Steady marketing keeps customers coming

Marketing campaigns are a great way to ramp up interest in your business, but after the initial push it’s essential to maintain the momentum by keeping your marketing constant. The good news is you can do this even with a tiny marketing budget if you’re prepared to invest some time: the less money you have to spend, the more time you need to spend.

The trick with marketing is the strategic investment of what time and money you have. For example, you may not be able to afford an effective LinkedIn advertising strategy, but you can invest time in a LinkedIn sales strategy where you reach out to potential customers one-by-one with personalised messages. This of course requires a fair bit of research to make sure you target the right people with the right message at the right time, but doing this makes it more effective.

In fact, getting personal (but not too personal!) is a great way to maintain authenticity and keep your marketing targeted. Consider these tactics to keep you top of customers’ minds:

Warm calls: Warm calls, where you already have a relationship with a client, are a really easy way to stay in touch. Schedule follow-up calls or reminders when clients need to restock or take next steps, and your customers will thank you for being organised on their behalf. It’s also nice for them to know someone else is looking out for their business.

Relevant content and communication: Ensure your clients receive constant communication and helpful advice so that you are never too far from their thoughts. Blogs, social media and newsletters that offer solutions are a good start—don’t just try to sell them something, engage them!

Incentivise regular buying: Use vouchers and customer referral incentives to turn one-time customers into repeat customers. You can adjust the cycle with expiry dates. Short-term offers can give sales a quick boost, but longer expiry dates tend to turn customers loyal.

Passive and indirect marketing: Continuous active marketing, no matter how low-level, can be tiring so don’t forget you can throw some passive and indirect marketing into the mix to help you along.

One way you can foster goodwill and extend your reach is by collaborating with other businesses that complement yours. If you’re a plumber, for example, team up with other services like electricians, tilers, handyperson services and even arborists. Be sure to identify businesses you trust because your name will be associated with theirs.

Collectively you can form a strategic alliance and build a referral system for each other. This could involve:

• • Referral discounts for each other’s customers.
• • Writing guest posts for each other’s blogs or newsletters on related topics; for example, the plumber might write about how trees can affect pipes and roofs for the arborist.
• • Offering vouchers for each other’s businesses in gift or info packs.

And don’t forget small budgets can be overcome with good planning and strategic investments of time by using other low-cost and free marketing tools such as social media, networking and speaking opportunities to maintain interest in between more formal campaigns.