For every business owner, it is part of any strategic marketing plan to start with a budget. For most of us who are small business owners, it can be frightfully minimal. Technology has become a blessing, as well as a curse, for inexpensive marketing strategies. Are you staying on top of what is readily available and free? Are you utilizing your current client database for referrals? Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Snapchat all have creative smartphone and online resources that make creating professional-looking advertisements free of charge. Have you utilized your staff so that everyone is engaged in posting multiple times a day for constant visibility? Sharing and posting advertisements for giveaways and discounts you may be offering will create more volume. Of course, there is always a method to the madness within social media marketing; so, have a meeting with the staff and talk to them. Open up to them and be engaged; sometimes, your staff can hold the keys to what others pay thousands of dollars for in specialized assistance. You may have a social media guru right at your own front desk! You will never know unless you ask.

Another inexpensive resource is e-mail marketing through Constant Contact or MailChimp. Utilize PayPal to accept payments directly through your e-mail blast to generate sales, even while your doors are closed. It is a very simple process to add a “buy now” button underneath advertised specials that will provide immediate revenue. Ask clients to share the e-mail with friends for bonus discounts to not only increase the revenue, but to also add new clients to your database.

Make marketing fun and more of a group activity within your staff with sales incentives. The purpose is to create a more positive selling environment! Now is the time to begin your holiday marketing plan – plant the seeds of new treatments to repair the damage done during the hot summer months and to prepare for the cold weather ahead.

Michelle R. De Leon
AIA Ambassador