Many years ago, storekeepers would sit behind their counter and wait for customers to come in. In most cases, they didn’t have to work hard for crowds to roll through their doors. Now, competition is at an all-time high, and you have to fight for every piece of the pie – even if you only end up with a crumb.

Much of your business success can come down to marketing, and if you don’t put any time and money into it, you’ll be shutting up shop in no time at all. Risk of failure is high, so consider these marketing ideas to stay afloat and grow your business.

Freebies

Everyone loves something for nothing, and even though you might think there’s no money in giving promotional products away for free, there is. Think back to such successful campaigns as Coca Cola, PayPal, and Dropbox. Coca Cola offered endless promotional products in the name of brand recognition, as did PayPal. Dropbox even provided free storage space in exchange for new customer referrals.

You have to give something to get something in return, and promotional products can help. You get to enjoy brand recognition from your logo, as well as giving people an incentive to buy your products and use your services.

Hire a Marketing Expert

The truth is, not every business owner is going to be an expert in marketing. There’s no harm in hiring someone who is. Marketing experts can look at your business, identify your target market, then go after those people through marketing platforms. You get to focus on your customers, while someone else takes care of bringing them to you.

There are nearly eight million small businesses in the US. If you don’t have expertise in marketing on your side, you’ll struggle to keep up with your competition.

Be Charitable

When times are tight, the last thing you think you should be doing is being charitable. However, spending time (or money) doing kind things in your community can bring the same expenditure back to you. People tend to look fondly upon businesses who do nice things for others. Why do you think businesses spent over $400 billion on charitable acts in 2017? Eventually, you might see that money back in new customers.

Meet the Media

The media can be your best friend or your worst nightmare, so make it the former as soon as possible. Are you doing something interesting or exciting in your business? Are you collecting for charity, holding an event in-store, or have something unique happening? Let the media know about it.

Any exposure you can get is going to benefit your business. It also helps if you can make connections within media firms you can call up at a moment’s notice.

Be Social Media Savvy

To get the people, you have to go to where they are. At the moment, it’s social media. Most people are not too far from their phones these days, so ensure your business is front and center.

Promote your products with ads, run promotional campaigns, and invite your friends, family, and acquaintances to follow your business page on Facebook. There are 2.77 billion active social media users, so don’t miss out on the opportunity to advertise to them.

In this day and age, business competition is rife. You’re not going to get ahead without putting effort, time, and money into marketing. Put the pedal to the metal today and start accelerating growth for the future success of your business.