How to Market Your Business on a Small Budget

Do you ever need to not market your business? Surely, when you are fully booked you don’t need to bother anymore. Why would you? If you are fully booked there is no room for anyone else.

Marketing your business is a never-ending task and there is never going to be a time when you won’t need to do it; I’m afraid if you think there will be you are very much mistaken. Even the likes of John Lewis, Coca-Cola and M&S market themselves and these are three exceptionally wellestablished businesses and brands, so if they still need to, so do you.

Your promotional calendar

A promotional calendar is the basis of what you are going to market. Your promotional calendar will tie in with special local/national events, new product or treatment launches or services that you want to highlight that are not as popular as others.

Promotions don’t have to be reductions and freebies, they can just be a focus, such as a product of the month. I am all for adding value so if you are going to offer something always upsell. For example, offer an upgraded version of a gel manicure by including a massage and exfoliation, upgrade from one facial to the next etc. Show clients what else is available and let them see how beneficial these extras are to them. So how can you market your business effectively without spending a fortune?

Whilst the free marketing options don’t cost you money, they will cost your time.

For those of you who don’t sit on a Sunday night working on marketing, now is the |time to dust off your laptop!

The first thing you need to do is decide upon a marketing budget for the year or, if that is too far in advance, you at least need to have a monthly budget. Take a look at what marketing you did last year and ask yourself these questions:

• What did you spend?

• How much extra revenue did that generate?

• Where did you advertise?

• What worked?

• What didn’t work?

Once you have this information you can make an informed decision about what you can/should spend and where.

Your marketing budget will need to increase year-on-year, but if you can’t really afford it to then you need to be savvier with how you spend your budget. Increase the marketing that costs your time rather than cold, hard cash.

The savvy thing to do is to absolutely exhaust all free options first before moving on to marketing options that involve an expense. Whilst the free marketing options don’t cost you money, they will cost your time. For those of you who don’t sit on a Sunday night working on marketing, now is the time to dust off your laptop or iPad. When you aren’t working to promote your business someone else is working to promote theirs and you are missing out.

Free marketing options

Build your website: Clients don’t look in the local directory or Yellow Pages anymore, they get their phone out and Google salons or services, and if you haven’t got a website they won’t find you.

Building a website yourself and utilising it is the first and cheapest marketing you can do. Don’t be afraid, it can be time consuming but even the least technologically-minded can do it. Google business listing: Once you have a website, set up a Google Business Profile. You can add all of your important information to it, add yourself to Google maps, have reviews and add pictures. You need at least 100 pictures on there for Google to recognise you. I know this is a lot, as I said earlier these options will be time consuming, but they are free and invaluable.

The important thing to remember with your Google listing, and your website, is that you need to add to them and update them regularly so as Google keeps remembering you are a real business and keeps you active.

Facebook: Every man and his dog are on Facebook; it’s your most instant access to your current clients and target audience. Run a range of competitions getting clients to share your posts with their friends, for example. Whilst this will cost you a prize, it is still a very cost-effective way of advertising and marketing.

No one has the time to post to Facebook daily but you need regular, daily activity to keep people’s interest. Set your posts up a week, or a few days, in advance so the page runs itself. Make the posts interesting and interactive. Social media is a great shop window, find out the social media outlets your clients are using and focus on those.

Instagram: Instagram is far more visual so is really interesting to clients and great for before and after pictures, showing clients inside the salon, introducing the team etc.

The majority of my clients are Facebook users, so I am less active on Instagram for the salon, however where Instagram does work well for me is as a portfolio for my fashion and celebrity work. Think about your audience, and potential audience, and focus on the source they are likely to use.

Twitter: You can set your Facebook to automatically update your Twitter (and your Instagram and vice versa). Be mindful that they are quite different with very different audiences.

Free online business listings: Search the internet to find directories where you can have a business listing for free. These activities increase your SEO (search engine optimisation) without having to pay for Google Ads etc.

Altering your website regularly, irrelevant of how the small change is, i.e., updating a monthly page of news or promotions, will also increase your SEO.

These are just some ideas to get you started. Ask your current clients how they found you and where they look when searching for services, utilise free options first and build upon it.

A potential client needs to see you advertised seven times before they are likely to book, so make sure you use a variety of outlets to market yourself. Whatever you do, keep doing it and never stop!