How did you start marketing your business?

[tranguyen]

It’s May at last 🌞! 

With a new month starting, we’ve been seeing a lot of new faces in the Community and more questions around starting a business, such as a question from @Starwayy around how to get their first customer. 

In the spirit of new beginnings, this week, we’d love to find out:

How did you start marketing your business?

Did you start advertising locally in-person or did you start with social media right away? What is the one thing you wish you knew when you first started marketing your business?

Looking forward to reading all your insights!

[TCSlaguna]

Social media didn't exist when we started our business 20 years ago. We utilized ads in magazines and newsletters related to our business. After reaching out, the local newspaper did an article about our store opening. We would ask customers to join our mailing list and would create a bimonthly newsletter we would mail out (so much work at the time!). 

As time has gone by, we have obviously started to rely more on social media marketing and email newsletters. Still local newspaper articles have helped us see bumps in sale. Our local chamber of commerce has helped us a lot too with sidewalk events and publications. 

[maxpete]

Smart idea for utilizing your local chamber of commerce!

[tranguyen]

Mailing list is such a throw back! Are you still doing any kind of newsletter for your business @TCSlaguna 👀? 

[TCSlaguna]

@tranguyen We do a monthly newsletter via Square Marketing. It looks SOO much nicer than our paper newsletters used to. We also do mid-month product discounts via Square Marketing. It's fantastic! 

[MudFire_D]

My first business was started in 2008/09 and we did a lot of in person marketing by talking to customers about their pottery at shows we also placed ads in magazines. For MudFire it has been more social media work, ad buys online for things like summer camp, Valentine's day and Holiday Sale advertising, cross marketing - we are a pickup spot for a local CSA, as well as general post boosting, etc. A click of the button works so much faster than 50 in person conversations! Wild how times have shifted so quickly.

[maxpete]

Definitely agree on how efficient it is to market online vs. in person! But, I still love the in person marketing too 🙂

[tranguyen]

It definitely feels like such a dramatic shift within the last ten years or so, not just with the shift to digital but even the shift in which social media platforms are used more as well!

[mksavage]

We've always had the most success with in-person marketing. I've talked about this before, but we first started as a Farmer's Market stand, which was a great opportunity to connect with customers in a really low-stakes way. People are much more willing to pay $3 for some cookies than stop by a new restaurant for the first time. Over the first few years, we became part of people's weekly routine -- stopping by our stand for their sweet Saturday treat. And then when we opened the doors on our brick-and-mortar, they were there with us. We've tried to keep this kind of marketing going -- to promote our catering offerings, we'll often drop off little sandwich box samples/cookies/donuts, etc. at nearby offices along with a brochure. We call it "experiential marketing" -- giving people an opportunity to see how good you are, for free, before they commit. There's definitely a cost to it, but it's been effective for us.

[maxpete]

Love this approach and I see how much this works with my wife's business too. When people can see who is behind the brand/company is has been super helpful in getting the word out!

[tranguyen]

I think the key is to find what works for you @mksavage! I really love the thought behind connecting with people and becoming a part of their routine. One of my favourite bakeries in Dublin started out as a pop-up and I remembered queuing every weekend buying bread and having the chat with them, geting to know them better. And now I'm getting an hour train every weekend to see them out at their new brick-and-mortar location 😂

[mksavage]

Thats so cool @tranguyen! I love hearing how people connect with their favorite places like that. It's a really special experience, an extension of your community in a really cool way.

[Castlebait]

I marketed mostly on facebook.  Its the yellow pages.  I dont actually use facebook for much more than marketing. I spend a lot of time in facebook, in groups.  Its an online word of mouth advertising.  And honestly it is the best place to market on to start with.   A few very detailed targeted ads can do wonders.   I find doing your own targeting with keywords works better than Facebook algorithms.  And I find if you dont spend money on ads, your facebook page will be buried.  Unfortunately, in the last week I have had to shut down messenger, people tagging my page, and posting to my page...the amount of spams you get from fake accounts will overwelm you.

[maxpete]

Great idea to utilize groups! There definitely can be a lot of spam there as you mentioned, but a great way to be cost effective in your marketing to utilize what Facebook offers. 

[tranguyen]

Ohhh, I'd never have thought of Facebook Groups @Castlebait! How do you usually find the right group to post in — are these local community groups, or more shared interests groups 👀?

[DLRosenberg]

AT question.

The first steps for us were:

create social media handles/pages: Facebook & Instagram (TikTok was later- but now so important to our biz)

We created google business page, Bing business page, Yelp business page (this helps with google SEO)

we created a website (first just informational then we added e-commerce)

[maxpete]

Nicely done on getting all of the tools and accounts set up from the beginning. Where would you say that you're focusing most of your time now in marketing your business?

[DLRosenberg]

you know my answer is going to be:

Social Media

More specifically Instagram & TikTok

Our focus is there and it works really well for us.. I'd love to teach a retail class on this 🙂

[maxpete]

Hmm maybe a future event here in the community 👀? CC: @isabelle 

[DLRosenberg]

Also.. don't underestimate the importance of in-person events, networking at trade events, etc. 

We are always putting ourselves "out there" in our industry..

[JUYBoutique20]

I started out by creating social media pages first.  I then began doing in person events to establish myself as a business with potential customers.