What have you found to be the best way to promote or advertise your business? 📣

[tranguyen]

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Between online sites, social media and in-store materials, there are so many different ways you can advertise your business. It can be overwhelming for a new business starting out to determine the best place to start.

This week, @PlaySpace wants to ask:

What have you found to be the best way to promote or advertise your business?

Feel free to link out to your website or social media in your reply too!

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This week’s question is part of our Small Business Month celebration! Join this conversation and you’ll have the opportunity to earn a special achievement – a snazzy new badge for your community profile!*

 

 

*Badges will be rewarded periodically throughout May 2023. In order to earn the badge you must reply or comment on one or more Small Business Month 2023 posts between May 1 - May 31, 2023.

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Have you always wondered how other business owners handle slow sales? If you have a Question of the Week you'd like to ask the Seller Community, share it with us on this thread!

[TCSlaguna]

Honestly, what drives sales the most for us is Square Email Marketing. 

It is a great way to market our events and product discounts drive up our sales. 

[MysticCity]

 In-Person vendor events drive it all, I mean it's nice to have all the digital marketing and forms of seeing the products in 2D or 3D but to physically see and touch the products in person helps me drive sales, collect emails, and collect marketing information for future sales and customer based info.

[Doran]

For treatments/facials--word of mouth.  

For online product sales-- social media. 

[Prettybrat24]

My Social Media platform has been very helpful especially Facebook.

Follow me on Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/Prettybrat24?mibextid=ZbWKwL

Instagram @Prettybrat24 

[rtfulk]

Social media and email marketing, but what we get a lot hits on is QR codes. For some reason people love to scan a QR code, I guess it’s like opening a gift you don’t know what is in it until you open it. We have a landing page that has every piece of information about us you can imagine.

[MelissaBlast]

what do you place your QR codes on? flyers? can you go into a little detail please? thanks so much!

[Dulzzitos]

I think google is best option . I would like to use facebook and Instagram as well 

[TheRealChipA]

Facebook, of course.  We do some kind of post every few days.  This year, we are running Facebook contests where the winner receives a nominal eGift card.

Our 4.75 star Google & Yelp pages don’t hurt. (Even the occasional review where someone complains about the “rude old man” at the window.  LOL.  That’s me!  I’m actually having buttons made for me and my employees that say (for me) “As seen on Google — the rude old man!”, and for my employees “I’m one of the nice ones!”)

The one that surprises us is a new avenue.  We’ve always shunned “traditional” advertising.  But when we rebranded a few years ago after the pandemic, we started doing digital ads with one of our two local news sites.  The results have shocked us regarding the number of click-through that we get.  Some months those click-through rates rival, if not beat, Google, Yelp and even Facebook.

Otherwise, we are an ice cream shop.  It’s all about keeping the neighbors happy. They spread the word around.  Best of all, our restaurant and bar neighbors do that as well.  Not everyone wants a heavy restaurant dessert after a big meal, and since most of the servers and bartenders in the neighborhood are Piper’s customers we know by name, you can bet we get suggested a lot.

[WET]

As a new member to sqaure my company still has a lot to learn about marking but i will say sharing on social media helps a lot.

[alexandriak]

Social media is the best way for us. It allows me to easily track metrics and determine if the ads are performing well. The ads are cost effective once you've found the right audiences to use.

[Chaoscre8or149]

Word of mouth for me, being a helpful guide at in person events doesn't hurt. I'm the low pressure booth I don't push sales in peoples faces. I actively engage people and tell them where things are at events and keep a map on hand even if I draw it myself to direct people. People either end up purchasing on the spot as a return of gratitude, returning or directing others to me. Just being personable goes a very long way, every event I do I network with other vendors and do "scouting" missions to learn the lay of the land so I can direct traffic flow around since I know my stuff isn't  for everyone.

[Teabeestores]

Honestly, we've tried all kinds of paid advertising. Mailers do ok but word of mouth is our biggest driver. So we offer exceptional customer service and our customers tell their friends and so on.

[JUYBoutique20]

For us we have lots of success through in person events.  I love to talk, and people love to come up and talk about the different styles I carry.  I'm wanting to get into live online sales as well.

[EmpoweredNEMT]

Because my business is special needs transportation, I have to first think about the person who is booking my service rather than the person that is using my service. I have found that the majority of my business is for people over the age of 70, so I market to their children (Hey-o Gen Xers!) Social media presence is key, along with a good Google business page. 

I also take a grassroots approach to marketing, and I go into all of the skilled nursing facilities within a 10 mi radius of my home. I bring goody bags with a choice supply of the best pens you could ever get for free if you were in healthcare. 

You cannot beat word of mouth. When you show up in a professional uniform with a clean van, a smile on your face, and endless compassion, you are bound to succeed. 

[DinaLRosenberg]

for us it's a combo of social media (instagram & TikTok) with a good combo of all the features (reels, lives, etc.) 

We also LOVE LOVE LOVE square marketing. We send emails and text messages weekly and have great success with them. We purchased Canva templates that we use for both our email and text marketing. Loyalty has been a game changer too.

[PartyManiaMD]

Honestly for us the most effective is just word of mouth and people finding us when they need party supplies. 

Social media is underwhelming when it comes to engagement because people either need party supplies or they don't, even though we carry more than just party supplies. We've tried everything from social media to paid ads to mailers to google ads and frankly they all have a terrible ROI. The only paid marketing that ever worked for us was Groupons when they first came out but they oversaturated the market to the point where they don't even work anymore.

Square Marketing has helped a bit but we still run into the issue where unless people need stuff the coupon or email doesn't really help at all. Loyalty has been far more effective because our competitors don't offer a loyalty program and we're aggressive at a rolling 10% back.

The irony is I feel like I'm going crazy sometimes with how little social media helps us because I have a marketing background but we're in a niche that while visual has a lot of white noise from the big chains.

[bicyclerepair]

Introducing myself with an elevator pitch & handing out my business card. I own a bicycle repair business. I have a car with my business decals & phone number. I go to the popular bicycle trails & pass out my business card. 

People are being conditioned to ignore online ads. When an in person communication happens the person will never forget it.  SELL SELL SELL   

                          I advertise & market online but I have to have the proven in person sales skill. Some original techniques still work & will never die.

Website https://www.bosquemobilebicyclerepair.com/

Facebook https://business.facebook.com/BosqueMobileBicycleRepair/

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBs8pPz5KYZyJ13Nlv6Ka-g

TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@bosquebicyclerepair?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/bosquemobilebicyclerepair/
Odysee
https://odysee.com/@BosqueMobileBicycleRepair:3?r=5HjxZydCb6XYSEyyPXoQXEk7Hs4Nib6P
Pinterest
https://www.pinterest.com/bicyclerepair505/
Snap Chat
https://www.snapchat.com/add/bicyclerepair
Twitter
https://twitter.com/BosqueBicycle
Indeed
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bosque-mobile-bicycle-repair-llc/

[anepotts]

Our restaurant has tried loads of things but seriously direct mailers on 9x6 cards to mail routes closest to us got the best response!

AND getting people in the area to talk about us naturally on the nextdoor online group has been HUGE. Thats free!

[Loftsalon]

We have found that providing a quality service customers will review on google and that has led to an increase of business for us. Our customers absolutely love the ease and convenience that square offers for them. From booking online to checking them out. It’s seamless and they love that! 

[Armstronglock]

I have been using Google Guarantee for my business, which has worked well for me. Here is my URL https://armstronglocksmithinc.com

our Tiktok page# https://www.tiktok.com/@armstronglocksmith?lang=en