Every successful business started somewhere or started small before hitting it big. It doesn’t matter if you start small. What matters is that you are willing to work hard for your business, and you are not going to give up on your dream.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle for small businesses is anonymity. But you don’t have to stay unknown for long if you can reach your desired clients or customers at the earliest possible time.
You need to reach out to your potential clients, let them know there’s a new player in town that offers something better. This is possible through information dissemination through various media platforms, as well as email marketing.
- Build your audience: It takes some time to build your readership or customer base. All the more that you need to start building it as soon as possible. You have to start the ball rolling so you can start accumulating customers. Make your presence known through various social media channels – Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
- Create regular post for your social media accounts: You must sustain your customers’ interest in you by regularly coming up with posts. If they see you frequently in their newsfeeds, they will tend to remember you better. Your posts must attract attention so plan it carefully. If you can make it a starting point for conversations, the better.
- Social media accounts should direct customers to your website: Your posts must always contain links to your website in order for you to increase your traffic. Once you get a fair share of regular visitors, invite them to sign up for future offers or discounts, even exclusive promotions. Those who sign up will eventually become your target audience for email marketing.
- Continuously collect emails: Getting your customers’ email addresses is not enough. You must find ways to expand your email list. The more emails you have, the higher your chances of finding buying customers.
- Partner with stores: Tapping stores or distributors in your information dissemination campaign also helps. Stores are the forefront of every business as they are engaged with customers on a daily basis. Ask for their assistance in distributing freebies for every item sold from your product line, and have the recipients sign a list. Make sure you leave a column for writing down their email addresses.
- Attend seminars/conferences related to your business: This is a great way to meet fellow entrepreneurs. Get to know them and ask for calling cards. You can link with them through social networks like LinkedIn. Let them know you’ve met in this and that conference, and tell them how glad you are to have met them, then add them to your network.
Some Useful Ways to Collect Emails
- Create a sign-up page on your website for offers like monthly promotions and freebies, etc.
- Offer an eBook for free which can be downloaded after they sign up.
- Have your employees promote your website and have them convince people to sign up
- If you have a worthwhile cause, put sign-up sheets beside cash registers for people who are willing to help propagate it.
