Often large multinationals spend millions of dollars to launch a product and promote it- hiring celebrities, buying prime ad slots on television broadcasting , sponsoring wide scale events,etc. – overall a huge cost exercise. But can a small player afford to spend such amount of money since it has limited resources at its disposal? This question was asked by one of my blog readers as how marketing can be done at minimum cost. The following article will try to suggest a few ways in which it can be done.
Suppose you are the small player “s”( it is small S and not capital S) in the market “M”, with limited resources “l” and with the liquidity crunch you face, it is almost impossible for you to allot a big budget for marketing- so how will you reach a wider audience? You know you have a great product, but how to tell others about it?
There are some simple small ways in which you can do it:
1. Build a good interactive website – With the internet, having your presence on the world wide web is a necessity. It doesn’t cost much to build a good website. Keep your message short and simple and display your entire product range.
2. Social networking sites- So you just made a great website, is it enough? Absolutely not. Social networks like Facebook,twitter,orkut,ning,linkedin, etc. provide a great platform to you for promoting your product.You not only reach the who’s who in the planet since almost everyone can be found here, you also do it for free![ Bulk sms and emails are better not done, since they tend to ignore people more and reduce your brand value]
3. Newspapers- From internet to newspapers, sounds like a big jump in technology- but this form of media still remains the only source of media for more than half of the globe’s population. So don’t ignore it. Distribution of pamphlets is another effective way especially when targeting the mass market.[Regarding television ads they are too expensive for prime slots and it isn’t generally worth the cost when displaying in low audience slots since conversion to sales probability is less]
4. Radio music station- The target slot for this should be the evening slot when people are returning from office. They are more relaxed and definitely will listen carefully (and hopefully will remember it as well). Use great punch lines since what you say here will only lead to sales.
5. Sponsor a community service/local event – Yes you can’t sponsor a great world sporting event because of lack of funds, but you can definitely sponsor this Sunday’s local church service. The local football club needs new jerseys for the regional tournament, this is your big opportunity to jump into the arena and help them out. The amount of goodwill this generates in the local community about your company and its products is noteworthy and word of mouth marketing follows. In fact Mrs. Smith just called up her cousin in Alaska and mentioned about your company during the conversation.
6. Build a great customer care & after sales service- This is the most important reason why people have brand loyalties. Treat your customers well and with a personal touch both before and after sales. Always remember it is more expensive to promote your products to new customers than to retain the old customers. First retain your customers then head for expansion.In fact your loyal customers will tell their friends to try your product.
And lastly but not the least, build a great product! Then every form of marketing, economical or extravagant, will be a successful campaign!
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