How to promote your business inexpensively in 10 ways

How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways

How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways.

As a small scale business, marketing is a key tool. A unique marketing strategy will enable you to establish your brand in the minds of your customers. Your marketing efforts also help you in acquiring new customers.

But as a small scale business, you don’t have the deep pocket required to run big marketing campaigns on television, radio or newspapers. In the light of this, we are sharing 5 inexpensive ways to market your small scale business.

One very important aspect of a business is the promotion. When we promote a business, we try to make it appeal to the people we are targeting to sell it to. We make it look wonderful in the eye of the potential customer. And very often, people are convinced by the wonderful pictures we show them and they eventually choose to give the product, a try.

Every good product has great potential to flourish when well marketed. one of the pillars that make a business is marketing. In marketing, you are producing a quality product, in an attractive package, for an affordable price, at the best place for easiest access by the customer, doing everything possible to make it appeal to the customer, by promoting it. When all these are in place, success is next on the line.

Therefore, for you to successfully market your business, you need to be able to give it all the promotion it needs. In this post, I bring to you a comprehensive package of practical things you can do, to promote your business in a way that will make it win the market and give birth to success.

How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways

Here are the top 5 Ways How to promote your business inexpensively:

1. BUSINESS CARDS

Every day we hand out a tiny brochure about our businesses without even realizing it. Look at the stacks on your desk, the deck in your drawer or the stash in your wallet. Business cards, in all sizes, shapes, and colors, are everywhere. And yet, while we all understand that a business card is a necessity, we often fail to see it as a marketing opportunity.

It’s time to start seeing that little slip of paper for what it is: the best opportunity you have to market yourself or your business to a targeted and captive audience. After all, you chose to hand it to that person for a reason.

Netkipedia Marketing Services

How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways

7 Ways to Make Your Business Card Your Best Marketing Tool

Here are seven ways to spiff up your business card so that it collects sales, rather than dust:

Every day we hand out a tiny brochure about our businesses without even realizing it. Look at the stacks on your desk, the deck in your drawer or the stash in your wallet. Business cards, in all sizes, shapes and colors, are everywhere. And yet, while we all understand that a business card is a necessity, we often fail to see it as a marketing opportunity.

It’s time to start seeing that little slip of paper for what it is: the best opportunity you have to market yourself or your business to a targeted and captive audience. After all, you chose to hand it to that person for a reason.

Here are seven ways to spiff up your business card so that it collects sales, rather than dust:

1. Give your card a purpose.

And we’re not just talking communication. Cards that multi-task will be seen far more frequently than your average business card. Turn it into a bookmark, an event ticket, a note card, scratch card or sticker. Make it a conversation piece and your business will automatically become a part of the conversation.

2. Track it. 

Include a QR code or SKU on your business card, and whenever you hand it out, give the recipient an incentive like discounts or coupons for checking out your site. This way, you’ll be able to track the rate at which your card compels people to action. If the current design and incentive doesn’t work, you can always try another.

3. Challenge people. 

Surprise people with a fun fact or figure on your business card. Think about a Trivial-Pursuit-style question or piece of trivia that applies to your business. For example, adding a simple fact — “You’re more likely to survive a plane crash than click on a banner ad” — could spur a conversation about new marketing channels and strategies, with business owners frustrated by their existing marketing efforts. Engage and amuse people when they read your card and your business will stand out.

4. Add credibility with testimonials. 

Customers relate to other customers. Because of that, testimonials speak volumes. Consider adding a brief quote or link to a quote on the back of your business card. It’s a great way to use valuable space that otherwise goes to waste.

5. Support a cause. 

Social impact and business go hand-in-hand these days. Let people know about causes that drive you. Use your card as a vehicle to make a difference, and recipients will gain a better understanding of what drives you as a person and a professional. For example, you can include: “Proud supporters of Feeding America.”

6. Put a face to the name. 

Consider putting your photo on your card so that people can continue to put a face to your name long after they’ve met you. A photo not only adds to the familiarity of your company’s brand and increases your likeability factor, but paints a picture of you as a person. It also makes you easily recognizable from your competition.

7. Make the handoff memorable. 

The physical act of exchanging your card can be more valuable than the card itself. Use it as a conversation starter to better understand where the person’s needs, interests or hobbies lie. As you hand out your card, mention when you will follow up and also reinforce a message about the value of your business.

What are your business card tips? Leave them in the comments section below.

How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways

2. SOCIAL MEDIA

In recent years, social media has gone from a new idea to an absolute must for marketers. Of all the new media marketing platforms, social has most thoroughly turned traditional marketing on its head. With older outbound marketing strategies, messages are sent to potential customers, and communication is one way. 

On social media, customers and businesses can directly interact. Both parties can ask each other questions, repost each other’s content and work on forming relationships. Getting started with social media marketing can be intimidating, so here are eight tips for effectively promoting your business on social networks.

How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways

8 Effective Ways to Promote Your Business on Social Media

8 Effective Ways to Promote Your Business on Social Media

1. Choose the Right Platforms

There is no shortage of social media sites on which to share your content. The number of sites is growing every day. Sharing your content on the right platforms is crucial to your success.

When determining which channels to use, you should consider your customers and your business. It’s important that you create accounts on the platforms your target audience uses, so they can easily connect with you. Conduct some research to determine what sites your audience probably uses, and then use them too. 

You should also consider which sites best fit your products. For a video production company, for example, YouTube is an obvious choice.

2. Create a Calendar

Scrambling to create posts at the last minute can lead to low-quality content. A lack of organization can lead to repeated posts or a lull in your presence on one of your channels. Creating social media content calendars can help avoid those mistakes and lead to more effective posts. Content calendars also help you create goals and strategies for meeting them, and track your progress toward them.

To make a content calendar, use a regular calendar for each social media channel and plan out your posts in advance, complete with hashtags, links, images, and other content. 

3. Encourage Engagement

Social media should, of course, be social. That doesn’t only apply to those who use the sites for fun. Businesses need to be interactive, too. In order to take advantage of social capability, you need to encourage interaction.

Post content that people want to read, ask questions and like, repost and comment on other users’ posts. Doing research on your audience can help you figure out what they might like. 

4. Don’t Over-Promote

One trap that businesses often fall into is treating social media too much like regular advertising. You don’t want to blatantly promote yourself in every post. You need to create content that people will actually enjoy and want to see.

Promoting yourself is okay every once in a while. Some marketers go by the one-in-seven rule, which says that for every one directly promotional post, six others should be content-based. In these other six posts, you could share articles, comment on current events or ask a question. You don’t have to entirely avoid mentioning your brand in these posts; just be careful not to sell too hard.

5. Share Video

Visual content works well on social media. Video content, especially, is ideal for grabbing people’s attention as well as conveying your personality and passion to your customers. 

Visual content stands out as people scroll through their social feeds, so they’re more likely to view it and engage with it. It also allows you to say more than you could in a typical post without taking up much room. Create interesting, narrative-driven video in order to get the best reaction.

6. Address Problems Quickly

Hopefully, you receive mostly positive feedback on social media. Occasionally you may encounter someone who is upset, argumentative or has something negative to say about your company.

You should carefully monitor mentions of your brand on social channels, so you can catch issues before they escalate. If you spot a problem, engage with the person by publicly apologizing if necessary and offering to solve the problem over a direct message exchange. This way, people who see the post know you were responsive but don’t have to see all the specifics of the issue.

7. Build a Community

Instead of trying to get as many followers as possible, focus on finding customers who are interested, loyal and engaged. These people are more likely to repost your content, like your posts and become customers.

When you build a community around your brand, the people within that community will engage with each other and help to promote your content. You could even try reaching out to exceptionally influential social media users and asking them to help you by reviewing a product or mentioning you in a post.

8. Provide Value

Perhaps the most important thing you can do on social media is provide value to your followers. Create something that your audience will find useful. It could be something that tells them something they didn’t know before, makes them laugh, entertains them or anything else that’s beneficial in some way. 

This aspect of social media is what attracts the right customers to your business, makes people want to follow you on social sites and helps content to spread. Master this, and you’ll be a big step closer to a successful social media marketing campaign. 

With nearly 3 billion active users, social media is a potential goldmine of new customers and current patrons who could become repeat customers. Create a good social campaign, and you’ll be able to connect with some of those people and grow your customer base.

How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways

3.CREATE REFERRAL PROGRAMS

One of the basic tenets of customer success is using your service to create advocates for your business. A happy army of satisfied customers can do a lot of legwork for you. And when word-of-mouth referrals make up 20-50% of most purchasing decisions (especially for new businesses and in emerging markets) why not take advantage of the opportunity?

But there’s a catch: assuming your customers will refer you to their connections simply because you provide exceptional service is idealistic at best. Referrals only happen out of the good of a customer’s heart some of the time — for the rest of it, giving customers a reason to refer will work wonders. As with most things in business, a plan is necessary.

If you’re looking to grow your business, retain the customers you already have, and reach your revenue goals, it’s time to implement a customer referral program. Simply having one is good business sense, because it reveals two things:

1. That you’re confident enough in your services and team to know that a referral program would be a positive investment and

2. You know that despite your good service, some customers might need a push to go out of their way for you.

How valuable is a referral?

A customer referral is highly valuable because it doesn’t cost you much — if anything — to acquire them. The exact value of a referral varies across different businesses, but it’s roughly the lifetime value (LTV) of a typical customer, plus the typical cost of customer acquisition (CAC), which you can then use to acquire additional new customers.

The reality is, however, that you’re effectively asking your customers to stand in place of your marketing and sales departments. And when referrals are the heart of generating new business, operating with tact, consistency, and patience is extremely important.

How to effectively use referral marketing to grow your business

7 Steps to Start an Effective Customer Referral Program

1. Set Your Goals

Ask yourself: what do you hope to get out of this referral program? Are your goals tied more to growth and revenue? Do you want to add retention to that mix? Are you in an industry that requires an exceptional amount of trust-building? Once you decide what your goals are — and explicitly define them — the next steps should lay themselves out for you:

Discover how (if at all) referrals have been coming to your business.

Involve marketing, sales management, support — anyone who would be responsible for building customer relationships — and assess how they’ve been traditionally dealing with referrals. This will give you an idea of where you already are.

Do a little math.

What’s an existing customer worth? Compared to time spent monitoring and managing onboarding programs, how many referrals do you need to break even? A 10% conversion rate for referrals is, on average, a good starting point (and this, of course, is dependent on your business size and growth goals).

2. List Possible Referral Sources

We’ll call these advocates, and they can be anyone who you’re already connected with in the present, or who you have been connected to in the past. Begin listing them out. This list could include current customers, past customers, leads that may not have closed, industry leaders, your vendors, etc. This will give you solid footing to start out with.

3. Make a Plan to Reach Out

Now, refine. Narrow down the list of advocates and sources to a list of “inner circle” contacts. These are people who know what value your business has and would refer you without any incentive. Finding your inner circle isn’t a process that can be automated — you’ll get more benefit from this if you pull and segment these contacts manually.

Once you have your inner circle segmented out, you now have two things to take into consideration:

Timing is everything.

Identify appropriate times to ask these inner circle advocates to take part in your referral program. Because they are people you’ve worked with before, this is a less strenuous process starting out. When you start working with people who will need an incentive (which we talk about below), it’s important to consider the relationship. For some companies, depending on the service or product, asking for a referral needs to happen late in the relationship. For others, it could be upon the first sale (think apps, digital interface services).

Then, once you’ve asked, wait some more. That might require a waiting period of months, or even a year, to remind them about the referral program again.

Not all referrals are equal.

Be picky with your advocates (even your inner circle ones). Identify people who you think could market your brand the way that it should be marketed. Within that inner circle, who do you have a stellar, standout relationship with? Or do you have an existing customer that came from a referral and worked out? And remember: Watch out for referral fatigue, and make sure you’re not overburdening your contacts.

4. Identify Your Incentives

There are two options for a referral program: an incentive and a non-incentive program. A University of Chicago study found that non-cash incentives are 24% more effective at boosting performance than cash incentives. During this step, you should break your contacts out by levels and decide which ones can receive which offer.

And don’t forget the referrer — make sure they get something out of the deal, too. Take Airbnb for example: when a customer refers a friend, they get $20 credit — and when a customer first signs up, they get a credit towards their first trip over a certain amount.

5. Create Resources to Alert Your Customers

Once you have a referral program, create resources you think would work well, and alert your customers. Then, promote, promote, promote. And consider multiple avenues of promotion beyond the time-limited email campaign to remind your customers of the program’s existence. Those might look like:

  • Newsletters
  • Blogs
  • CTAs & Email Signatures
  • Product updates

Once you have the referral programs outlined, you’ll have an idea of what resources you need for each one. I’ve listed out a few resources you might need below:

  • Emails for each type of contact telling them about your referral program
  • A message explaining what types of customers fit well with your business. You need to paint a picture in their minds of your ideal customer
  • A workflow that leads your contacts through the program and alerts your sales team when to call
  • A landing page that provides a place for your contacts to give you their friend’s information
  • Scripts for your sales and customer support teams to follow when explaining your referral programs
  • A referral kit filled with resources for your contacts to share with their friends: this can include case studies, testimonials, eBooks, videos, anything that gives insight into working with your business

Whatever your medium, make sure it’s consistent, persistent (though not over-the-top) and in line with your program’s revenue, growth, and retention goals.

6. Set Up Tracking

Regardless of the size of your company (though this is especially relevant if your company has a larger customer base) you need to have tracking set in place. This will ensure that you don’t miss one detail — for referred accounts especially. You should be tracking:

  • Who was referred and who referred them
  • When they were referred
  • Whether or not they converted or were sold
  • How you’re going to nurture and follow up with them, etc.

If you don’t already invest in a CRM (customer relationship management) system, then now is a great time to become familiar! Keeping track of customer relationships is a huge component of customer success — the ability to individualize each account or relationship makes each customer feel like they’re a unique part of your base.

7. Say Thank You

Thank the referrer for helping you out (this is where incentives might work, but also consider messaging that thanks them specifically as well) and thank the referred for joining. Then, get to work — you’ve got happy customers to prove right.

How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways

Customer Referral Program Examples

1. Dropbox

Dropbox offers free products or services in exchange for users referring new customers: You can earn more cloud storage space in exchange for referring a friend.

How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways

Source: Medium

2. Acorns

When you refer a friend to Acorns, an online micro-investing service, you get $5 deposited in your account when they start investing. It’s called Acorns because it’s all about investing small amounts of money to accumulate wealth, so $5 goes a long way.

Sometimes, people just want money — but especially if they’re already using a money management app.

acornsreferral

3. Stitch Fix

When you refer a friend to Stitch Fix, an online styling and shopping service, you get a $25 credit toward your next order — which covers the $20 fee paid toward your stylist and then some, meaning you only have to pay for the clothes you keep. Plus, your link allows your friend to skip the $20 styling fee, too.

It’s an easy step to go from telling someone where you got your outfit to sending them a link to try it themselves, so pairing that with a compelling credit or discount makes this program successful.

How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways

How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways

4. Evernote

Cloud-based note-taking app Evernote encourages referrals by offering reward points in exchange — points that can be accumulated and used for to upgrade to Evernote Premium, the paid version.

This program also gives the referred person a free month of Evernote Premium — giving them a taste of the paid version to incentivize them to start referring friends, too.

How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways

5. Glossier

Makeup and skincare brand Glossier‘s referral program is similar to Stitch Fix’s, but is helpful to encourage first-time or one-time purchases, too. Glossier offers mutual rewards for referring friends that gifts both people with credits toward their next haul.

It even has a nifty button that lets you gently remind your friend about the offer three days later.

How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways

6. Healthy Paws

Healthy Paws pet insurance has a referral program that gives the recipient a discount on their first month of coverage — and gives the referrer an Amazon gift card in exchange.

This program is smart to offer rewards, like an Amazon gift card, for their loyal customers — because as any pet owner knows, Amazon offers any and every food item, toy, leash, or outfit your pet could ever need (or not need), and they probably shop there for their pets already.

How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways

4. E-MAIL MARKETING

Email marketing is using email to get your marketing message in front of your audience. It is an essential tool to growing your business in the fast-paced world of internet business because it offers open, conversational, and interactive communications.

The most popular form of email marketing is the email newsletter or ezine. Permission-based email marketing also includes special email promotions, daily deals emails, solo blasts, advertising, follow up sequences and autoresponders, email courses, and more.

Email marketing is popular because it is relatively easy, quick to get started, and inexpensive. When done right it can also generate quite a bit of profit. The premise behind email marketing is that you as a business owner build a list of clients, customers, prospects, and subscribers who want to hear from you. You then market to them by email regularly to stay top of mind and make more sales.

You may be reading this thinking that email marketing has already hit its peak, that everyone’s doing it, and that maybe you shouldn’t even bother because all people seem to complain about these days is their overcrowded inboxes. But rest assured, email marketing is one strategy you shouldn’t ignore. Email newsletters that deliver real value still get read, saved, shared, and clicked. Plus, email marketing is a great way to stay in touch with your audience, increase brand exposure, continue to deliver value, and cement your authority status.

Here are 10 ways email marketing can help your business grow:

How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways

10 Ways Email Marketing Can Help Your Business Grow

Email marketing is using email to get your marketing message in front of your audience. It is an essential tool to growing your business in the fast paced world of internet business because it offers open, conversational, and interactive communications.

The most popular form of email marketing is the email newsletter or ezine. Permission-based email marketing also includes special email promotions, daily deals emails, solo blasts, advertising, follow up sequences and auto responders, email courses, and more.

Email marketing is popular because it is relatively easy, quick to get started, and inexpensive. When done right it can also generate quite a bit of profit. The premise behind email marketing is that you as a business owner build a list of clients, customers, prospects, and subscribers who want to hear from you. You then market to them by email regularly to stay top of mind and make more sales.

You may be reading this thinking that email marketing has already hit its peak, that everyone’s doing it, and that maybe you shouldn’t even bother because all people seem to complain about these days is their overcrowded inboxes. But rest assured, email marketing is one strategy you shouldn’t ignore. Email newsletters that deliver real value still get read, saved, shared, and clicked. Plus, email marketing is a great way to stay in touch with your audience, increase brand exposure, continue to deliver value, and cement your authority status.

Best email marketing platforms that can boost your business include:

  1. Aweber
  2. Getresponse

Here are 10 ways email marketing can help your business grow:

1. Save valuable budget dollars

Save money and some trees! By going digital, you’ll avoid printing, paper, envelopes, mail handling, and postage costs. Plus, with an email newsletter you can work with a designer to design a custom newsletter template you can use over and over again, and get your message out much faster than good old snail mail.

2. Increase brand recognition

Get your brand image and name in front of your audience more often by including your logo, tagline, color palette, and brand graphics in the template design of your email communications. Seeing your brand elements in every issue will build brand awareness and recognition — even if they old see it for a second.

3. Connect with your target market

Email marketing helps you stay in touch with your audience on a regular basis, keeping you top of mind and at the tip of their tongue. This ensures that when your services, products, or programs are needed, they will buy from you or refer their friends, family, peers, and contacts to you.

4. Increase your credibility

Consistent, quality email marketing that is relevant, on-topic, and full of value will help you earn and grow the trust of your target market making it much easier for you to then promote and sell your products and services.

5. Educate your current clients

Your email newsletter is a great place to keep your clients up to date with what’s news in your business. By sharing what you’re working on and what’s going on, you can also keep them informed of the products, services, and programs you have available for them — and maybe entice them to hire you or buy from you again.

6. Attract new opportunities

Publishing an email newsletter can help you generate new opportunities such as strategic partnerships, joint ventures, media interviews, speaking engagements, and more. All it takes in the right person to see your message at the right time — and the opportunity may not even come from a subscriber, but from someone your ezine was forwarded to.

7. Create new streams of income

You can use your email newsletter to recommend as an affiliate, products, programs, and services you have used yourself or truly believe in and earn commissions on any sales made from your referrals. Once your list grows quite large, you can also sell ad space in your ezine.

8. Expand your network

Email marketing helps you grow your network and build your list by allowing you to capture the email address through a website opt-in box. By entering their name and email, visitors give you permission to market to them by email and make offers to them by email. Remember to promote your email newsletter via social media, on your website, when speaking, in products, and even in your email signature.

9. Organize your industry knowledge

A series of articles written for your email newsletter on one topic, can be repurposed into an ebook, whitepaper, guide, or even a free audio for content marketing. Use your email newsletter to test content topics, subject lines, headlines, and more, then turn your most popular content into an information product or opt-in gift.

10. Reach a wider audience

Drive your email newsletter subscribers back to your website by promoting recent blog posts in each issue. Repurpose your ezine content or archive your ezine articles on your blog to attract new visitors via social media. Share your ezine articles on article marketing and article sharing sites to gain exposure and visibility for your brand.

Email Marketing = Profits And Opportunities

Over the years email marketing, especially our email newsletter and our email follow up sequences has been an extremely successful for of marketing for Bourn Creative and for our clients. In fact, every time we send out an email newsletter, our new project inquiries increase and past clients reach out with new projects.

Our email newsletter, started in 2009, helped position Bourn Creative as experts in our industry and authority leaders to members of our audience and tribe. It has helped us establish credibility and trust with our subscribers, build new relationships, and open doors to new opportunities because we remain top of mind.

Some experts may say email marketing is dead, but email is still the number one tool for business communication that is used on a daily basis — and it works. So, if you don’t have an email newsletter yet, it’s time to get started, because if you can write, and email, you can create an email newsletter with captivating subject lines that bring home the bacon.

What about you?

Have you found success with an email newsletter? Has email marketing helped you grow your business — or has it been a big pain in the butt? We’d love to hear your thoughts below.

Ready to grow your business with email?

Get a glimpse of how sending emails with AWeber can help you connect with customers and grow your business when you sign up for our behind-the-scenes email series.

How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways

5. ASK FOR REVIEWS

How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways

7 Tips to Market Your Brand Using Customer Reviews

There is no one better than your satisfied consumers to narrate your success stories. With as much as 70% of people relying on customer reviews before making a purchase, Consumerist.com reveals that it’s a good idea to include a review or comment expressed in your customers’ own words when marketing your brand on different channels.

Sharing real-time experience of your buyers on your website, blogs, social media accounts, etc. will show how you deliver on your brand promise in the real world. A positive customer review might bring to you what other marketing efforts just can’t. Here are some eye-popping stats that reflect why customer reviews are so important when marketing your business and brand in the ever-so-competitive market:

Reviews can make or break a brand and encouraging satisfied customers to share their positive experience online, especially on social media platforms can help businesses generate social proof of their efficient services.

Reading a good review builds trust in the buyer about the quality and credibility of your product or service. In fact, positive reviews can help you make people understand how your product can improve their lives. Plus, your chance of drawing in more traffic to your site increases when customers write good reviews about your brand on social media platforms. People will take out time to read about the reviews, be it on your website, in your e-mail newsletters or in print materials.

Let’s check out 7 creative tips to effectively market your brand using customer reviews.

1. Leverage customer reviews to build a reputation

Proudly feature your best-unedited reviews at a prominent spot on your website – bold and upfront. This is nothing but word of mouth publicity and will lure your visitors to buy your product or hire your services.

Adding the name and photo of a customer will make the review even more authentic and credible. But make sure you take permission from the customers first, before publishing their name or picture on your site. It can be done on your homepage or on all web pages.

You can also set up an entire page dedicated to your glowing testimonials or create a series of reviews on your blog. Apart from adding credibility to the site, customer reviews answer visitor’s questions about product quality and, of course, encourage users to check brand’s social accounts.

For instance, Hotsy Totsy, a fashion website known for selling fashion products and accessories online, prominently displays customers’ testimonials and feedback on a separate page altogether.

Hotsy example of using customer reviews

2. Respond to reviews quickly

Show to your customers that you care! And this is for both positive and negative reviews. Take notice of the reviews and respond quickly.

Publicly ask your customers to contact you directly so that you can discuss the problem. Show them that you are willing to do all you can to rectify the problem. This will build your customers trust and often sets you apart from your competitors. Even if someone else comes across the review, it will be noted that you had tried to resolve the problem the earliest.

Customergauge.com reveals that responding to feedback is not just for retaining customers but to enhance a positive identity amongst non-customers.

Check out how Zappos does this brilliantly.

Donna Prisyon Galinsky example of using customer reviews

3. Make it easy for customers to review

Try to make the process of reviewing your product or service as easy and quick as possible, so that your products and services receive more ratings and attract more reviews.

Customers should never feel burdened while filling in your review forms. A blog published at Kissmetrics.com suggests to keep your review forms short to make it happen with minimum clicks. In addition, it makes sense to make such forms as fun as possible.

You can use an online review platform that sends automated review request emails when customers buy from you.  Your customers should feel that you are interested in their feedback and want to ensure that they’re satisfied with your products. You could also go for a short survey on your website or a quick poll on Facebook to know about your customers. For instance, FitBit conducted a quick poll to draw in traffic to its site.

Fitbit as example of using customer reviews

4. Turn customers into brand ambassadors

With the content overload on the web, it is difficult to regularly create content that will engage and entertain people equally. This is where it pays to make your customers your brand ambassadors.

By having a group of customers as your brand ambassadors, you can easily breakthrough with an authentic voice because it will sound different, genuine and most importantly real. With the ever-growing competition on the web, it’s important to make your customer’s in charge of your brand. There can be customers who run an entire blog on your site, or one or more customers could be in charge of tweeting and posting stories relevant to your product.

An article on socialmediaexaminer.com reveals that Shofer’s Furniture implemented a brand ambassador program that increased their site traffic by 4000%.

SocialToaster example of using customer reviews

5. Keep a regular check on review sites

Review sites are basically local directories that allow people to share their experience about various businesses and brands. On searching a particular name of a business or product, visitors get reviews and ratings along with the listing.

It is an easy way for customers to know what other people think about your brand and business. There are several popular review sites such as YelpReview Center and Trust Pilot. So, create an account on all these sites and use it to make you look better.

You can also consider advertising on these sites. For instance, Yelp allows you to pick your best reviews and run it in the listing right next to your competitors. Check out the below advertisement on Yelp to understand how it works.

Claire L Hos - example of using customer reviews

But don’t forget the listing should be laid out in such a way that vital elements of your brand pop up. For instance, your logo shouldn’t be buried under the fold or at the bottom of the page and your contact details should be easy to spot.

6. Share reviews in promotional emails

According to Unbounce.com, over 294 billion emails are sent each day. An average person receives 72 emails per day and spends up to 30% of their working day checking out their inboxes.

Now, this is unarguably a huge number. So, it’s important that your customers love your emails. Including customer feedback in your promotional emails may encourage your customers to make a purchase on your site.

Here’s an email from Shape Fx that successfully adds reviews to its pitch.

How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways

7. Share customer reviews on social media

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are popular places for customers to talk about and leave feedback or reviews for a specific product or business. Collect and leverage positive customer reviews by sharing them on your company’s Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter pages.

Adding a customer picture or video will add credibility to your business by showing them why people like you. Life Beam does a great job at posting customer reviews on its Facebook page to catch the eye of potential customers. Here’s how company does it successfully.

How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways

Up to you!

Remember, telling people your business is the best in the market won’t urge them to reach into their wallets. But hearing this message from other customers might compel them to do so.

So, if you’ve not been able to incorporate customer reviews and feedback into your marketing strategy to support your brand, now’s your chance. Go for the change. Use customer reviews strategically and don’t shy away from showing off how great your brand is! It’s never too late to get your brand reputation back on track.

Is there any other way customer reviews can be used to successfully market and promote your brand? What do you think? Leave your comments and let us know.

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How to promote your business inexpensively in 5 ways

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