Easy Tips to Promote Your Small Business

Marketing is a fact of small-
business life and should not be
avoided. In fact, you may find that
facing your marketing fears is the
best strategy for your small
business to succeed. Once you do,
you may begin to see that there
are some marketing opportunities
that are not only simple and
economical, but also quite
effective.
Here are three easy tips to get you started
marketing your small business that build on
the everyday tasks you are already tackling
to promote your business. All you have to
do is pick the one that fits into your busy
day.

1. In Be-Tweets . You already know that you
should have a Twitter presence, but
perhaps you are not sure where to begin. If
so, then you will be relieved to know that
all you need are a few minutes and a good
Twitter client such as Hootsuite or
Tweetdeck to get started. Need an idea on
what to say? Use your latest project or
design issue as the inspiration for your next
Tweet. By using this time between other
daily tasks to spread small, informative
messages, you can quickly gain a collection
of followers. These are people who share
your industry and drive both business and
cooperative relationships back to you.
Pro Tip: If you have some extra time or
thoughts on a particular day, then write
some extra messages and schedule them to
be posted later. This is a great strategy to
build a regular posting schedule. Plus, you
won’t have to worry about being too busy
to tweet on a given day.

2. Press It Out. We are all used to seeing
press releases from large companies such
as Google and Microsoft. Maybe you think
press releases are only for big corporations,
but you would be wrong. It takes only a
short time to create a couple of paragraphs
about that new project you’re working on;
once you do, you will begin to reap the
benefits that press releases can bring to
your company. Posting your press releases
to your website, including them in
newsletters, or posting them to a press-
release aggregator website—such as PRWeb
—will create an information resource that
others can use to fill their information or
content needs and promote your firm in the
process.
Pro Tip: Not sure where to begin with your
first press release? Don’t fret the details.
There are plenty of websites out there with
tips and templates to help you get started,
and most of them are free!

3. Subject Matters. As a small-business
owner, you are a “subject-matter expert.”
Make that expertise pull double-duty as a
marketing tool. Your company website, blog,
or other social-media channels are all great
avenues to post your knowledge. Take a
moment to record a video and let everyone
know how you solved a design problem. Or
write a blog post to share how you
generated a new design aspect for a recent
project. These trails of knowledge will allow
your future clients to find you when they
perform searches on Google and other
search engines. This will spread the word of
your business and your expertise 24 hours a
day, every day going forward!
Pro Tip: Not sure where to begin or how to
post a presentation or white paper? No
problem. Services such as SlideShare will
help you get started for free and offer a
wide range of services for small fees.
There are plenty of ways you can take the
work that is on your desk on any given day
and turn it into the basis of an affordable
and solid marketing effort. The marketing
ideas listed above do not require large
investments of money or time to get your
marketing efforts off the ground. Practicing
these three skills will take your small
business from being paralyzed by fear and
doubt to being a powerhouse of marketing
energy. The key is to make that first move
to market your small business, and let the
world know all that you have to offer.
Are you already building marketing
momentum for your small business? Leave
a comment and let us know and add
another plank to your marketing platform!
Going to Autodesk University in Las Vegas
from Dec. 3–5? Don’t forget to sign up for
Curt Moreno’s small-business classes ,
“Communication Tips for Building and
Maintaining Client Relationships” and
“Stepping Up to Stand Out: How to Deliver
Presentations That Win Projects.”