How to Effectively Market Your Home-Based Business - And, surprisingly, the most important thing isn’t a big budget!
by Carrie Hinkel on April 4th, 2008
One of the biggest constraints that home-based business owners are faced with is a small marketing budget. Most business owners know that marketing helps to keep a business growing by putting a company’s name, products or services in the front of people’s minds. And while marketing is no doubt crucial to the success of many businesses, it doesn’t have to cost a bundle.
The key to marketing a small home-based business is knowing your target market. This sounds easy enough, but it is one of the most overlooked points by novice marketers because it requires a good amount of research to do right. If you are an established business, then chances are you already know who your target market is. But, that’s only half of the information you need. The other half is figuring out how to reach them. That may mean what keywords they search for on Google, what complimentary sites they visit, etc. A well-designed ad placed on a site that isn’t visited by your target market does you no good. Same with Google’s AdWords program. You can easily blow through hundreds of dollars a month on wasted clicks from keywords that are too broad and not used by your target market.
3 sure-fire (and inexpensive) ways to market a home-based business
Have a content-rich website - The more text you have on your website, the better its chances of showing up on the major search engines. Two increasingly-popular ways to do this is by having a blog or publishing ongoing industry-related articles. Not only will doing this add a ton of content to your site, it can also help to establish you as an expert in your industry.
Compile an email list - Sending permission-based emails or newsletters to past and potential customers is one of the best ways to keep your target market interested in your company’s offerings while giving them something of value (content wise) in return. Having a link on your website or order form asking visitors to opt in to receive email specials or newsletters is one of the easiest ways to build your list. Another is to include a “refer a friend” link so that current subscribers can easily let their friends in on your great emails or newsletters.
Get your business seen - This means having your company information in as many places on the web as possible: business, local and industry directories, yellow pages listings, forums, blogs as well as online advertisements with Google’s AdWords or Yahoo!’s Search Marketing.
None of the above marketing strategies require a big advertising budget or a large amount of time to launch. The most important thing to remember is to keep your target market in mind at all times. Think how they think and gear your website, blog, company listings and advertisements towards them and their interests. Successful marketers know this is the secret to any good marketing plan. Good luck!