marketing
Podcasting

By Joydeep Bhattacharya

Getting the maximum exposure for your brand at a minimal investment is what every business owner desires. You need to remain aware about the needs of your audience, be creative when developing marketing tactics and should be ready to make innovative and faster business decisions to outflank larger competitors.

Here are 5 useful marketing strategies that will help you to generate greater ROI:

1- Video Marketing

Small business owners have a limited budget and they want to make the full use of it. Video marketing is a great way to get your brand in the eyes of your target audience. Having a video on the webpage increases the chances of getting it on the first page of the search results. Video marketing is fun, easy to consume and it increases trust and engagement. Videos created on a budget helps to get more social shares, increases mobile sales and the overall conversions. Here are some useful ways to use videos in your marketing strategy:

  • Make use of storytelling that means something to your customers. The video should tell the customers as to why the brand exists and how the services of the company are going to benefit the customers.
  • Create a video of the influencers in your industry and have them say something about your brand. Remember, influencers are not always celebrities so they can be reached on a tight budget.
  • Make a video of the day in the life of your employee so that people know more about your brand.
  • Make video segments of real-life customer care in action.
  • Take interviews of industry experts.
  • Create customer testimonials as this helps to increase the overall trust of the brand.
  • Create videos of your past events and make use of live streaming.

2- Podcasting

Podcasts are an easily consumable content format that allows you to get in touch with your customers at a personal level. Here are some of the ways on how should you use podcast to market your services:

  • Include podcasts in your content marketing strategy.
  • Broadcast your podcast on your website, blog and through services like iTunes, Stitcher and SoundCloud.
  • Use podcasts for training your employees, making announcements and praising them for their good work.
  • Get some ideas from podcasts like the Distance from Basecamp and the online marketing podcast by Amy Porterfield.
  • Keep the podcast informative, helpful, and even fun, but refrain from making it a pushy sales pitch.

3- Fleet Wraps

Vehicle wraps are one of the most potential ways to advertise your business on a low cost. Brightly colored, attractive vehicle wraps keeps your brand visible on the road. Passersby won’t pay much attention to a plain vehicle on the road, but they will notice a well-designed vehicle wrap. Here are some of the advantages of using vehicle wraps for your business:

  • You can reach a wider audience. Based on the vehicles you own, you can reach tens of thousands to over a hundred thousand viewers per month on a tight budget.
  • Fleet wraps are a great way to attract the attention of the audience without disturbing them. This is unlike radio or print advertising.
  • It is one of the most targeted forms of advertisement because you are advertising to your local market. The people who will see your vehicle wrap the most are the people in your area. Needless to say, local marketing produces a great return on investment results because people like to deal with nearby businesses.

4- Niche Print Advertising

This is one of the oldest and the most preferred forms of marketing channel for small business owners. Niche advertisers have a relationship with the readers and getting your brand advertised in such publications ensures that your brand is seen by the right prospects. Here are some proven advantages for choosing print as your marketing channel:

  • Print magazines are tangible in nature which means they can stay for longer periods of time as compared to online ads which might vanish the moment you stop paying for it.
  • Print ads are thought to be more credible and trustworthy.
  • It grabs attention and focuses on customer retention.
  • These ads are an excellent medium to reach niche audience at a reasonable cost. They are also a great choice for solidifying your brand identity.
  • You can place QR codes on the magazines and entice the readers into taking some action.

5- Free Consultation

Nothing is far more successful than a free consultation. People always remain in the hunt for free things that they can try before they think to invest in it. Offering a free consultation of your services is a great way to make your brand visible to targeted audience who might become your loyal customers in the future.

Success stories of your previous customers run in parallel to free consultation. You can publish a success story in the print or web media and place a small banner alongside offering a free consultation. You will be amazed to see how many people are convinced to call you after reading the success story. However, there are certain points to remember while offering a free consultation:

  • Put a time limit on the consultation. Always keep a time slab and define the minutes of free consultation that you are offering.
  • Do not offer too much. People are not serious about things or advice that comes for free. Hence, don’t offer too much and push them towards the paid consultation to get the right advice.
  • Frame it as a self-assessment tool. Make it easier for the audience to understand what they are doing wrong.
  • Consult more people in less time. Instead of offering a one-to-one consultation, you can offer a consultation via a webinar. This way you will be able to interact with many people in one go.

Small business owners must make use of the above suggested tactics to improve leads and conversions. Every channel has its own importance and a smart business owner knows exactly what their target audience needs. Do your homework before reaching out to your audience and it will become easier for you to find new customers every day.

Joydeep Bhattacharya is a digital marketing evangelist and author of SEOsandwitch.com. He is a regular contributor on publications like Wired, SEMrush, Ahrefs, Hubspot and several other sites.