Low on cash and experience, small business owners often find marketing a challenge.
So what can they do on a shoestring budget, and what’s the most
effective approach?
These questions were put to a panel of experts and
entrepreneurs at a Telegraph Small Business Connect seminar about SME
branding and marketing on Wednesday.
For Raja Saggi, head of SME marketing at Google,
the best approach for keeping costs low is to keep things simple –
don’t try to be the biggest, flashiest or best. Use drag-and-drop
template tools such as Wix or Moonfruit for your website, which start at just a few pounds a month, he said.
Also on the panel was Kelvin Golding, small business ambassador for the Chartered Institute of Marketing,
who outlined a low-cost approach known as referral marketing and
advised SME owners to encourage their customers to shout about how great
their shop or service is. “Encourage them to do reviews on websites
such as Google Reviews and Tripadvisor,” he said.
He also advised SMEs to think about the search terms people use
online to find products and services similar to what they offer. Use an
online keyword analyser, such as Google Trends,
to find the relevant words and phrases, which you can use on your
website pages and blog posts to improve SEO (search engine
optimisation).
Alice Mayor, founder of souvenir store, We Built This City, said that Instagram
was a particularly useful – and free – tool for marketing her business.
Customers getting in touch after seeing products featured on the
company's Instagram page helped drive sales by as much as £20,000 early
on.
“We didn’t have any money for a proper shoot, so we tried to take the
best shots we could in store,” she said. “On Instagram, everything has
to be visually stimulating, and humour is key.
"Even if it’s just a product, it’s all about describing it with
personality, which helps build a good rapport with your audience.”
Mr Golding agreed that how you talk about your company is just as
important as what you say about it. Formal or informal, speak to your
customers in a tone of voice that they’re familiar with, he explained.
And if you don’t know what that is, ask them, he said. Pose the
question: “do you like or dislike our tone of voice?”
“If you have a unique product and want to appear professional, you
can easily end up explaining it with jargon,” added Mr Saggi, who
advised business owners to avoid inaccessible terminology and keep
descriptions short and simple.
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