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Last Updated on August 15, 2021 by Work In My Pajamas
Working from home can be the ultimate freedom. You set your own hours and workflow. In many cases, you can work from anywhere in the world. That beats a 9-5 job any time.
When you’re first starting out, it’s challenging because you need a steady stream of clients to pay the bills and put food on the table. That’s when reality sets in.
You don’t have an advertising budget and on some days, you don’t know how you’re going to make ends meet. It’s a common dilemma for entrepreneurs.
Keep reading to learn the top small business promotion tips to get a steady stream of customers without busting your budget.
In This Post:
1. Your Elevator Pitch
Your elevator pitch if the foundation for all of your marketing. It tells people what you do, who you do it for, and why someone should care.
When you’re out talking about your business, you have to be able to convey all of those things in 1-2 sentences. It’s important to get it right. Make sure you have your elevator pitch down before you start to heavily promote your business.
2. Networking
Let’s face it, working from home can get lonely sometimes, even when things are going smashingly well. Networking offers a great opportunity to connect with other entrepreneurs and build your business. It also gives you an excuse to get out of the house and connect with other people in person!
It can be a real lifesaver on some days to get a little sanity. It can also help you build your business and gives you a chance to practice your elevator pitch.
You can network with people online, too. There are usually networking groups online in Facebook groups or Slack.
In-person networking groups are easy to find. Meetup will usually have a list of free or low-cost events to attend. Your local chamber of commerce is another affordable group to connect with and build your business.
3. Get Your Website Up
This seems obvious but you’d be surprised to know that almost half of small businesses don’t have a website. If you’re going to do any of the small business promotion tips listed here, online or offline, they’re going to lead to your website.
If you don’t have a website, then your business doesn’t exist in the minds of many consumers.
4. Referral Partners
Are there people who work in different industries but target the same audience? For example, you might be a fitness coach who works from home. Other people who provide similar services but isn’t direct competition are massage therapists, chiropractors, nutritionists, and registered dieticians.
Look at your business and think about who you can partner with to promote each other and refer business to each other. It could be other bloggers or experts.
5. Social Media
Social media is one of the first places that people who work from home will go to in order to build their business. The good thing about social media is that you can create a real community of people around your business.
There’s a lot to learn about social media for business, and you can start to learn more here.
6. Blogging
If blogging isn’t your core business, you can start blogging to build your business. It is an effective small business promotion tool because you can use it as the main driver of traffic.
Your blog can be posted on your social media channels, and it can increase your chances of being found in search results.
7. SEO
Search engine optimization should be a small business promotion idea that’s at the top of your list. The reason why is that the traffic that comes from SEO has a higher conversion rate and they spend more time on your website.
When someone comes to your site from SEO, they are looking to solve a very specific problem. They’ll go to your website to find the answer.
8 Public Speaking
Don’t break out into a cold sweat thinking about public speaking. It’s a great way to show your expertise and build your credibility for your business.
There are organizations like networking events, or chambers of commerce are always looking for dynamic speakers to share information. Reach out to them and let them know what you can offer.
9. Be a Great Guest
Blogs and podcasts are looking for experts to fill their gaps in content. This presents a great opportunity to build your expertise beyond a local audience.
When you reach out to blogs and podcasts, know that they get requests from all over. You have to be clear about your expertise and explain what their listeners or readers would get from your expertise.
10. Be Patient and Consistent
The biggest mistake that many freelancers make in their promotions is that they’ll try something for a couple of weeks, not see an increase in sales. They’ll decide right then and there that what they’re doing isn’t working, give up, and move on to the next small business promotion idea.
With enough time, they’ll feel like they’re out of options, feel frustrated and burned out.
You have to commit to more than two weeks in any of these ideas in order to see results. It takes time, consistency, and patience. Pick one of these tips and take daily action for 90 days. When the 90 days are up, look and see what kind of results you have. You should see some increase in your sales activity.
Work from Home? Get More Clients with These Small Business Promotion Tips
Working from is a double-edged sword. It offers a lot of freedom and flexibility that others would only dream of. Yet, there’s little security in that you don’t have a steady income unless you get a steady stream of customers.
You can change all of that by being smart when it comes to small business promotion. When you use these cost-effective tips consistently, you will see results. The key is to be patient.
Ready to get started? Check out this guide that tells you how to run a contest or giveaway promotion.
