Ways To Learn More About Marketing | When you are running a small business, you don’t have a penny to spare. It is understandable that you don’t want to pour a lot of money into marketing – and nowadays, it is possible to run a successful business without doing so. There are several things you can do on your own to market your business without spending a lot of money, and there are several ways you can learn about marketing on your own, too. Here are six ways to learn about marketing your business.
- Try a Local Class
The community college in your town may have a marketing class for small businesses. It may be a semester-long class that you can take when you are just thinking about starting a business, and they also may have a condensed version over a couple of weekends that covers the basics. You might also check your city’s chamber of commerce; very often, they will offer classes to help small business owners.
- Try the Internet
The internet is full of resources for small business marketing, and even if one resource doesn’t seem to help much, you are sure to find something on the web that you can use. Someone out there has been through just what you are going through now, starting a business and trying to market it. Take what they have learned and make it your own.
- Jump in
Another great thing about the internet is that much of it is free! Social media is a major part of marketing nowadays, and often it costs nothing but time. Figure out what you hope to achieve with your social media and then select the best platforms to help you meet your goals. For instance, Pinterest is a great way to show off pictures of your bakery’s cakes, but Twitter may not be the platform for this. However, Twitter can be a great way to keep in touch with customers, have conversations with them, and find out what the next big “thing” might be. It can all seem overwhelming at first (and it can take some time to gather followers), but keep at it!
- Try Something New
Have you thought about a new way to market your business but have hesitated because it may be a bit out of the box? Give it a try. Posting a tutorial on YouTube about something you specialize in can help your business to get noticed, and it can also gain customer trust and appreciation. Run a contest for customers to help you name your deli’s new sandwich or have a Halloween costume contest at your party supply store – the possibilities for creative ways to get noticed are almost endless.
- Join Local Groups
Often a town will have many different groups for small businesses, in addition to the chamber of commerce. People from the businesses in these groups meet to share ideas and plan for joint promotions or events.
- Analyze Your Data
Taking a look at what worked and what didn’t in a marketing campaign is a great way to learn about marketing and how you can get better at it. Maybe you’re spending all of your energy in one place that’s just not paying off, or maybe you are spending so much time trying to get new customers that your old customers are going somewhere else. It is important to know what is going right and what isn’t.
When you are learning how to market your business, the most important thing is to not give up. There is nothing wrong with trying something only to find it doesn’t work – this is the type of information you need to get you going in the right direction. You can take what you learned and apply it to the next idea: your Facebook page may not have made the impact you wanted it to (at least not yet – these things do take time), but just the process of setting it up probably taught you a lot. Don’t be afraid to move on from something that just isn’t working, and don’t give up!
