Feb 20, 2010

Ask the experts: Local marketing gurus offer their best advice to businessesBy Robyn GautschyseMissourian.com

How can I get more exposure for my small business with very little money?

Drew Janes: Business owners looking to stretch their marketing dollars with big money results should look to one of two things: social networking and blogging. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are tremendous at providing your business exposure. As great as those sites are at getting you traffic, in the right hands, your results can be enormous. PR and marketing professionals are regularly using Twitter and Facebook in exciting ways to engage with a dynamic clientele that is ever-evolving. In addition to exposure, both services are wonderful for customer service and developing live-stream marketing campaigns.

A well-written blog goes a long way to giving your company a public face for the brand. Great corporate blogs are often credited with immediate sales boosts and generate social chatter instantly. For best results, develop a blog that you host yourself; this guarantees that you have total control of how potential customers view your message.

Jim Riley: There are all sorts of grassroots, inexpensive marketing tactics. Postcards, purposeful business cards, networking through church — even going door-to-door in the right neighborhoods. But there has never been a more powerful, grassroots marketing tool than we have now with social networking. Facebook has a national user base of 200 million, and the fastest-growing group of Facebook users is women 30–50 years of age. (If you’re trying to reach teens, look at MySpace.) If I had a small business, I would be collecting e-mail addresses and Facebook fans and providing useful information via those and other free media. Some useful tips:

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