Marketing term stands all communication that goes on between company and its consumer base. Unlike interpersonal communication that’s been regulated by Etiquette for the last few centuries, marketing is very dynamic field and it’s deeply influenced by new trends and consumer behavior. Many small businesses fail because they are following the old ‘Selling’ marketing approach. They often exclude customer orientation and other important principles of holistic marketing, which makes their strategies inefficient in Digital Age.
Although marketing field changes as we speak, there are some efficient tactics that have been in use for several decades and that are still highly relevant. In this article we are going to review 8 free marketing tactics and describe how they can fit into marketing strategies of small business entrepreneurs, who don’t have enough funds for organizing expensive campaigns.
- Cold call – Today’s marketers consider cold calls as a dirty baggage from the nineties, which got completely debunked after The Wolf of Wall Street This is partially true, but oddly enough cold call still works for many different niches and the only parameter of its success is the attractiveness of the offer callers make.
- Newsletter – Different marketing experts have been proclaiming the death of e mail marketing for some time now, but this tactic always comes back stronger. Today most people have smart phones, which means they are reading their e mails when being bored. Most e mail apps also come with push-notifications, which means that good quality newsletter will instantly find its way to consumer’s phone display.
- Coupons – Extreme Couponing is still running on TLC, which means that this marketing tactic is highly relevant. Of course TV show’s main protagonists aren’t model customers, but there are many other consumers who use coupons in a regular way. Today, local newspaper’s coupons are being replaced with online coupons your customers receive on check out page or by e mail. This means that you can achieve the same promotional effect, without any printing investments.
- Murals – This ancient guerilla marketing tactic is still relevant, especially on crowded commercial strips and around big shopping malls.
- Jingles – We all thought that commercial jingles will disappear, the moment when television becomes outdated. Television days are numbered, but jingles are still very relevant due to increased popularity of online videos. It looks like their popularity is growing by the day, especially after both Facebook and Twitter decided to introduce auto-play feature to their news feeds. Since advanced video technology is widely available, we can easily make jingles for free and used them to win over new customers.
- Complimentary consultations – This marketing tactic has been around since 19 century and it is still very relevant. King C. Gillette developed freebie marketing. He was promoting blades by giving out complimentary razors and since then this type of advertising is also called blade and razor marketing model. Since most small business entrepreneurs want to decrease marketing costs they can follow freebie marketing concept by giving complimentary advices or consultations, since these services don’t require any initial investments.
- Posting on Facebook groups – Most entrepreneurs direct all of their promotional tactics to their company’s Facebook page. Facebook groups are still popular form of communication between consumers. Community managers from the top social media agency from Sydney stated that sharing your (relevant) content in Facebook groups can drastically increase its reach.
- Internet forum marketing – Although social networks replaced internet forums, these types of message boards still exist and they are mainly used for finding information about niche-specific topics. Forums also have huge marketing potential, but due to strict Codes of Conduct marketers need to blend in these online communities before they start promoting their company.
Since Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google are slowly narrowing free advertising possibilities, small business marketers often need to use old promotional techniques in order to reach their consumers. Reinventing these free promotional techniques will benefit your marketing strategy and create a strong and loyal consumer base around your brand.