When it comes to small business promotion ideas, there’s many ways to market a product or service. Common ways include – advertising, personal selling, sales promotions, public relations, direct marketing, and mass marketing. My first promotion idea for my building repair company involved personal selling.

It started with going to every property management group in Hawaii (called the Big Island) targeting my services to brokers using  informational brochures. From there, we offered free training seminars to their property managers called ‘spotting red flags in Hawaii’s homes”. Then we ran advertisements in many of the larger companies sponsorship programs.

These times of contact encouraged a relationship between property managers and our company. Once established as a quality service provider, we moved to the broader home repair market through more indirect mass marketing  efforts. My ability to make a great marketing first impression, was key to building trust with these realtors. Honestly, I loved the marketing aspect of running companies, but realize many don’t share my enthusiasm. For those, here’s a useful list of ideas.

Small business promotion ideas: 15 ways to promote your company

1. Content is king – Be the best on all promotional material.
2. Website – Focus on your strengths. Make it easy to navigate with enough information to answer potential questions. WordPress is probably the easiest way to start, and it’s free.
3. Become the expert – Create helpful instructional pamphlets/videos online. Promote free training events for people in your industry. Request to be a speaker at civic clubs or anywhere people are interested in what you have to offer.
4. Experiment with different social networks – Facebook, Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn etc. all have inexpensive ways to advertise or promote material.
5. Set-up Trade Show Booths – Not just with information. Make it memorable by holding contests, demonstrations, raffle off services, and free giveaways (everyone likes free food and drinks).
6. Sponsorship – Join and be a paid sponsor for clubs and organizations serving your industry. Also volunteer for various committees and offer your services.
7. Develop a customer referral program – Make it worth their while. Don’t be cheap.
8. Make catchy promotional material – Things like DIY info-graphics, posters, flyers, brochures, training packages and other informational giveaways.
9. Refresh old data –  Keep all marketing/sales events up to date. Reusing old material just makes us look dated and cheap.
10. Business Cards –  We all get too many ugly cards already. So, Be Creative Please!
11. Be Constant and Consistent – If Coke, Nike and Visa have to, so do we.
12. Host an event – Big or small it doesn’t matter. Even small thank you events for customers goes a long way.
13. Host a business card drawing – Keep all the data from the cards. Then contact them all and have a big event if possible. If not, the data can help with other marketing efforts.
14. Your Vehicle – Putting a nice logo or sign on your vehicle is probably the cheapest way to get exposure.
15. Stay visible – You are your company. Being physically out there makes you accessible, reachable and memorable.

These small business promotion ideas are just a start. The key is knowing your market, being creative and staying within budget.

For more information join us at Small Business Marketing Plans: Where to Start.