Many businesses go through quiet periods. While it can be unsettling, a quiet period gives you the opportunity to do things you wouldn’t normally have the time for. This is especially true right now while we’re in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. With pretty much all non-essential workers quarantined at home across most of the globe, many business are experiencing quiet periods by default.

For a small business, marketing can fall by the wayside. This is especially true if there isn’t a dedicated marketing person in the team. But with a bit of downtime, there’s a fantastic opportunity to market your business and drum up some interest. Your business still needs to sell, no matter what else is going on in the economy!

There are a lot of creative ways you can promote your business. Take a look at the following suggestions and step up your marketing game.

Creative Ways to Promote Your Business

Start a blog

A business blog is a fantastic way to promote your business. On the surface, it gives your customers or clients some useful content that’s relevant to your business. Behind the scenes, a blog is a good way to boost your SEO. Publishing new, useful content on a consistent basis can help to push your website to the top of search rankings and promoting your business even further.

Need some help getting started? Here are some great tips to help you start a business blog today.

Host a giveaway

A giveaway is a fantastic, easy solution for getting people interested in your business and increase your online following. Your giveaway could be cash or a gift voucher, product, services or something else, just be sure it’s exciting. While there is a cost attached to a giveaway, it can be an easy win when you need to push your business to others.

Instagram is a great place to host a giveaway, allowing you to build up followers and share some creative content via your posts and stories. You can even put a bit of money behind your giveaway to help widen your reach and generate even more interest in your business.

Promote your business with an Instagram giveaway! Build up followers and share some creative content in the process. Click To Tweet

Experiment with video

Video is a popular way to reach people online, and if you can think of some creative ideas, you could really engage with your audience. You don’t need a degree in video production to create high-quality video content. Provided you’ve got a phone with a good camera, plenty of light and great sound; you’re part of the way there. Adobe Spark is a great tool to edit your videos, add graphics and text and more, and you can find great tips for using Adobe Spark straight away.

Monitor the performance of your videos to see what resonates with your followers – giving them the content they enjoy will encourage them to share it, helping to expose your business to even more people.

Promotional freebies are a winner

Promotional freebies can be a simple and creative way to spread the word about your business. Choose a fun product that will help people to remember you. What about some custom branded socks? Giveaways can be included as a freebie with an order, or handed out during events, etc. And yes, you can giveaway freebies during a virtual event as well! Freebies can be a fun way to shout about your business! The quirkier your product, the more of a splash you’ll make.

 

Work with influencers

Influencers are being used more and more by businesses to promote their products and services. It’s cost-effective, and lets you choose partners who are relevant to your business. You can make the most of their audiences to stand a better chance of piquing their interest. Influencer marketing is effective for developing a local following, and could bring a significant return on investment for your business.

Share a good news story

People love some positive news, especially in times of gloom and doom. If you have some good news to share, why not do it? Bring some positivity to people’s day and they’ll recognize your company for all of the right reasons. Whether you’ve done some work for a charity or good cause, or you’ve got some uplifting news stories from your employers, share them and spread the positive vibes.

Content idea: Share a good news story. Bring some positivity to people’s day and they’ll recognize your company for all of the right reasons. Click To Tweet

Get your followers involved

Creating a successful social media campaign involves engaging with your followers and creating content they can relate and react to. Why not get them involved? Get  some participation by asking them to share content and photos, tag your business in their stories or even asking questions can give your followers a reason to participate. Stories are a particularly effective way of getting your followers engaged, so why not create some polls or quizzes and give them an action to complete?

Film some tutorials

High-quality written content is valuable to your business, but more and more people want to watch videos to help broaden their knowledge. Creating some video tutorials for YouTube, Instagram, etc. can help people get to know more about your business while also teaching them something valuable. Use the platforms as a way to introduce your products and how to use them – they could be more valuable than you realize. Remember that YouTube also has live-streaming capabilities. Turning your videos into live events could be another creative way to generate some interest in your business.

Use video tutorials on social media as a way to introduce your products and how to use them - they could be more valuable than you realize. Click To Tweet

Partner up

Partnering up with other businesses can be a highly effective way of growing your own. You’ll get the opportunity to work with others and benefit from their networks, while helping other businesses to grow too. Partnership marketing is ideal for businesses in related industries, as well as those within your local area. Brand collaborations can happen online through social media, or even at events and other local opportunities. Make contact with other brands and outline your proposal. You never know who’ll jump at the chance to grow their business too.

Use personal gifts carefully

If you’ve built a personal connection with someone, then it can be absolutely appropriate to give them a personal gift.  In the business world, however, this does need to be done with a bit of care.

High-value gifts are best avoided since they can be misconstrued as bribes (by authorities, if not by the recipient).  The good news is that lower-value gifts can be even more effective as long as they’re well chosen.  Basically, you want a gift that means something to the recipient while also representing your company.

Often your best option here is to choose small items, especially practical ones, and have them customized and/or personalized in some way.  If the recipient lives overseas, it may be best to have a local company do this.  For example, in Australia, you could use pinfactory.com.au.

 

Growing your business can take time, and it’s rarely something that happens overnight. By brainstorming some ideas and trying some new things, you could soon find yourself with a solid marketing strategy to take your business forward. There are plenty of low-cost marketing ideas that will make promotion easy for even the smallest of businesses. Use these ideas to help you enjoy the growth you’ve been looking for. Be clever with your marketing strategy today to give your business the boost it needs.

Ciao,
Miss Kemya