How did you start marketing your business?

[tranguyen]

It’s May at last 🌞! 

With a new month starting, we’ve been seeing a lot of new faces in the Community and more questions around starting a business, such as a question from @Starwayy around how to get their first customer. 

In the spirit of new beginnings, this week, we’d love to find out:

How did you start marketing your business?

Did you start advertising locally in-person or did you start with social media right away? What is the one thing you wish you knew when you first started marketing your business?

Looking forward to reading all your insights!

[TCSlaguna]

Social media didn't exist when we started our business 20 years ago. We utilized ads in magazines and newsletters related to our business. After reaching out, the local newspaper did an article about our store opening. We would ask customers to join our mailing list and would create a bimonthly newsletter we would mail out (so much work at the time!). 

As time has gone by, we have obviously started to rely more on social media marketing and email newsletters. Still local newspaper articles have helped us see bumps in sale. Our local chamber of commerce has helped us a lot too with sidewalk events and publications. 

[maxpete]

Smart idea for utilizing your local chamber of commerce!

[tranguyen]

Mailing list is such a throw back! Are you still doing any kind of newsletter for your business @TCSlaguna 👀? 

[TCSlaguna]

@tranguyen We do a monthly newsletter via Square Marketing. It looks SOO much nicer than our paper newsletters used to. We also do mid-month product discounts via Square Marketing. It's fantastic! 

[Blume_girl]

How do you do this? Is square marketing free with your square account?

[Lou8]

Hi @Blume_girl, thanks for posting !

I just wanted to jump in to provide more information about Square Marketing.

The monthly cost of Marketing is based on your number of subscribed customer contacts, and starts at $15/month. You can review the full pricing here. We offer a 30-day free trial if you'd like to try it out for your business !

You might also find these support articles helpful:

• Get started with Email Marketing
• Get Started with Text Message Marketing

I hope this helps but let me know if you have any questions 🙂.

[WDOphotography]

Newsletters are such a great marketing tool still! 

I market my photography classes through a monthly newsletter. I also include about 4 articles per month full of tips and tricks to help people learn photography. That's helped me keep a 50% open rate and I typically have about 10 signups per month for my classes. 

I heard a marketer on a photography podcast a few years back talking about how timid people can be asking people to join their mailing list. He said, it's not a favor, or at least it shouldn't be. You should be giving them valuable information in there. That's why I include so many articles, which are also published on my blog so I get SEO help from them as well. Hearing that really struck home.

Before listening to that I thought I was bothering people by asking them to sign up. I was thinking about how many company emails I get that I just delete without opening - even those I was excited to sign up for. Seeing them as a way to provide valuable information to my clients rather than a marketing tool has helped me keep that opening rate high and the sales coming from that. 

Thanks for mentioning them! 

[MudFire_Dex]

My first business was started in 2008/09 and we did a lot of in person marketing by talking to customers about their pottery at shows we also placed ads in magazines. For MudFire it has been more social media work, ad buys online for things like summer camp, Valentine's day and Holiday Sale advertising, cross marketing - we are a pickup spot for a local CSA, as well as general post boosting, etc. A click of the button works so much faster than 50 in person conversations! Wild how times have shifted so quickly.

[maxpete]

Definitely agree on how efficient it is to market online vs. in person! But, I still love the in person marketing too 🙂

[tranguyen]

It definitely feels like such a dramatic shift within the last ten years or so, not just with the shift to digital but even the shift in which social media platforms are used more as well!

[mksavage]

We've always had the most success with in-person marketing. I've talked about this before, but we first started as a Farmer's Market stand, which was a great opportunity to connect with customers in a really low-stakes way. People are much more willing to pay $3 for some cookies than stop by a new restaurant for the first time. Over the first few years, we became part of people's weekly routine -- stopping by our stand for their sweet Saturday treat. And then when we opened the doors on our brick-and-mortar, they were there with us. We've tried to keep this kind of marketing going -- to promote our catering offerings, we'll often drop off little sandwich box samples/cookies/donuts, etc. at nearby offices along with a brochure. We call it "experiential marketing" -- giving people an opportunity to see how good you are, for free, before they commit. There's definitely a cost to it, but it's been effective for us.

[maxpete]

Love this approach and I see how much this works with my wife's business too. When people can see who is behind the brand/company is has been super helpful in getting the word out!

[tranguyen]

I think the key is to find what works for you @mksavage! I really love the thought behind connecting with people and becoming a part of their routine. One of my favourite bakeries in Dublin started out as a pop-up and I remembered queuing every weekend buying bread and having the chat with them, geting to know them better. And now I'm getting an hour train every weekend to see them out at their new brick-and-mortar location 😂

[mksavage]

Thats so cool @tranguyen! I love hearing how people connect with their favorite places like that. It's a really special experience, an extension of your community in a really cool way.

[LePucciBijou]

We had a local restaurant chain stop in the other day with some free food and 2 coupons for free hamburgers. I thought it was awesome! Gave them a big shout out from our page, tagged them in the post with pics of the food they brought, they shared it on their page. I thought it was brilliant marketing!

[Castlebait]

I marketed mostly on facebook.  Its the yellow pages.  I dont actually use facebook for much more than marketing. I spend a lot of time in facebook, in groups.  Its an online word of mouth advertising.  And honestly it is the best place to market on to start with.   A few very detailed targeted ads can do wonders.   I find doing your own targeting with keywords works better than Facebook algorithms.  And I find if you dont spend money on ads, your facebook page will be buried.  Unfortunately, in the last week I have had to shut down messenger, people tagging my page, and posting to my page...the amount of spams you get from fake accounts will overwelm you.

[maxpete]

Great idea to utilize groups! There definitely can be a lot of spam there as you mentioned, but a great way to be cost effective in your marketing to utilize what Facebook offers. 

[tranguyen]

Ohhh, I'd never have thought of Facebook Groups @Castlebait! How do you usually find the right group to post in — are these local community groups, or more shared interests groups 👀?

[Lootz]

Your Facebook posts will get buried in groups if they do not generate conversation. What I will usually do is post to the group and then have a friend or family member come in behind me and leave a comment. This generally will send the message to the algorithm that coversation potential exists and it will keep me higher in the feed for longer. Best of luck!

[Blume_girl]

So I should pay for an add? Does that really work?