Advertising can get expensive, and since I don't have money to throw at the issue, I've had to get somewhat creative. I can't afford advertising on traditional media, and my shops are small ones anyway, and the items wouldn't appeal to everyone. What I do is focus on social media advertising, since I can do that myself. I built up a presence on Twitter long before I opened these shops, which gave me a platform for advertising my items. Hashtags are very important, because they enable tweets to be seen by a much larger following than I have. In addition, I have connected with other sellers through Twitter, Facebook, and my shop platforms, and cross-promote. By cross-promoting, the other sellers' items will be seen by my followers, and my items will be seen by theirs. The more people who see an item, the greater the chance that it will be sold, and in addition, there's a better likelihood that once someone has been to a shop and liked what s/he's seen, s/he will return for future purchases.
That's a great marketing strategy. Recently I read an article [can't vouch for the veracity of its content] which made the wild claim that most online retailers got most of their referrals [that converted to sales] from Facebook. So apparently ads aren't as effective as they used to be in the past and yeah . . . Use the free alternatives [social media marketing and social bookmarking for example] which are better. You could reach a larger number of people . . .
Depending on what you sell you can also try guerilla marketing in your area. Stickers, leaflets, drops, gifting. A lot of these things can help get the word out about your business.
Your expenses really depend on how much you want to pay, it is as simple as that. As you say, you have the option of having social media exposure for free, as this is something that you are able to do yourself. You should remember that it is important to get the balance right when it comes to advertising. You want to make your audience feel as though they are being talked to, not marketed, and it is a difficult line to set. But I am sure that you will be able to do it if you give it a try!
I sometimes make a little extra money on the side selling clothes I get from the UK. It's only a small side business, so I don't really bother investing too much money on the marketing and advertising. I have a Facebook page where I display the items but truthfully, I rely on word of mouth mostly. Because it's only a small venture this suits me for now, because I wouldn't want demand to far outstrip supply LOL I couldn't afford to get in a lot of stock to stay on top of demand
Exactly, and since I make the majority of what I sell, I have to be careful of this as well. Also, I don't have a lot of money to invest in new supplies, because I've already sunk what I had into the tools and supplies I have used to make what I've listed for sale. I often have to purchase from overseas, so it takes a while to get those supplies, and so I have had to turn down a sale or two over the years, because they wanted a different color. I specifically don't state that I do custom designs for this reason, but that doesn't stop people from asking.
Social media is a wonderful tool for advertising once you put in the cash to promote posts. Twitter is especially good because they give you the highest engagement for the lowest prices, which really helps when you need something right away. I'm pretty upset with how much you have to spend to get Facebook to do the same, but what you put in is what you get out of advertising in the long run.
Yes, unfortunately, we used to have bulletin boards at the local grocery shops, where small businesses and individuals were able to post flyers and business cards, but those have been done away with. What I do now, is leave some business cards on the tables at two of the local post offices. My bank is at Walmart, and they have a table where their business cards are, as well as the deposit slips, etc. If one of their slots is empty (yes, I know this is bad), I stick some of mine in it. If they are all full, I leave some lying on the table. I don't know that I've gotten any sales that way yet, but hopefully at least the name will stick in someone's mind, and they will either take a card, or remember to check it out when they get online. If at some point in the future I am able, I want to get more business cards made with the scan code on them that will take people directly to my shop.
Social media has made advertising a lot easier and cheaper for most start up businesses. Traditional advertising may simply be too costly for small businesses but there are other ways to reach your target market without breaking the bank. Besides social media, small businesses can use cheap below-the-line advertising which are aimed at reaching your target market. These include banners, leaflets, or streamers. Businesses can also try the postcard advertising system where products and coupons get advertising space on a postcard along with the products and coupons of other advertisers. This system splits the cost among advertisers and makes it less inexpensive to reach a massive market.
Social media marketing is a great way to promote your business. Even us rely on social media marketing since we don't have enough funds for physical advertising. It actually helped us a lot and the market is so much bigger than the traditional advertising (flyers, posters, leaflets) since you have the ability to target consumers depending on your location.
Facebook Business page + LinkedIn Business page + Twitter profile. = 0$. So here you are not going to spend the time to build content and following. You just automate this with hootesuite. And make sure to get some liked and shares. But for making content you have to spend some money. It would not be harder though. It's all doable. But adwords, facebook ads and other ads would cost you some money after that.
Using social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and the rest to advertise products and services is something that has been working awesomely well for smart users of these online sites. I know a friend that get clients for the services he renders through advertising on Facebook via his timeline and on a group he created. He makes cool cash by offering his services to his fellow social media users and makes cool cash out of it. So, I am of the opinion that social media advertisements remain the cheapest and easier way for sellers of products to market their goods as well as those that offer services.
Social media is definitely one of the best and most useful and efficient ways to promote your business as you can reach a very wide audience.
