement a reward system as an incentive for those referring new business to you.

People do business with people they trust and respect – not with businesses. Would you rather do business with someone you don't know or with someone who one of your trusted connections has recommended?

Each one of your contacts has the potential to connect you with dozens of possible leads, but many individuals don't ask for referrals out of fear. As long as you continue to provide value to your customers, you should not fear this lead-generation tool. A great way to overcome the fear of asking for referrals is through reciprocity. Where you believe that it will add value, refer your contacts to your existing customers who can offer services that you can't. Then ask your customers if they know of anyone who would benefit from what you offer.

Ensure that you thank or reward your customers for any referrals (whether you end up doing business with them or not) and follow up, effectively and efficiently, on any leads received.

7. Create an optimised website

It should go without saying that your business needs a website, but many businesses do not have websites because of a general misperception that this is an expensive process. On the contrary, websites can be hosted from as little as R9 per month (read more here). But a website is no good if your customers can't find it. It is therefore imperative to employ SEO so that search engines like Google can direct users to your site. While you don't necessarily need to understand the complex algorithms that search engines use, you should be aware that they are multifaceted and continuously updated. It thus stands to reason that the content of your website should be updated regularly with keyword-rich, relevant content that accurately describes what your business does.

However, simply designing your website for search engines will only take you part of the way. Although your website may be appearing in the top Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), if it is not attractive and user-friendly, and does not provide the information your customers want, they will not stay on your website for long and, consequently, will not buy from you.

Use Google Analytics to monitor the performance of your website and adapt your content offering by analysing the number of web visitors to your site, the number of unique visitors, the duration of their visits to your website, the number of pages they visit, as well as the bounce rate. What is the bounce rate? It is the percentage of visitors who navigate away from the original web page without visiting another one.

Regenesys' innovative student portal offers a variety of free, practical entrepreneurship tips. Simply sign up at online.regenesys.net and access the “Entrepreneurship” section for some great tools, including how to “Create a Simple Website”.

8. Write an eBook

With the never-ending technological advances of the present day and the fact that the majority of people have access to Internet-enabled devices, more people are beginning to read eBooks. Publishing an eBook is a great way to get your brand name into your market and will help establish you, the author, as an expert in your industry. Written correctly, with keyword-rich content, eBooks will also assist with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), providing another avenue for potential clients to find you through online searches.

However, there are already numerous eBooks available on a variety of subjects, so this is not something that you should rush into. Research the eBooks that are currently available and ensure that what you produce is unique and interesting.

Your eBook will be an excellent way to engage with customers via the social media platforms you've set up and will give you something to talk about. Include the eBook on your website and inform your customers that they can visit your website to access a great resource on a subject in which they are interested. You can also offer your eBook for free as an incentive for subscribing to your newsletter.

Conclusion

These eight marketing tools for cost-effective promotion of your business merely constitute the tip of the marketing iceberg. As you may have noticed, many of these promotional techniques tie in with one another. You can use one to enhance the other/s. Your new eBook, for example, may enhance your website rankings through organic SEO, resulting in the expansion of your newsletter database, from which these new contacts may link to your social media platforms.

So what is the bottom line? Before you know it, you will have increased your brand awareness without breaking the bank. There is no reason for you to have a small market presence just because you have a small business. Happy marketing!
- Regenesys