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!

[JCI1]

When I started my business 13 years ago I started with text messages to all my clients was in my cellphone and I've kept a cell phone for the business since then. It has been the best idea then because text messages were easier to communicate and accessible for a service business

We've added all social media platforms and the business has grown using the combination of cellphone  and social media  for communication

[GACoffee]

We paid an exorbitant amount for radio advertisement, against my instincts. We also did a paid SEO boosting service for a year. Since then we've not done any advertisements and just focus on Google Reviews. Most people who find us do so by Google Maps or by word of mouth. Of course, we also focus on Instagram & Facebook but haven't boosted a post in a long time.

[CareyJo]

I love this!  I also paid an exorbitant amount for radio and got nothing from it.  We aren't a brick and mortar, so Google maps don't help us.  My focus is on FB but I never pay for boosting.  Good choices!  You gotta do what works best for your business!

[WanderingWizard]

I tried local radio in the UK for three months, and used a special offer code to judge response, not one sale in that period used the code.

I did the same with magazines, lost money on that one too.

For me the only thing that seems to work is keeping my Google Merchant feed up to date, and online promotion.

[GACoffee]

I think we got maybe 10 sales (we're coffee, so that's maybe $100 in total sales) from $4k in radio ads. Selling cars or another high-priced item? Maybe. Coffee, no way.

[WanderingWizard]

Have you tried a loyalty scheme, we found that quite successful.

People get points for every purchase, then they can exchange the points for goods

[GACoffee]

Oh yeah! We've used it from the beginning. As of now it's Buy 10 drinks, get a Free Drink, any type, any size. Any drink/size because 1) we really want to reward loyalty and 2) our guests may try a more expensive drink they'd never otherwise try and then end up buying it in the future after enjoying the experience enough to justify the cost. We used to have the rewards work out as either 10% off a drink each time or a free drink after 10x, but after the text marketing starting sending out texts they had rewards waiting, we didn't want to spam but only send a message when a free drink was waiting.

[lmpronko]

I realized that I was doing things that were different and had a bunch of experience in tech building apps. I also love helping people build their brand and discover their customer base. So I put it all together into an agency. 

[maxpete]

Love that! How long have you been in business?

[RudyPadrol]

I began marketing my business first and foremost with Square. Then Square Capital. I was able to reinvest back into my company. I then joined various chambers of commerce. I have been cross-sold by various merchant services but you can't by loyalty and Square has actually helped me stay in business back in 2014-2015. I use myself to market my business as it is very seasonal. 
But over the past years, I have taken advantage of Square marketing, Facebook, and Instagram. Thank you, Square.

[maxpete]

Thank YOU Rudy! This is great to hear 🙂 

[MaresaSD]

I create a signature free program and went to every university that had an aliumni database.

I offered a free course to their team and offered to be a "Entreprenur in Residence" since most of their professors had never actually done marketing only taught it.  I then, told the university if they could highlight the free course to the alumni network as a gift to help them grow - and in 2 months I built a list of 10,000+ small business owners in my city.  

I turned that list into an online community, build and sold the forum when it hit over 200K+ members. 

Most people aren't willing to think differently - universities are local and desperately want to be relevant.  

This was in 2015  🙂

M

[maxpete]

Ahead of the curve!

[Tathams]

When I started marketing our business Facebook was still new and IG and other socials weren't there. Our customer base is primarily on Facebook but our younger customers are using Snap and TikToc and we need tie-ends from Square to repost our messages on those platforms 

[LUIS3737]

FACEBOOK paid service with targeted marketing initially helped with a noticeable increase in sales. However, targeted zip code You Tube adds worked much better.

[maxpete]

Oh very cool! @TCSlaguna might be worth connecting with @LUIS3737 on this too!

[WDOphotography]

I officially launched my business in 2007 but was doing freelance work for about 7 years before that, 5 pretty intensely. As a result I had built up a small client base. To increase that when I went full time I did a lot of networking. I joined my neighborhood's Community and Economic Development non-profit. In fact, I actually joined their marketing committee. From there I learned quite a bit and got exposed to a lot of different people. 

After a few years doing more and more with that group I was asked to serve as the President of the Board. I guided the organization through a tumultuous staff resignation and rebuild that honestly sucked all of my time up. As a result my business suffered and I had to once again rebuild. This time I did so mostly through SEO and by reaching out to my former clients. I managed to get my website within the first 3 places on Google for photography in Pittsburgh.

Then, after a few years, I got divorced, took a side job for the benefits, Covid hit, I got laid off, I got remarried and my wife said, you're a great photographer, check out the ACA exchanges and don't go back to some terrible soulless job! In the few years between my divorce and reopening after Covid began to let up Google's algorithm had changed and I was nowhere to be found on the first few pages.

In other words, I needed to start again a third time. I'm still not in the top 3 for "Pittsburgh photographer" but I am there for event photography, nature photography, photography classes in Pittsburgh, and a few other things. I've also diversified. I began to do a lot more teaching in 2020 (via Zoom). Today, teaching private lessons and group classes is still about 25% of my business.

I still do a lot of networking, though today a good deal of that is online. Not only do I try to stay on top of my SEO but I write, including for other websites, I allow guest posts so people link to those (backlinks means "authority"), and I do Help a Reporter Out (HARO). It's allowed me to go from $0 in 2020 (thankfully I sold my house and was able to live off of that) to $35k in 21, $48k in 22, and $62k in 23. I'm still not where I want to be in terms of income but I'm on track for more than $70k this year so I must be doing something right, right? 

[maxpete]

Love this and congrats on the growth! Definitely amazing progress 👏

[WDOphotography]

Thanks! It hasn't been easy but it's always been interesting! 

[maxpete]

Makes it all worth it!

[Stagehand]

Since I was a child, I wrote letters to movie and television stars.  They would in return send me beautiful 8x10 photographs that they had autographed to me.  This was the beginning of my shop of Hollywood memorabilia, art and apparel.  Now a days, there are no more 8x10 glossies mailed as a thank you for a fan letter of adoration. The internet ha created a new venue for fans to  send of more direct adoring notes and the social networks have replaced the fan clubs. 
So, I guess, you would say I got my start by generating my inventory in my childhood.  

Today, I use social networking and the internet to promote my shop. Appropriately named “The Back Lot”, a place in the old studio days of Hollywood were kept the remnants of movie sets and cityscapes to be randomly used for the odd scene in a movie or television show. 

Good Luck and Remember to have fun!