Bloody T-Shirts = Cost Saving Marketing?
[by Kimberly Blom-Roemer]
Just like most of you, I have a bloody t-shirt from the hits I took with the economic slow down. Because of this, and knowing cutting back on my marketing would be the death knell for my business, I had to do some serious soul searching to find ways to maintain/increase my marketing without increasing my costs.
Blogging
This is a low/no cost way to increase your profile as an “expert” in your field, can potentially kick to your SEO, and it allows your readers to get to know you. The key to blogging is to be consistent and relevant. The frequency depends on your business, your clients, and the amount of time you want to devote to it. One of the biggest things you can be doing with your blogs, is KEEP IT VISUAL! You’re a visual artist, and as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words (it will also get you out of writing a big long blog – ha!).
Manual Labor
For your “snail mail” promos print your own mailing labels, put them on your postcard yourself, put the stamps on yourself. You can do this in the evening while watching TV or other “downtime” rather than take up your valuable “prime business” time.
See and Be Seen
If any organizations that your clients belong to have a meeting, charity event/workday, social hour, etc. GO TO IT! These are oftentimes free. The most powerful thing you can do when marketing is to meet people face to face! People buy from people they like, let them get to know you personally!
Press Releases
This is an old staple of the marketing plan that is often overlooked. But it can generate free exposure for you, contribute to your SEO through all sorts of inbound links and keywords. Put this into your marketing plan, the same for enewsletters, blogs, and promos. There are all sorts of resources on the web about writing these, but the most important criteria is to make sure you’re discussing something newsworthy. And, once you have created a “Media” email list/bookmarks, as well as services such as PR Log, generating a Press Release is essentially free and doesn’t take much time at all beyond the actual writing.
Just because you’re looking for ways to cut your marketing costs, doesn’t mean you have to cut down on your marketing! In fact, slow downs are the EXACT time to increase your marketing so you’re ahead of all those that DID cut back!
Kimberly Blom-Roemer had the trifecta of catastrophes in the last four years nearly wipe out her marketing budget: economic downturn, relocation, and person finance collapse. But even with that, she’s re-emerged from the other side “better, stronger, and faster” than before. She can be reached at kimberly@r2-photography.com.
