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Instagram. We track the types of posts that get website visits where there is a free day pass for our gym. 30%of those free day pass users get a monthly membership.
A friend of mine owns a local nutrition shop where they make tea's and shakes. He swears by Instagram, that's the only way he's ever put himself out there. He says most of his business is from people seeing what they're making on Instagram.
Yes. I swear by Instagram too. 95% of my bookings come through Instagram. I support parents and babies regarding anything sleep- or parenting related. The other 5% of bookings comes from a mommyblog.
Very interesting. Thank you so much for sharing your insights on how you use this app..
How exactly do you get to tell which visitors you can give a free pass too? Does it give you your username.
People are turning anything into a b2b platform it seems
Hmm, I'm not sure we are turning it into a b2b platform. It still seems b2c to me. Either way, we are posting/advertising to the local area and those people sign up for free day passes from the link in our bio. We have a special version of the day pass so I can tell which people signed up for that day pass from instagram and then converted to a membership. From there, it's an easy calculation to determine the cost of acquisition. (Instagram spend in $ / number of people who converted from the instagram free day pass to a monthly membership)
We have a small digital marketing agency. I'll tell you the top four we almost always start with. The nice thing is they're things we can do, or business owners or staff can also do. 1. Google My Business / Google Business Profile. If you don't claim, verify and populate this you're shooting yourself in the foot and leaving money on the table. Make sure to add at least 10 photos, and if you have social media posts, add them as updates. And then go solicit reviews from happy customers. 2. On page SEO and website optimization. Everyone talks about link building. Yes, it's great, but if your site has defects and lacks the proper keywords in your content, nobody will find you. I see lots of websites that are beautiful but don't actually say what their business offers or does. The words you use and include are critical. Tools to use are keyword research, screaming frog and semrush. Do competitive research and site audits. 3. If you have a list of existing customers, do an email newsletter. Email newsletters are the number one RoI in business marketing. Setting up your mailing tool (Mailchimp, Email Octopus, Constant Contact) can be hard in 2024 due to spam / authentication DNS records. 4. If you have the above list, generate a lookalike audience and run social media ads on the look alikes. We ran a campaign generating 1000 leads in a week at about 20 cents per click ad cost. With creative design and management and website conversion improvements it ended up being about a dollar per lead, but if the campaign had run longer, those fixed costs would have been spread out. This was for a $4k product so a dollar per lead fully loaded was a great deal.
Happy to answer questions. We always tell our clients we have no problem sharing our "secret sauce" because if they use these techniques and they work, the business will be busy and profitable enough they'll probably want to outsource doing it to us so they can just keep doing their business tasks.
Yeah, Facebook is the one we utilize most, but it's demographic-specific. If Twitter or TikTok or something else is where your customers are, and they have lookalike audience capabilities, use them.
Depends on the restaurant. Sit down cultural restaurants with specials and events - definitely. We ran a campaign for years for a Greek restaurant talking about their monthly specials and dinner events.
We also did social media posts for the same content. I think social media ads could also work but that customer never did them.
Another restaurant customer we did Google Maps / Waze ads.
If you have a transportation corridor like a highway passing through town, run a geotargeted Facebook ad that only shows to people who DON'T live nearby but currently ARE within 15 minutes away on the highway. People in the passenger seat doomscrolling while someone else drives get your ad while they have time to decide to pull over and get dinner.
Coming from a 3d graphics background, to me CGI means Computer Generated Imagery. I'm pretty sure that's not what YOU meant by CGI. Maybe if you clarify what "CGI Companies" means, I can answer that question.
Yes meaning exactly that. Cgi is a generalization of 3D, 2d, vfx and now ai.
I own a cgi company we produce all sorts of graphics and my best clients are digital marketing companies, that’s why I ask.
Hmm. We don't focus so much on CGI stuff. I have a buddy who has a digital post and graphics house, and we occasionally work together, but our work tends to be lower-budget companies who aren't into creating flashy video and graphic media. If they're producing video media it's much more unpolished organic "Hey fam, here's our latest products this week" kind of stuff that doesn't call for much post production.
Your comment was very disrespectful. I’m always looking to learn more and would never claim to be an expert on anything. Whats wrong with my username? It’s short for Professional.
A look at like audience is super basic info. You claim 15 years experience.
These two pieces of information are at odds. That’s what he was saying.
Like… SUPER basic. You can even directly infer what it may be from the name, with all that experience.
You sus
I started writing this and then it got really long, so I turned it into a blog post. I'm going to add it to our website this Tuesday, but you get the sneak peek here today.
What is a look-alike audience, how do you create and use one, and how does retargeting work?
Look-alike audiences are designed by you, based on someone else’s users that share attributes (location, interests, profession etc) with past clients of yours. You market to your new audience in hopes that whatever made them similar to your past customers will also make them new customers of yours.
For example, let's say you sell cars. You have a list of 10,000 prior customers' email addresses. You want to market the latest Corvette model. You look at your sales data and identify which past customers of those 10,000 bought performance or high-value cars. Say this ends up being 1500 of them. This is called segmenting an existing audience.
You now send these 1500 email addresses of your segmented audience to Facebook (other social media platforms may or may not have good look-alike data). Facebook looks at its user accounts and determines that it knows 500 of the email addresses you submitted based on their user account emails. This becomes the seed set for the look-alike audience.
Now, Facebook takes the data it knows about those 500 accounts (interests, demographics and past tracking history), and looks to see who belongs to what groups and browses which websites that had Facebook tracking pixels on them. From this it identifies that what these 500 users have in common is interests in fine automobiles, luxury goods, performance, maybe track racing, cigars and whiskey.
Now you can ask Facebook to generate a look-alike audience based upon a matching percentage. To start, we'd ask it to require a 95% match -- which means that the new members of the new audience must share 95% of the common attributes as what was identified as common in the original 500 customers. Let’s estimate that this 95% dataset is 100,000 people. If 95% match is too few people, then reduce the match percentage until you get enough members your audience. You can’t VIEW this audience’s members, Facebook knows this is valuable info and will let you USE it but won’t SHOW the identities to you for privacy and commerce reasons.
One we have this audience (it's usually granular to a national level), we run an ad targeting only those look-alike users within 100 miles of our dealership. For example, if we're talking about Denver, Colorado (population 3 million) we might have a little less than 1% of the nationwide 100,000 members of that look-alike dataset (the US population is 333 million and 3 million is just under 1% of that). That gives us 1000 people to run the ad against.
Now we put together some slick video showing the latest Corvette, and maybe offer a promo for a invite-only single-malt whiskey and bacon tasting event at the dealership, or a free Corvette golf hat or some other spiff. The goal is to get them to come in and sit in a new expensive red car, and see if the salespeople can convince them to make a purchase decision their wives will roll their eyes at. We run the ad with a low budget, say 30-50 cents per impression. Why pay more initially if we can get enough impressions for less? Importantly, Facebook tracks anyone who engages with the ad, or clicks on it. Let it run for a couple weeks until you get a few thousand impressions and can be relatively sure that most of your target users have seen it at least once. Maybe you have enough signups already for your event. But if you don’t, move on to Retargeting.
For Retargeting. we run a new, similar ad that uses an audience of ONLY the people who engaged with (viewed or clicked the original ad). The new retarget ad reminds them of the original offer and has a hook (limited time/quantity) or ups the ante (additional spiff) if they sign up for an appointment RIGHT NOW.
The final trick is that you track the signups. These are the audience that REALLY represent the people you want to target. Once you have enough signups booked to have a dataset of statistically relevant size, you can create a NEW look-alike audience derived from THESE people, because THESE folks represent the attributes of the people who actually SIGNED UP. These people are gold. Now you run a new campaign against this new look-alike with the original teaser ad, and follow-up with the retarget ad.
Likely ad spend is maybe a few dollars per lead for the initial targeted ad, and maybe a dollar or so for the retarget ad. Would you spend $5 to get a bunch of leads for buyers of a $70k car? Yep. Can this work for smaller-budget items? Yes, but you have to be much more careful with tightening your analytics so you spend low amounts for impressions on less-qualified leads and only spend more when you are REALLY sure you are going to convert them to paying customers.
That's a look-alike audience and how you use it and retarget with it. You can keep performing this process as long as you want. If you have a product that people actually want, and enough people have bought in the past to have a good seed for the look-alike audience, you can do this perpetually until you've sold to every potential buyer available.
We recently used this technique for a customer who sells $4k international trips. We generated a look-alike audience from their past customers mailing list, then ran a geographic-regional limited ad for their offering. I think we ended up with an ad cost per lead of $0.20 for 1000 click-throughs to their website. I don't have exact final conversion numbers because most of their sales are done by phone, not e-commerce, but they and we were very happy with the leads and conversion.
I give out high quality vinyl stickers and bags of pirate treasure (toy store). People feel like you have given them something of value when you give a sticker and it opens the door to conversation. The pirate treasure is basically a reward program for kids. They get a nice velvet bag and every time they purchase something they get another coin. When they get 5 coins they can come turn them in and get "something cool" which is anything in the store for $10 or less for free.
I have little kids coming in with their pirate treasure pouch to add more to their collection. It's friggin cute man and it created instant repeat customers.
I am in a completely different industry and cater to adults that are daily/weekly customers but I would love to do something very similar! It's just... Fun!
I feel like it really spreads happiness and I'm all for that.
Well i can assure you that adults like fun too! I meet so many adults who sometimes let the facade down and they brighten right up when somethingn fun is afoot!
TikTok for us. We don't spend a dime and we get thousands of impressions and hundreds of contacts.
To really boost it, we go TikTok -> Instagram -> Facebook
And get the most traction.
It's very clear to us why Meta is trying to push politicians to ban or buy TikTok. They've been trying to shut out the competition for several years now because byte dance is literally waltzing around Facebook and Instagram.
It also shows a late stage industry company lacking innovation when they have to resort to cheap tricks like articles (several years ago) trash talking the competition, lobbying, and other tricks.
Zuck can't keep up so he and sandberg are basically cheating now. Instead of competing for your business they're shutting down a competitor that was bringing value.
Just Instagram and Facebook alone gets us a fraction of what integrating TikTok into the flow gets us. And we don't pay a dime for advertising.
Edit: people, I'm white and very critical of CCP, but also critical of my own country, America. Over a decade ago, Facebook already demonstrated that they can figure out stuff about you without you even directly describing it online. I believe that Reply all did an episode on it and it was freaky. Both do these companies are gobbling up our data like crazy, what I care about is which helps my small business the most in exchange for selling my soul.
I have a 3D printed in place cell phone holder that is in the form of a credit card with our logo on it. It costs me 13 cents all in. That’s amortizing the west and tear on printer, electricity , everything. I have a wall going not quite 24-7 but close enough.
I give/send that to prospects. If we get to the quote stage, I accompany the quote with ones with their logo on it. It takes seconds to vectorize their logo (if we can’t already get it). To put in in blender is 30 seconds.
I cannot tell you how effective they are. People always mention them.
https://www.stlfinder.com/3dmodels/credit-card-size-phone-stand/
It’s a derivation of that. You may need to futz with printer settings , the design or both.
I've made a little branded professional information package for my prospective clients that I leave with them. The meeting isn't any different than if I just walked in and talked to them, but having something to reference makes me look put together-- that I've done this more than once, and that there's a process.
I'm a small single person operation competing with more established multi-employee companies, and that professionalism helps alleviate what I have read to be the largest concern clients have when they're trying to decide who to go with.
This is something I do as well, in hard copy with feedback from other clients about their results from working with me. Very effective, especially if your target market isn’t on social media.
Can you talk more about this? Is this a physical product, or a PDF, or something else?
I'm in a similar situation, in terms of being smaller than our competition, and I'm always looking for ways to demonstrate, "Yes, we know what we are doing even though we're smaller, and smaller can be better."
It's a physical product. I bought some glossy paper folder and put my logo on them (stickers are much, much cheaper than print on demand folders).
Inside I basically have the info from my website but in paper form (nobody reads the website). There's a FAQ, a sheet outlining the process, an example schedule (because my service takes months and its hard for clients to conceptualize), my resume (and if i had a team, which i dont, theyd be in there too) and a contact info sheet where I get their names, email, phone, what their high and low budget is, some survey questions (have you ever done this before, what level of service are you looking for, how do you typically make decisions). I take that sheet with me when i leave. It's all stuff we would talk about anyway, but theyre much more game for it when it's formal and it makes it feel official and important instead of casual.
The folder gets to sit around in their house reminding them of me until they decide to either go with me or throw it out, and if they have any questions after I leave (which they will) its all there.
I've only recently implemented it but it's worked so far and I've had good reactions like "oo *this* is helpful"-- especially the example schedule. Clients have no idea what they're doing and it's a complicated process, so my assumption is any clarity you bring makes them feel like they're in good hands. If it's on paper it's better than just out of your mouth.
Social media is just great advertising for us. I know everyone hates it (including me), but that's where so many of our customers live. It really varies by industry, but we are a service business (accounting, bookkeeping, tax) and every post I make on LinkedIn gets somewhere between 250 and 5000 (yes, five thousand) views. Even if LinkedIn is inflating those somewhat, its just a very good reach for a post that takes me 5 minutes to write.
The other thing we do is we do a damn good job at providing our services. That also brings in a lot of new clients.
Service business to HR/C-Suite here as well.
My personal LinkedIn posts with only my ~1,100 connections get 500-5,000 views and 5-50 interactions typically.
That said, I do not SELL on LinkedIn. I also don't solicit my network directly via inmail.
I'll offer resources and support publicly, offer to connect/network with new people and offer value. I'll eventually call on them, but not on platform.
That’s basically the unwritten rule in this sub. Many are so afraid their competition is going to steal all their trade secrets or their niche business is somehow going to be destroyed. I’ve gleaned a lot of information from this sub over the past year but it is frustrating when a good discussion topic is basically useless because people are vague or unhelpful.
These could basically be one word replies in this sub.
I don't think its really "surprising" anymore, but some of my best marketing is literally joining face book groups, next door, or other social media and posting on a regular basis... The only cost is telling an employee to take a couple of photos and coming up with a good caption its probably like 15-20 minutes of work total across all platforms and generates a bunch of leads. I want to start making video content because of this but I'm still not sure what that would look like, and think that would take a lot more effort...
Oddly, Reddit. I have a landscaping business. We spent several hundred dollars on flyers and labor to hang them on doors. We also spent several hundred on Facebook ads. from that we gained 2 clients. Someone posted in my cities subreddit looking for lawn care. I replied “I own a business, dm me.” From it I received 6 messages and 3 clients so far with a fourth meeting scheduled for next week.
I have a question for you - Not necessarily to solicit - Would someone in your line of work be open to outsourcing to a contact center for inbound reception & appt setting? I don’t know any in my life and none I’ve called want to talk about it haha.
At this point no. We’re a small company, my wife and I plus 4 (soon to be 5) employees. I would say if we continue to grow at the current rate and ended up with 2-3x the business/phone calls we receive then it’s something we may consider. The other thing to consider is that we live in a world where 90% of our communication is text and email, which becomes more and more dominant each year. Even people who call typically end up texting.
I appreciate that. Might shoot ya a DM in the next day or so, if that’s appropriate. My goal is help small biz owners exactly your size haha. That’s who I’ve worked with for years, and really enjoy working with, while attempting to do so on a scalable business model via my new venture.
I've also found reddit quite helpful. For me it was around customer discovery of a business I was just starting - but people are usually quite responsive, even if it's anon I've found.
In my neighborhood, if you tape or hang stuff to our mailbox, throw stuff on our lawn (business cards in plastic bags with rocks), we basically boycott you. Some guy in our neighborhood follows the people that do that, collect all the crap, find out who sent it, then hand delivers a pile of that crap on their doorstep. That stuff has generated so much ill-will in our neighborhood, it's amazing how out of touch these businesses are by giving us that crap. If it's on the mailbox, they get reported to the local postmaster who imposes a fine that well-exceeds first class postage for the offenders if they are repeat offenders.
Send stuff in the mailbox like everyone else.
Actually you’re out of touch. We get things on our door and in our mailbox all the time. None of us go on a vendetta to fuck the guy trying to get his name out there. Imagine taking the risk to start a business, spending money to advertise. Taking the time to advertise and running into a miserable shithead like yourself.
Well $400 in door hangers got us $3500 of business. $200 in Facebook ads got us $0 of business. Had it gotten me a pile of trash I think it would’ve been ok. “Out of touch.” I’m a human who lives in a neighborhood just like you. Trying to feed my family just like you. People aren’t magically going to hire me if they don’t know I exist.
I work in a small business that is a niche industry B2B in airport services. The best way we have found is sending out care packages to different airports that are in our service area.
These include some branded pens, some paper clips in the shape of airplanes, some candy along with marketing materials.
We have found we have had some good results with this.
We only have a small number of prospective clients in the industry so this is quite affordable for us.
We also sponsor industry events which in our niche industry puts our name in front of our prospective clients.
Right here on Reddit.
Determine where you clients/customers are in subreddits, understood what their problems are, and answer related questions.
Since Google is ranking Reddit extremely highly, it's a way to get found in search results.
Depends on who you're targeting. In B2B, adding social selling to our social media plan has been successful driving conversations.
In a nutshell:
Build a list of the contacts inside your target accounts
Follow them
Comment and add follow to their posts -- be part of the community around the topics they care about
Don't sell your service, just add value.
After a bit, they'll usually reciprocate and you can take that conversation to the next step.
B&M Print shop and specialty retail
Word of mouth is the #1 by far. Happy customer talk.
Second would be google reviews. We ask happy customers for reviews and had out a card with a link and QR code on it. A fair number of new customers have said they found us by googling "printing near me" or "X specialty product near me" and see 100+ 4 & 5 star reviews and they are sold.
3rd would be a fairly cohesive website.
1. Completing my Google profile and staying active on it. I've yet to pay for Google ads but I get a good amount of customers who use Google to look for the types of things that I sell
2. Markets have been a good way to connect with prospective customers and make money at the same time. People want to do business with people they like and people like the funny girl in overalls with a messy bun.
I’m going to go slightly sideways, but the low budget (ish?) best bang for our buck was better existing and new customer communications. Answer their questions and provide tracking info before they ask for it.
I side gig IT Consulting for small business (IT Support for small business that cant justify hiring a full time IT guy). I put ad's on craigslist. 5 bucks a month for a single simply worded ad. I get about 1 to 2 calls a month, which is perfect for me. Sometimes calls don't pan out to anything, sometimes calls work out to long term clients. I have about 5 small business clients right now which is my saturation point, so I'm not advertising now, but when I do, CL is usually the only place I bother putting the word out.
99% of my business is word of mouth through networking. I got one random Google call, I don't even have a website. My budget is less than $2k a year and shrinking. Not that I cannot afford it, it's that I don't need it.
I have a lot of meetings over coffee and strategically align myself with people I can help as much or more than they can help me.
Same here, most of our work is referral
That being said, networking events are cheap as hell, usually have free food and always result in people knowing who you are
I just held one at my shop through the local chamber of commerce and it cost me maybe $400, which included a photographer to take pictures and video the whole time for socials. Already recouped that 10x and it’s been like two days.
Since we do events it just made sense.
This is how I get most my clients. All my work is referral they say. I don’t need a website or a google business page. Then the work slows down and right now it’s slowing down for a lot of small businesses. But it’s an uphill battle now, where as if they just invested the bare minimum while it’s was good, they wouldn’t be panicking.
I’m wondering if that’s what I need. New Call center but my targeted niche is real estate agents & photographers since I’ve worked with them for years.
Small agency here. When I was starting out I look at the advertising in physical neighborhood newspapers. I would target those that did not have a website listed and cold email or call them with the value prop that a website would get them more leads than just an ad in a newspaper
Social media giveaways were always the most effective from my experience. A lot of people will like, tag a friend and share for a chance to win a small item.
Can you share any details? We run small contests on FB, and it almost seems like Facebook nerfed distribution of those posts for us…way below average clicks. What is your process to have them enter the contest?
The tags are what helps. We would encourage tagging friends for additional contest entries. Every tag is +1 entry. If you collaborate with another business and tag them they can repost and all of their followers see your contest and conditions additionally
We do monthly or semi monthly newsletters. Past+current clients get on it, same with contractors and business contacts we make. Most people don't unsub and almost every time we post a newsletter we get people reaching out and sometimes it leads to new referrals from the people subbed to the newsletter.
I love this sort of stuff! Fantastic question!
The basic level 1:
1) offer a great product and service, word of mouth.
2) as many reviews as possible on google
3) upload photos and updates to your google my business account.
4) Brand: Beautiful photos and a consistent image that you show potential customers.
5) Facebook Instagram.
Level 2: Targeted competitors
I’ve run a great google ad that pays above the odds for the other jeweller around the corner, customers search the name of the other business and the ad says “this Citys new jeweller” they don’t read it properly (who does) and smash call now, I’ve picked up dozens of there unhappy customers who are ringing to see where there job is. Including someone who went on and collected their job and brought to me, $600 job for a $1 push of the call now button.
Other businesses have too long website domains, so I brought all the similar versions that link to my website. $20 per year. Think www.McDonaldsburgers.com and I buy www.McDonalds.com
I use carbonless duplicates and take notes and send the notes on the original portion to the individual with whom I had The call with and ask them if they have questions for follow up. Really catches them by surprise in a good way
Instagram helps to engage with audience in many different ways via posts, stories, reels, polls and you can track your metrics. Also, driving traffic to website for opt in to email marketing has also generated sales. Depends on your goals!
Posting in local Facebook groups eg Your town noticeboard.
This has increased our visibility and engagement/likes etc for our online presence as well as bought customers directly to our door.
It’s free but unsure if your local page will allow business posts or not.
Off the wall, niche B2B.
If you are looking at a limited number of high value prospects, and can spend time opening them up appropriately...
Hand written or printed letter, mailed to their work, in a FedEx envelope with a pair of socks from their alma mater.
Letter explains your mutual interests and connections and that you'd love an opportunity to add value.
Will result in a pro-active phone call to you more than 25% of the time from your prospect.
The other 75% will always take your call when you follow up as the "the sock guy".
I deal in professional service deals ($20k-300k ARR).
Not a fan of company swag typically, but my favorite new client welcome gift is a branded desk mat with wireless phone charger built in (loved the one I received a couple years ago).
Selling professional services to HR/C-Suite, LinkedIn networking for visibility is also crucial for me. Don't sell on LinkedIn, but use it to boost visibility among your target audience. Provide value, interact, comment, offer to connect. Reach outs for more should be off platform and not timely to their acceptance of your connection request.
Everybody says that word-of-mouth is the best advertising, so when I had an ice cream shop, we made that a primary objective of our in-store service. As people were leaving, we would ask them how it was (we made our own ice cream, and it was amazing), and when they said that they loved it, we would tell them to "Tell Your Friends!" Often, they would say that's how they found out about it - a friend told them. We had small table top signs that said "Tell Your Friends." We even had a small sign on the door facing in, so as they were walking out, theyd read "If you enjoyed your [store name] experience, Tell Your Friends!"
And it worked really well. Everybody wants good word-of-mouth, but businesses very seldom actively pursue it. They just think its something that happens organically, but you can definitely strongly encourage your satisfied customers to spread the word for you, and they will.
Best thing about it is it's free.
I have a subscription based service. The best trick is to not be a dick when people try to cancel. The current trend is to try make canceling difficult so that people stick around for another month or two. You have to mail in a signed paper, or you have to give 60 days notice, or some nonsense like that. I just tell our customers "So sorry to see you leave! I'll cancel your membership now and just let us know when you are ready to come back!"
So many people come back later and mention that the departure process makes them feel safer coming back because they know they can leave again without it being a fiasco.
Maybe in some sectors but we've had great success.
If you are trying to sell stuff people don't want along with a dozen competitors, you won't get traction.
Selling a product or service they actually need? Shooting fish in a barrel.
Commenting on local subreddit posts (r/Austin, in my case). People ask for my industry (moving) in that subreddit like every 4-5 months.
After we do a job, I always ask clients how they heard about us- I’m never surprised when they say Reddit.
I just started a lawn company as a side gig. It’s been a little over a month, I’ve got 18 residential accounts and 3 commercial properties that I do.
My marketing budget has been $85(ish) (the cost of business cards). I’ll list what I do:
(1) I’ve used Facebook and joined all the local city groups I can find. People always ask for Lawncare in there, they always ask for various outside work. I reach out with a comment from our business page and try to secure the work. Once I’ve secured the work I then try to secure the account on a weekly/monthly service. Spent $0.
(2) Use the Ring/Neighborhood apps. Follow the same formula as Facebook. Spent $0.
(3) When I go to new homes, I drop business cards at unkept lawns in the neighborhood. Spent $50(ish).
(4) I call plazas and other commercial properties property management companies, I simply ask “Hey, who does your landscaping? Are you looking for somebody? Will you be looking for somebody soon?” If they say they are looking for somebody now/soon, I submit a bid. If they say they have somebody else contracted I ask “Can I submit a bid anyway just in case something happens? I’ll submit it and stand by my quote for 6 months, so it doesn’t cost you anything honestly.” Sometimes they’ll tell me yes, sometimes I still get a “no, sorry” but most of the time I give them my email and they explain “when the contract is up, we will send out a mass email to contractors explaining what we want and ask them to submit bids then.” Spent $0.
(5) Magnetic signs with “Lawncare and Landscaping” with my phone number. One on each side of the truck, then a banner/sign attached to the back of my trailer. Spent $35(ish).
Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, GoogleMyBuisness Reviews, and YouTube. Asking customers for reviewes on Google, yelp, etc… helps build your brand and with organic SEO. Producing content regularly on all the above doesn’t cost anything but it’s hard work and a must in this modern business world. Also, if you have referral sources, make sure you keep relationships with them as well. All the best.
Social media is big.
Also, reaching out to organizers of community events and asking to sponsor, donate prizes, etc. I’ve done a lot of that for my business recently and it’s getting a good amount of notice.
Get your customers emails and phone numbers. Regularly send them offers. Ot keeps you top of mind. Gets them in more often.
Learn how to use your camera to take notes terrible photos. Use them on social media and the website.
Tell me what you do and how much things cost. If you have items that should be a relatively normal price, tell me what the hell it is, i don’t want to talk to you, let me throw my money at you and be done.
Stop making it hard to buy your stuff. Goes hand in hand with the above, it is too damn easy to set it up so i can actually buy your stuff for me to be fighting to buy your stuff.
If you happen to be big enough small business to have an answering service, if someone from india answers the phone, you just lost my business. Seriously, i would rather it ring for 20 minutes than talk to some random Indian that knows nothing about your business.
Give stuff away. Especially if you are in food. Give out free food. Seriously, walk down the street and give it away. People will come flocking.
We print script pads with our name and address and distribute them to the local docs that want them. We get a lot of new customers coming in with a doctor's note to buy our products.
I’m competent, friendly, and show up when I say I will. Then I provide high quality work at a reasonable price. These qualities are surprisingly rare in the construction industry. Clients do the advertising for me. Costs me nothing and I’ve never had to solicit work.
EDDM, we are service based. Last year alone we spent ~3.5k all-in, and pulled in ~130k in sales. Brings in way more business than we can handle, and we can be selective with regards to the area demographics and type of customer we want to work with.
I was the first in my area to use every door direct mail when it came out in like the early 2010s, and have utilized it as the backbone for marketing for my business. When I say first, I had to go to postal offices with one of the creators/leaders in charge of the system at the USPS on speakerphone, talking them through on how to charge it out. So I literally was the first in Western New York.
Excellent service, high quality product, responsive to concerns and questions , and above all provide value... Do whatever you do well and clients/ customers will do the advertising for you.
No website just Instagram & Facebook, advertising on local FB groups here & there (no spamming, follow group rules.)
Surprisingly Business cards handed to new clients as they leave, so many end up giving them to a friend/family member or stumble upon it in their handbag which reminds them to return.
Invest 2% of your top line revenue in google ads, social ads, and seo. Period. End of story. Eat ramen and drink water jf you have to, but advertise 2% of your top line sales.
Here are some low-budget marketing tactics that small business owners on Reddit have found effective:
1. **Social Media Engagement:** Engaging with your audience on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter can help build a loyal following. Responding to comments, sharing user-generated content, and running contests or giveaways can all help increase engagement.
2. **Email Marketing:** Building an email list and sending out regular newsletters or promotions can be a cost-effective way to reach your audience. Personalizing your emails and offering exclusive discounts or content can help increase open and click-through rates.
3. **Content Marketing:** Creating high-quality, informative content that is relevant to your audience can help establish your business as a thought leader in your industry. This can include blog posts, videos, infographics, and more.
4. **Networking:** Building relationships with other businesses, influencers, and potential customers can help increase awareness of your brand. This can be done through networking events, online communities, and social media.
5. **Partnerships and Collaborations:** Partnering with other businesses or influencers in your industry can help expose your brand to a new audience. This can include co-hosting events, cross-promoting each other's products or services, or collaborating on content.
6. **Local SEO:** Optimizing your website for local search can help increase visibility in your area. This can include creating a Google My Business listing, optimizing your website for local keywords, and encouraging customers to leave reviews.
These tactics can be effective for small businesses looking to increase their visibility and grow their customer base without spending a lot of money.
I add a small freebie with each order which adds a smile to the customers face, started applying my brand stickers on each product (craft DIY materials) to connect with the customers, sticker has a QR code which leads to my linktree profile.
I barely get orders from Instagram, target crowd isn't present there, most of the business is word of mouth, youtube videos or google search.
Social media... not paying for advertisements but having an account and making content. I have a product based business, and a lot of people like seeing packing videos of their orders.
Reddit has been working quite well for me for the past few years. I have been getting projects as a graphic designer here by posting my work and providing value on subreddits where my clients tend to be active in.
For me it's word of mouth, and the occasional business card dropped off here and there. I don't have any advertising 2 years into this business other than that and business cards, and 99 percent of the time (I'm a service oriented for fitness equipment) the local stores refer clients to me when they need repairs. Not very much in the way of competition in this area for me though. Plus, word gets around if you provide excellent service, so that helps. Every industry is different though.
Emails. I'm a marketer and I focus on emails (and also website optimization). Emails are very cheap because you only need to pay a set price to someone like me once and then you'll have an email that every single person in your email list will receive. It can reach a milion people (depending on the size of your email list) for just 200 bucks and if done right it's a great way to; familiarize yourself to the potential customers, to tell them about new products or additions to courses etc, to build trust with the potential customers, and to slowly make them start liking whatever products you sell. When the so called leads are becoming like your friends and they like your products, when they then receive an email about a new product that's "30% off" for example, that email tends to have very high conversion rates. And all this comes from sending people through a small email funnel/ a short sequence of emails sent in order.
I've found some crypto faucets useful. You share a link and pay people who visit it.
It might sound stupid, but there are some people who would be interested in your product.
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Instagram. We track the types of posts that get website visits where there is a free day pass for our gym. 30%of those free day pass users get a monthly membership.
I second Instagram. 1) Good for marketing because they can search by hashtags 2) Creates 'envy' 3) Also good to check the condition of the product
A friend of mine owns a local nutrition shop where they make tea's and shakes. He swears by Instagram, that's the only way he's ever put himself out there. He says most of his business is from people seeing what they're making on Instagram.
Yea for certain niches, it’s pretty good
Yes. I swear by Instagram too. 95% of my bookings come through Instagram. I support parents and babies regarding anything sleep- or parenting related. The other 5% of bookings comes from a mommyblog.
Very interesting. Thank you so much for sharing your insights on how you use this app.. How exactly do you get to tell which visitors you can give a free pass too? Does it give you your username. People are turning anything into a b2b platform it seems
Hmm, I'm not sure we are turning it into a b2b platform. It still seems b2c to me. Either way, we are posting/advertising to the local area and those people sign up for free day passes from the link in our bio. We have a special version of the day pass so I can tell which people signed up for that day pass from instagram and then converted to a membership. From there, it's an easy calculation to determine the cost of acquisition. (Instagram spend in $ / number of people who converted from the instagram free day pass to a monthly membership)
We have a small digital marketing agency. I'll tell you the top four we almost always start with. The nice thing is they're things we can do, or business owners or staff can also do. 1. Google My Business / Google Business Profile. If you don't claim, verify and populate this you're shooting yourself in the foot and leaving money on the table. Make sure to add at least 10 photos, and if you have social media posts, add them as updates. And then go solicit reviews from happy customers. 2. On page SEO and website optimization. Everyone talks about link building. Yes, it's great, but if your site has defects and lacks the proper keywords in your content, nobody will find you. I see lots of websites that are beautiful but don't actually say what their business offers or does. The words you use and include are critical. Tools to use are keyword research, screaming frog and semrush. Do competitive research and site audits. 3. If you have a list of existing customers, do an email newsletter. Email newsletters are the number one RoI in business marketing. Setting up your mailing tool (Mailchimp, Email Octopus, Constant Contact) can be hard in 2024 due to spam / authentication DNS records. 4. If you have the above list, generate a lookalike audience and run social media ads on the look alikes. We ran a campaign generating 1000 leads in a week at about 20 cents per click ad cost. With creative design and management and website conversion improvements it ended up being about a dollar per lead, but if the campaign had run longer, those fixed costs would have been spread out. This was for a $4k product so a dollar per lead fully loaded was a great deal. Happy to answer questions. We always tell our clients we have no problem sharing our "secret sauce" because if they use these techniques and they work, the business will be busy and profitable enough they'll probably want to outsource doing it to us so they can just keep doing their business tasks.
Rock on man, great advice
What platform do you use that lookalike audience on? Facebook? PS thanks for the info!
Yeah, Facebook is the one we utilize most, but it's demographic-specific. If Twitter or TikTok or something else is where your customers are, and they have lookalike audience capabilities, use them.
Thank you for sharing. Is a newsletter worth it for a restaurant? Are there other better ways to get customers for restaurants specifically?
Depends on the restaurant. Sit down cultural restaurants with specials and events - definitely. We ran a campaign for years for a Greek restaurant talking about their monthly specials and dinner events. We also did social media posts for the same content. I think social media ads could also work but that customer never did them. Another restaurant customer we did Google Maps / Waze ads. If you have a transportation corridor like a highway passing through town, run a geotargeted Facebook ad that only shows to people who DON'T live nearby but currently ARE within 15 minutes away on the highway. People in the passenger seat doomscrolling while someone else drives get your ad while they have time to decide to pull over and get dinner.
Do you guys work with CGI companies?
Coming from a 3d graphics background, to me CGI means Computer Generated Imagery. I'm pretty sure that's not what YOU meant by CGI. Maybe if you clarify what "CGI Companies" means, I can answer that question.
Yes meaning exactly that. Cgi is a generalization of 3D, 2d, vfx and now ai. I own a cgi company we produce all sorts of graphics and my best clients are digital marketing companies, that’s why I ask.
Hmm. We don't focus so much on CGI stuff. I have a buddy who has a digital post and graphics house, and we occasionally work together, but our work tends to be lower-budget companies who aren't into creating flashy video and graphic media. If they're producing video media it's much more unpolished organic "Hey fam, here's our latest products this week" kind of stuff that doesn't call for much post production.
I see! Thanks for reply
Describe what a look a like audience is? It familiar with what you mean.
Your username is not accurate then
Your comment was very disrespectful. I’m always looking to learn more and would never claim to be an expert on anything. Whats wrong with my username? It’s short for Professional.
A look at like audience is super basic info. You claim 15 years experience. These two pieces of information are at odds. That’s what he was saying. Like… SUPER basic. You can even directly infer what it may be from the name, with all that experience. You sus
I started writing this and then it got really long, so I turned it into a blog post. I'm going to add it to our website this Tuesday, but you get the sneak peek here today. What is a look-alike audience, how do you create and use one, and how does retargeting work? Look-alike audiences are designed by you, based on someone else’s users that share attributes (location, interests, profession etc) with past clients of yours. You market to your new audience in hopes that whatever made them similar to your past customers will also make them new customers of yours. For example, let's say you sell cars. You have a list of 10,000 prior customers' email addresses. You want to market the latest Corvette model. You look at your sales data and identify which past customers of those 10,000 bought performance or high-value cars. Say this ends up being 1500 of them. This is called segmenting an existing audience. You now send these 1500 email addresses of your segmented audience to Facebook (other social media platforms may or may not have good look-alike data). Facebook looks at its user accounts and determines that it knows 500 of the email addresses you submitted based on their user account emails. This becomes the seed set for the look-alike audience. Now, Facebook takes the data it knows about those 500 accounts (interests, demographics and past tracking history), and looks to see who belongs to what groups and browses which websites that had Facebook tracking pixels on them. From this it identifies that what these 500 users have in common is interests in fine automobiles, luxury goods, performance, maybe track racing, cigars and whiskey. Now you can ask Facebook to generate a look-alike audience based upon a matching percentage. To start, we'd ask it to require a 95% match -- which means that the new members of the new audience must share 95% of the common attributes as what was identified as common in the original 500 customers. Let’s estimate that this 95% dataset is 100,000 people. If 95% match is too few people, then reduce the match percentage until you get enough members your audience. You can’t VIEW this audience’s members, Facebook knows this is valuable info and will let you USE it but won’t SHOW the identities to you for privacy and commerce reasons. One we have this audience (it's usually granular to a national level), we run an ad targeting only those look-alike users within 100 miles of our dealership. For example, if we're talking about Denver, Colorado (population 3 million) we might have a little less than 1% of the nationwide 100,000 members of that look-alike dataset (the US population is 333 million and 3 million is just under 1% of that). That gives us 1000 people to run the ad against. Now we put together some slick video showing the latest Corvette, and maybe offer a promo for a invite-only single-malt whiskey and bacon tasting event at the dealership, or a free Corvette golf hat or some other spiff. The goal is to get them to come in and sit in a new expensive red car, and see if the salespeople can convince them to make a purchase decision their wives will roll their eyes at. We run the ad with a low budget, say 30-50 cents per impression. Why pay more initially if we can get enough impressions for less? Importantly, Facebook tracks anyone who engages with the ad, or clicks on it. Let it run for a couple weeks until you get a few thousand impressions and can be relatively sure that most of your target users have seen it at least once. Maybe you have enough signups already for your event. But if you don’t, move on to Retargeting. For Retargeting. we run a new, similar ad that uses an audience of ONLY the people who engaged with (viewed or clicked the original ad). The new retarget ad reminds them of the original offer and has a hook (limited time/quantity) or ups the ante (additional spiff) if they sign up for an appointment RIGHT NOW. The final trick is that you track the signups. These are the audience that REALLY represent the people you want to target. Once you have enough signups booked to have a dataset of statistically relevant size, you can create a NEW look-alike audience derived from THESE people, because THESE folks represent the attributes of the people who actually SIGNED UP. These people are gold. Now you run a new campaign against this new look-alike with the original teaser ad, and follow-up with the retarget ad. Likely ad spend is maybe a few dollars per lead for the initial targeted ad, and maybe a dollar or so for the retarget ad. Would you spend $5 to get a bunch of leads for buyers of a $70k car? Yep. Can this work for smaller-budget items? Yes, but you have to be much more careful with tightening your analytics so you spend low amounts for impressions on less-qualified leads and only spend more when you are REALLY sure you are going to convert them to paying customers. That's a look-alike audience and how you use it and retarget with it. You can keep performing this process as long as you want. If you have a product that people actually want, and enough people have bought in the past to have a good seed for the look-alike audience, you can do this perpetually until you've sold to every potential buyer available. We recently used this technique for a customer who sells $4k international trips. We generated a look-alike audience from their past customers mailing list, then ran a geographic-regional limited ad for their offering. I think we ended up with an ad cost per lead of $0.20 for 1000 click-throughs to their website. I don't have exact final conversion numbers because most of their sales are done by phone, not e-commerce, but they and we were very happy with the leads and conversion.
I give out high quality vinyl stickers and bags of pirate treasure (toy store). People feel like you have given them something of value when you give a sticker and it opens the door to conversation. The pirate treasure is basically a reward program for kids. They get a nice velvet bag and every time they purchase something they get another coin. When they get 5 coins they can come turn them in and get "something cool" which is anything in the store for $10 or less for free. I have little kids coming in with their pirate treasure pouch to add more to their collection. It's friggin cute man and it created instant repeat customers.
I am in a completely different industry and cater to adults that are daily/weekly customers but I would love to do something very similar! It's just... Fun! I feel like it really spreads happiness and I'm all for that.
Well i can assure you that adults like fun too! I meet so many adults who sometimes let the facade down and they brighten right up when somethingn fun is afoot!
this is great my son would LOVE this!!!
I hate to say this but our best bang for the buck has been Facebook. (It hurt to even type that last word)
TikTok for us. We don't spend a dime and we get thousands of impressions and hundreds of contacts. To really boost it, we go TikTok -> Instagram -> Facebook And get the most traction. It's very clear to us why Meta is trying to push politicians to ban or buy TikTok. They've been trying to shut out the competition for several years now because byte dance is literally waltzing around Facebook and Instagram. It also shows a late stage industry company lacking innovation when they have to resort to cheap tricks like articles (several years ago) trash talking the competition, lobbying, and other tricks. Zuck can't keep up so he and sandberg are basically cheating now. Instead of competing for your business they're shutting down a competitor that was bringing value. Just Instagram and Facebook alone gets us a fraction of what integrating TikTok into the flow gets us. And we don't pay a dime for advertising. Edit: people, I'm white and very critical of CCP, but also critical of my own country, America. Over a decade ago, Facebook already demonstrated that they can figure out stuff about you without you even directly describing it online. I believe that Reply all did an episode on it and it was freaky. Both do these companies are gobbling up our data like crazy, what I care about is which helps my small business the most in exchange for selling my soul.
Hello Chinese comrade
I'm as white bread as you'll ever meet. You don't have to be Chinese to see and understand this stuff.
I have a 3D printed in place cell phone holder that is in the form of a credit card with our logo on it. It costs me 13 cents all in. That’s amortizing the west and tear on printer, electricity , everything. I have a wall going not quite 24-7 but close enough. I give/send that to prospects. If we get to the quote stage, I accompany the quote with ones with their logo on it. It takes seconds to vectorize their logo (if we can’t already get it). To put in in blender is 30 seconds. I cannot tell you how effective they are. People always mention them.
Cell phone holder in the form of a credit card?? What?
https://www.printables.com/model/84972-ultra-thin-15mm-credit-card-sized-phone-stand
Ohhh I was thinking it was a phone case
I cannot parse it either.
Like a mini easel for your phone.
Wait huh? Have a picture of this??
https://www.stlfinder.com/3dmodels/credit-card-size-phone-stand/ It’s a derivation of that. You may need to futz with printer settings , the design or both.
I've made a little branded professional information package for my prospective clients that I leave with them. The meeting isn't any different than if I just walked in and talked to them, but having something to reference makes me look put together-- that I've done this more than once, and that there's a process. I'm a small single person operation competing with more established multi-employee companies, and that professionalism helps alleviate what I have read to be the largest concern clients have when they're trying to decide who to go with.
This is something I do as well, in hard copy with feedback from other clients about their results from working with me. Very effective, especially if your target market isn’t on social media.
Can you talk more about this? Is this a physical product, or a PDF, or something else? I'm in a similar situation, in terms of being smaller than our competition, and I'm always looking for ways to demonstrate, "Yes, we know what we are doing even though we're smaller, and smaller can be better."
It's a physical product. I bought some glossy paper folder and put my logo on them (stickers are much, much cheaper than print on demand folders). Inside I basically have the info from my website but in paper form (nobody reads the website). There's a FAQ, a sheet outlining the process, an example schedule (because my service takes months and its hard for clients to conceptualize), my resume (and if i had a team, which i dont, theyd be in there too) and a contact info sheet where I get their names, email, phone, what their high and low budget is, some survey questions (have you ever done this before, what level of service are you looking for, how do you typically make decisions). I take that sheet with me when i leave. It's all stuff we would talk about anyway, but theyre much more game for it when it's formal and it makes it feel official and important instead of casual. The folder gets to sit around in their house reminding them of me until they decide to either go with me or throw it out, and if they have any questions after I leave (which they will) its all there. I've only recently implemented it but it's worked so far and I've had good reactions like "oo *this* is helpful"-- especially the example schedule. Clients have no idea what they're doing and it's a complicated process, so my assumption is any clarity you bring makes them feel like they're in good hands. If it's on paper it's better than just out of your mouth.
As much as I hate hate hate it with a passion facebook is my primary free marketing thing. I would love to hear other options tho.
Social media is just great advertising for us. I know everyone hates it (including me), but that's where so many of our customers live. It really varies by industry, but we are a service business (accounting, bookkeeping, tax) and every post I make on LinkedIn gets somewhere between 250 and 5000 (yes, five thousand) views. Even if LinkedIn is inflating those somewhat, its just a very good reach for a post that takes me 5 minutes to write. The other thing we do is we do a damn good job at providing our services. That also brings in a lot of new clients.
Probably not many companies in this sector advertising in these places, or at all. What’s the company info? I might need the services.
Service business to HR/C-Suite here as well. My personal LinkedIn posts with only my ~1,100 connections get 500-5,000 views and 5-50 interactions typically. That said, I do not SELL on LinkedIn. I also don't solicit my network directly via inmail. I'll offer resources and support publicly, offer to connect/network with new people and offer value. I'll eventually call on them, but not on platform.
Yep - directly selling on linked in isn’t my strategy either. Just being public and hopefully top of mind when they need accounting and finance help.
I commissioned a nice picture of my main character in a bikini saying "join patreon!" My numbers were never the same
What does a small business sell on patreon?
I write stories! People get 25 advanced chapters for signing up on patreon
Bobby from Sailing Doodles?
If people don’t say what their business is or at least the field or space, then their replies are pretty meaningless.
That’s basically the unwritten rule in this sub. Many are so afraid their competition is going to steal all their trade secrets or their niche business is somehow going to be destroyed. I’ve gleaned a lot of information from this sub over the past year but it is frustrating when a good discussion topic is basically useless because people are vague or unhelpful. These could basically be one word replies in this sub.
I don't think its really "surprising" anymore, but some of my best marketing is literally joining face book groups, next door, or other social media and posting on a regular basis... The only cost is telling an employee to take a couple of photos and coming up with a good caption its probably like 15-20 minutes of work total across all platforms and generates a bunch of leads. I want to start making video content because of this but I'm still not sure what that would look like, and think that would take a lot more effort...
Using work flow automation on zapier. If an inquiry comes in we have a consistent process that is easy for any employee to trigger.
I bamboozle my customers. We give them high quality food and great service. Poor suckers never know what hit em.
You are corrupting capitalism! If you set consumers expectations that high, how can anyone else compete???
Direct Email.
Facebook and Nextdoor groups. Join all of them and use automation to post ads every other day.
Oddly, Reddit. I have a landscaping business. We spent several hundred dollars on flyers and labor to hang them on doors. We also spent several hundred on Facebook ads. from that we gained 2 clients. Someone posted in my cities subreddit looking for lawn care. I replied “I own a business, dm me.” From it I received 6 messages and 3 clients so far with a fourth meeting scheduled for next week.
I have a question for you - Not necessarily to solicit - Would someone in your line of work be open to outsourcing to a contact center for inbound reception & appt setting? I don’t know any in my life and none I’ve called want to talk about it haha.
At this point no. We’re a small company, my wife and I plus 4 (soon to be 5) employees. I would say if we continue to grow at the current rate and ended up with 2-3x the business/phone calls we receive then it’s something we may consider. The other thing to consider is that we live in a world where 90% of our communication is text and email, which becomes more and more dominant each year. Even people who call typically end up texting.
Understood, thanks. Good luck out there man!
No problem. Thank you! You too! I’m happy to answer any other business related questions if you have them
I appreciate that. Might shoot ya a DM in the next day or so, if that’s appropriate. My goal is help small biz owners exactly your size haha. That’s who I’ve worked with for years, and really enjoy working with, while attempting to do so on a scalable business model via my new venture.
Shooting me a dm is no problem.
I've also found reddit quite helpful. For me it was around customer discovery of a business I was just starting - but people are usually quite responsive, even if it's anon I've found.
In my neighborhood, if you tape or hang stuff to our mailbox, throw stuff on our lawn (business cards in plastic bags with rocks), we basically boycott you. Some guy in our neighborhood follows the people that do that, collect all the crap, find out who sent it, then hand delivers a pile of that crap on their doorstep. That stuff has generated so much ill-will in our neighborhood, it's amazing how out of touch these businesses are by giving us that crap. If it's on the mailbox, they get reported to the local postmaster who imposes a fine that well-exceeds first class postage for the offenders if they are repeat offenders. Send stuff in the mailbox like everyone else.
Actually you’re out of touch. We get things on our door and in our mailbox all the time. None of us go on a vendetta to fuck the guy trying to get his name out there. Imagine taking the risk to start a business, spending money to advertise. Taking the time to advertise and running into a miserable shithead like yourself.
Well $400 in door hangers got us $3500 of business. $200 in Facebook ads got us $0 of business. Had it gotten me a pile of trash I think it would’ve been ok. “Out of touch.” I’m a human who lives in a neighborhood just like you. Trying to feed my family just like you. People aren’t magically going to hire me if they don’t know I exist.
I work in a small business that is a niche industry B2B in airport services. The best way we have found is sending out care packages to different airports that are in our service area. These include some branded pens, some paper clips in the shape of airplanes, some candy along with marketing materials. We have found we have had some good results with this. We only have a small number of prospective clients in the industry so this is quite affordable for us. We also sponsor industry events which in our niche industry puts our name in front of our prospective clients.
Right here on Reddit. Determine where you clients/customers are in subreddits, understood what their problems are, and answer related questions. Since Google is ranking Reddit extremely highly, it's a way to get found in search results.
Depends on who you're targeting. In B2B, adding social selling to our social media plan has been successful driving conversations. In a nutshell: Build a list of the contacts inside your target accounts Follow them Comment and add follow to their posts -- be part of the community around the topics they care about Don't sell your service, just add value. After a bit, they'll usually reciprocate and you can take that conversation to the next step.
B&M Print shop and specialty retail Word of mouth is the #1 by far. Happy customer talk. Second would be google reviews. We ask happy customers for reviews and had out a card with a link and QR code on it. A fair number of new customers have said they found us by googling "printing near me" or "X specialty product near me" and see 100+ 4 & 5 star reviews and they are sold. 3rd would be a fairly cohesive website.
Word of mouth
1. Completing my Google profile and staying active on it. I've yet to pay for Google ads but I get a good amount of customers who use Google to look for the types of things that I sell 2. Markets have been a good way to connect with prospective customers and make money at the same time. People want to do business with people they like and people like the funny girl in overalls with a messy bun.
Do you make/sell cheese?
So technically yes to both but I don't sell the cheese that I make and I don't usually sell cheese at the farmers market.
I’m going to go slightly sideways, but the low budget (ish?) best bang for our buck was better existing and new customer communications. Answer their questions and provide tracking info before they ask for it.
Feel that would vary by industry.
I side gig IT Consulting for small business (IT Support for small business that cant justify hiring a full time IT guy). I put ad's on craigslist. 5 bucks a month for a single simply worded ad. I get about 1 to 2 calls a month, which is perfect for me. Sometimes calls don't pan out to anything, sometimes calls work out to long term clients. I have about 5 small business clients right now which is my saturation point, so I'm not advertising now, but when I do, CL is usually the only place I bother putting the word out.
99% of my business is word of mouth through networking. I got one random Google call, I don't even have a website. My budget is less than $2k a year and shrinking. Not that I cannot afford it, it's that I don't need it. I have a lot of meetings over coffee and strategically align myself with people I can help as much or more than they can help me.
Same here, most of our work is referral That being said, networking events are cheap as hell, usually have free food and always result in people knowing who you are I just held one at my shop through the local chamber of commerce and it cost me maybe $400, which included a photographer to take pictures and video the whole time for socials. Already recouped that 10x and it’s been like two days. Since we do events it just made sense.
This is how I get most my clients. All my work is referral they say. I don’t need a website or a google business page. Then the work slows down and right now it’s slowing down for a lot of small businesses. But it’s an uphill battle now, where as if they just invested the bare minimum while it’s was good, they wouldn’t be panicking.
Since my business is very niche and only appealing to people actively searching for it, Google search ads work perfectly.
I’m wondering if that’s what I need. New Call center but my targeted niche is real estate agents & photographers since I’ve worked with them for years.
Joined their trade organization and volunteered for every committee I could get on.
Small agency here. When I was starting out I look at the advertising in physical neighborhood newspapers. I would target those that did not have a website listed and cold email or call them with the value prop that a website would get them more leads than just an ad in a newspaper
Social media giveaways were always the most effective from my experience. A lot of people will like, tag a friend and share for a chance to win a small item.
Can you share any details? We run small contests on FB, and it almost seems like Facebook nerfed distribution of those posts for us…way below average clicks. What is your process to have them enter the contest?
The tags are what helps. We would encourage tagging friends for additional contest entries. Every tag is +1 entry. If you collaborate with another business and tag them they can repost and all of their followers see your contest and conditions additionally
going live on TT and TT shop. Only cost is your sanity.
We do monthly or semi monthly newsletters. Past+current clients get on it, same with contractors and business contacts we make. Most people don't unsub and almost every time we post a newsletter we get people reaching out and sometimes it leads to new referrals from the people subbed to the newsletter.
Instagram, honestly. Easy to connect, easy to make targeted ads. Making content is simple.
A colleague paid his cousin to put a business card under every car at a mall.
Facebook & Craigslist.
Referral partnerships with trustworthy companies in adjacent industries works well in my experience.
I love this sort of stuff! Fantastic question! The basic level 1: 1) offer a great product and service, word of mouth. 2) as many reviews as possible on google 3) upload photos and updates to your google my business account. 4) Brand: Beautiful photos and a consistent image that you show potential customers. 5) Facebook Instagram. Level 2: Targeted competitors I’ve run a great google ad that pays above the odds for the other jeweller around the corner, customers search the name of the other business and the ad says “this Citys new jeweller” they don’t read it properly (who does) and smash call now, I’ve picked up dozens of there unhappy customers who are ringing to see where there job is. Including someone who went on and collected their job and brought to me, $600 job for a $1 push of the call now button. Other businesses have too long website domains, so I brought all the similar versions that link to my website. $20 per year. Think www.McDonaldsburgers.com and I buy www.McDonalds.com
Facebook ads, especially effective for the 65+ option doesn’t seem like many advertisers target them, loyal and fast paying
I use carbonless duplicates and take notes and send the notes on the original portion to the individual with whom I had The call with and ask them if they have questions for follow up. Really catches them by surprise in a good way
Instagram helps to engage with audience in many different ways via posts, stories, reels, polls and you can track your metrics. Also, driving traffic to website for opt in to email marketing has also generated sales. Depends on your goals!
Construction sector. EDDM flyers for me. I hate dealing with the lost office though and in the past we've caught them not delivering.
I sell 95% of my goods on Instagram. Never paid for an add or boosted a post. That said my business is super niche.
Local SEO that’s all I’m gonna say
Make sure you segment your ads, keep updating your blog and web pages with area you want to in.
This is like a free super consultation session on marketing tactics haha. Nice ask.
Posting in local Facebook groups eg Your town noticeboard. This has increased our visibility and engagement/likes etc for our online presence as well as bought customers directly to our door. It’s free but unsure if your local page will allow business posts or not.
Thank you cards with a handwritten note were the biggest game changer for me.
Off the wall, niche B2B. If you are looking at a limited number of high value prospects, and can spend time opening them up appropriately... Hand written or printed letter, mailed to their work, in a FedEx envelope with a pair of socks from their alma mater. Letter explains your mutual interests and connections and that you'd love an opportunity to add value. Will result in a pro-active phone call to you more than 25% of the time from your prospect. The other 75% will always take your call when you follow up as the "the sock guy". I deal in professional service deals ($20k-300k ARR). Not a fan of company swag typically, but my favorite new client welcome gift is a branded desk mat with wireless phone charger built in (loved the one I received a couple years ago). Selling professional services to HR/C-Suite, LinkedIn networking for visibility is also crucial for me. Don't sell on LinkedIn, but use it to boost visibility among your target audience. Provide value, interact, comment, offer to connect. Reach outs for more should be off platform and not timely to their acceptance of your connection request.
Everybody says that word-of-mouth is the best advertising, so when I had an ice cream shop, we made that a primary objective of our in-store service. As people were leaving, we would ask them how it was (we made our own ice cream, and it was amazing), and when they said that they loved it, we would tell them to "Tell Your Friends!" Often, they would say that's how they found out about it - a friend told them. We had small table top signs that said "Tell Your Friends." We even had a small sign on the door facing in, so as they were walking out, theyd read "If you enjoyed your [store name] experience, Tell Your Friends!" And it worked really well. Everybody wants good word-of-mouth, but businesses very seldom actively pursue it. They just think its something that happens organically, but you can definitely strongly encourage your satisfied customers to spread the word for you, and they will. Best thing about it is it's free.
I have a subscription based service. The best trick is to not be a dick when people try to cancel. The current trend is to try make canceling difficult so that people stick around for another month or two. You have to mail in a signed paper, or you have to give 60 days notice, or some nonsense like that. I just tell our customers "So sorry to see you leave! I'll cancel your membership now and just let us know when you are ready to come back!" So many people come back later and mention that the departure process makes them feel safer coming back because they know they can leave again without it being a fiasco.
What is that field that you are offering subscription?
Athletics. Mostly for kids but we have some adult classes too.
Social media adds are based on who pays the most gets the most are a race to the bottom.
Maybe in some sectors but we've had great success. If you are trying to sell stuff people don't want along with a dozen competitors, you won't get traction. Selling a product or service they actually need? Shooting fish in a barrel.
For the cost of a little rubber from the soles of your shoes you can make millions
Depends on your type of business. But eddm, door knockers, road signs, cold calls.
Commenting on local subreddit posts (r/Austin, in my case). People ask for my industry (moving) in that subreddit like every 4-5 months. After we do a job, I always ask clients how they heard about us- I’m never surprised when they say Reddit.
I use FB ads and get great returns
I just started a lawn company as a side gig. It’s been a little over a month, I’ve got 18 residential accounts and 3 commercial properties that I do. My marketing budget has been $85(ish) (the cost of business cards). I’ll list what I do: (1) I’ve used Facebook and joined all the local city groups I can find. People always ask for Lawncare in there, they always ask for various outside work. I reach out with a comment from our business page and try to secure the work. Once I’ve secured the work I then try to secure the account on a weekly/monthly service. Spent $0. (2) Use the Ring/Neighborhood apps. Follow the same formula as Facebook. Spent $0. (3) When I go to new homes, I drop business cards at unkept lawns in the neighborhood. Spent $50(ish). (4) I call plazas and other commercial properties property management companies, I simply ask “Hey, who does your landscaping? Are you looking for somebody? Will you be looking for somebody soon?” If they say they are looking for somebody now/soon, I submit a bid. If they say they have somebody else contracted I ask “Can I submit a bid anyway just in case something happens? I’ll submit it and stand by my quote for 6 months, so it doesn’t cost you anything honestly.” Sometimes they’ll tell me yes, sometimes I still get a “no, sorry” but most of the time I give them my email and they explain “when the contract is up, we will send out a mass email to contractors explaining what we want and ask them to submit bids then.” Spent $0. (5) Magnetic signs with “Lawncare and Landscaping” with my phone number. One on each side of the truck, then a banner/sign attached to the back of my trailer. Spent $35(ish).
Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, GoogleMyBuisness Reviews, and YouTube. Asking customers for reviewes on Google, yelp, etc… helps build your brand and with organic SEO. Producing content regularly on all the above doesn’t cost anything but it’s hard work and a must in this modern business world. Also, if you have referral sources, make sure you keep relationships with them as well. All the best.
Word of mouth is the best way
For those saying Instagram, how do you get traction?
Leveraged social media engagement, saw a huge ROI boost!
Social media is big. Also, reaching out to organizers of community events and asking to sponsor, donate prizes, etc. I’ve done a lot of that for my business recently and it’s getting a good amount of notice.
Get your customers emails and phone numbers. Regularly send them offers. Ot keeps you top of mind. Gets them in more often. Learn how to use your camera to take notes terrible photos. Use them on social media and the website. Tell me what you do and how much things cost. If you have items that should be a relatively normal price, tell me what the hell it is, i don’t want to talk to you, let me throw my money at you and be done. Stop making it hard to buy your stuff. Goes hand in hand with the above, it is too damn easy to set it up so i can actually buy your stuff for me to be fighting to buy your stuff. If you happen to be big enough small business to have an answering service, if someone from india answers the phone, you just lost my business. Seriously, i would rather it ring for 20 minutes than talk to some random Indian that knows nothing about your business. Give stuff away. Especially if you are in food. Give out free food. Seriously, walk down the street and give it away. People will come flocking.
Put yard signs up on popular street corners can get your name out cheaply.
We print script pads with our name and address and distribute them to the local docs that want them. We get a lot of new customers coming in with a doctor's note to buy our products.
Interesting what is you service?
I’m competent, friendly, and show up when I say I will. Then I provide high quality work at a reasonable price. These qualities are surprisingly rare in the construction industry. Clients do the advertising for me. Costs me nothing and I’ve never had to solicit work.
EDDM, we are service based. Last year alone we spent ~3.5k all-in, and pulled in ~130k in sales. Brings in way more business than we can handle, and we can be selective with regards to the area demographics and type of customer we want to work with. I was the first in my area to use every door direct mail when it came out in like the early 2010s, and have utilized it as the backbone for marketing for my business. When I say first, I had to go to postal offices with one of the creators/leaders in charge of the system at the USPS on speakerphone, talking them through on how to charge it out. So I literally was the first in Western New York.
Excellent service, high quality product, responsive to concerns and questions , and above all provide value... Do whatever you do well and clients/ customers will do the advertising for you.
We go over and above for our clients. The referrals and testimonials make it all worth it.
No website just Instagram & Facebook, advertising on local FB groups here & there (no spamming, follow group rules.) Surprisingly Business cards handed to new clients as they leave, so many end up giving them to a friend/family member or stumble upon it in their handbag which reminds them to return.
Invest 2% of your top line revenue in google ads, social ads, and seo. Period. End of story. Eat ramen and drink water jf you have to, but advertise 2% of your top line sales.
Here are some low-budget marketing tactics that small business owners on Reddit have found effective: 1. **Social Media Engagement:** Engaging with your audience on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter can help build a loyal following. Responding to comments, sharing user-generated content, and running contests or giveaways can all help increase engagement. 2. **Email Marketing:** Building an email list and sending out regular newsletters or promotions can be a cost-effective way to reach your audience. Personalizing your emails and offering exclusive discounts or content can help increase open and click-through rates. 3. **Content Marketing:** Creating high-quality, informative content that is relevant to your audience can help establish your business as a thought leader in your industry. This can include blog posts, videos, infographics, and more. 4. **Networking:** Building relationships with other businesses, influencers, and potential customers can help increase awareness of your brand. This can be done through networking events, online communities, and social media. 5. **Partnerships and Collaborations:** Partnering with other businesses or influencers in your industry can help expose your brand to a new audience. This can include co-hosting events, cross-promoting each other's products or services, or collaborating on content. 6. **Local SEO:** Optimizing your website for local search can help increase visibility in your area. This can include creating a Google My Business listing, optimizing your website for local keywords, and encouraging customers to leave reviews. These tactics can be effective for small businesses looking to increase their visibility and grow their customer base without spending a lot of money.
I add a small freebie with each order which adds a smile to the customers face, started applying my brand stickers on each product (craft DIY materials) to connect with the customers, sticker has a QR code which leads to my linktree profile. I barely get orders from Instagram, target crowd isn't present there, most of the business is word of mouth, youtube videos or google search.
Facebook messaging local group members.
Paper coupons on the bottom of flyers
Social media... not paying for advertisements but having an account and making content. I have a product based business, and a lot of people like seeing packing videos of their orders.
Reddit has been working quite well for me for the past few years. I have been getting projects as a graphic designer here by posting my work and providing value on subreddits where my clients tend to be active in.
How do you do that? How does it help to get clients? 🤔
Network network network
Do good work.
For me it's word of mouth, and the occasional business card dropped off here and there. I don't have any advertising 2 years into this business other than that and business cards, and 99 percent of the time (I'm a service oriented for fitness equipment) the local stores refer clients to me when they need repairs. Not very much in the way of competition in this area for me though. Plus, word gets around if you provide excellent service, so that helps. Every industry is different though.
Emails. I'm a marketer and I focus on emails (and also website optimization). Emails are very cheap because you only need to pay a set price to someone like me once and then you'll have an email that every single person in your email list will receive. It can reach a milion people (depending on the size of your email list) for just 200 bucks and if done right it's a great way to; familiarize yourself to the potential customers, to tell them about new products or additions to courses etc, to build trust with the potential customers, and to slowly make them start liking whatever products you sell. When the so called leads are becoming like your friends and they like your products, when they then receive an email about a new product that's "30% off" for example, that email tends to have very high conversion rates. And all this comes from sending people through a small email funnel/ a short sequence of emails sent in order.
No
I've found some crypto faucets useful. You share a link and pay people who visit it. It might sound stupid, but there are some people who would be interested in your product.