How to generate sales – 7 low-cost marketing tips

Here are 7 low-cost but highly effective marketing tips to help any small business find customers and generate sales quickly.

1. Advertise at your own level

Don’t spend your budget on high cost advertising. Big businesses do so to create brand recognition, and future sales. The difference is that SMBs need sales now. One way to accomplish this is to always include an offer in your advertising - and an easy way for prospective customers to respond to it.

2. Keep your offer flexible

Some buyers are only interested in acquiring products from SMBs because of the lower rates. These consumers are more interested in the price of the product, rather then its quality. This means they might not be willing to pay the asking price. You can avoid losing sales to many of these customers by offering a smaller or stripped down version of your product or service at a lower price.

3. Create more versions of your product

Not all customers are looking for a cheap price. Many are willing to pay a higher price to get a premium product or service. You can boost your average size sale and your total revenue by offering a more comprehensive product or service, or by combining several products or services in a special premium package offer for a higher price.

4. Try some “out-of-the-box” marketing methods

Look for some unconventional marketing methods your competitors are overlooking. You may discover some highly profitable ways to generate sales and avoid competition. For example, a small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your website or generate a flood of sales leads for a very small cost.

5. Use smaller ads

Reduce the size of your ads so you can run more ads for the same cost. You may even be surprised to find that some of your short ads generate a better response than their longer versions.

6. Promote yourself using another SMB

Contact some non-competing small businesses serving customers in your market. Offer to publicize their products or services to your customers in exchange for their publicizing your services to their customers. This usually produces a large number of sales for a very low cost.

7. Your customers, your free advertising team

Your customers already know and trust you. It's easier to get more business from them than to get any business from somebody who never bought from you. Keep them by creating some special deals just for them, or announce new products and services to them before you announce them to the general market.

Also, convert your customers into publicity agents for your business. An endorsement from them is more effective than any amount of advertising - and it is much cheaper.

Each of these 7 marketing tips provides a simple, low-cost way for any small business to find customers and generate sales quickly.