Firtsly, hopefully this is all ok, I won’t post any specific details of my business, as am not after work from here, just after some advice please.

Basically I spent the last 8/9 months developing a service aimed at new start ups and small businesses / sole traders etc.  I believe it’s considerably cheaper than many other companies, as well as offering a great deal of features.

It’s sold for around £100pa.

I realise this is all a bit vague, I’m happy to go into more specifics, but really don’t want to come across like a stealth ad.

Here’s the thing – whilst I think my product works well and is cost effective (given that many companies are struggling at the moment), I’m really not good at the promotion side of things.

I’ve tried local press, haven’t had any replies, despite them normally running articles about new local businesses. Been trying a bit on Facebook, but it’s difficult to reach enough people without resorting to spamming, which I really don’t want to do.

I also don’t really have much money in terms of a marketing budget.

I was just wondering if anyone had experience of promoting businesses / marketing etc on a budget?

I’m happy to give away a few “products” but it’s difficult to reach the right people who in turn will offer me some promotion? Maybe sole traders or small businesses with large social media followings as they’d offer the most exposure? Or commission on sales to incentivize people into recommending me?

Any advice on gaining my first few clients would be much appreciated, as I need to start earning again to support my family!

Thanks in advance STW!

Email shots to businesses you think would benefit from the product?

Get an article in a trade magazine about how your solution is the ‘bees knees’ to your target audience?

Set up and send out a survey to your target trades/audience. Might not fill it in, but youd get some ‘free’ visibility and feedback in the marketplace.

Mailshots (more expensive)

Paid promotion on websites/search engines to place your product top centre (paid however)

Knocking on doors/cold calls. Or visitations to the ‘open office’ places where small businesses congregate for part time office space – notice board, or presentation or something.

LinkedIn column/Article among your network (and tag businesses?)

Loss leader freebies to companies to be ‘shining examples’ of your product in action and being ‘the best’ to help with marketing

Can it be allied/partnered with another service/application with an existing foothold with a client base?

Edit to add, another one ive used is my accountant – bit insider networking as he manages lots of different businesses, and can put people in touch with others where services are needed/aligned.

I found that an Instagram account was good for promoting one of my apps.

Thanks SSS, I really appreciate it!

Re: E-mail shots – I wasn’t sure the legality of this?  Happy to try, just didn’t want to get blacklisted / fined for spamming?

Unfortunately, as someone who’s worked alone for the last few years and no real clients / social media presence, I don’t really have a network to promote to at the moment – am trying to improve this though!

OP have you got any customers at all yet?

Thanks sharkbait – without trying to steal your ideas, I’ve setup an instagram account (no followers yet) but don’t really understand how to get the first few followers? Is it just a case of using popular yet related hashtags and trying to create interesting content, as it’s (as far as I’m aware) not the same as Facebook with ready made Groups etc that you can post in to an existing audience?

Kramer – I have a few from back in the day, but none with this exact service – I launched it a couple of days ago with zero audience. Currently have 22 followers on FB (obviously need a huge amount more) due to running a competition with a free “product”.  Long term, I’d like to build a mailing list so I’m in control, rather than relying on their algorithms.  I genuinely think it could do well, once I’ve picked up a few clients who in turn will hopefully recommend me and it goes from there. It’s reaching those people in the first place.

Having gone through a bit of this, I’d say the general approach is along the lines of:
– work out who you’re selling it to. What type of organisation (obvs), but also, what kind of person in that org – are they the sole decision maker, are they the person who advises the budget-holder, etc. There’s layers to it, but start here.
– what’s your competition, if any? What are organisations using now instead of your product? If they’re not using anything, do they know that there’s a problem that can be solved with your product? IF they are using competitors, why’s your offering better?
– And where’s the discussion, if any, about this kind of problem or product happening? Is it trade press, conferences, webinars, LinkedIn, Instagram etc?
– once you’ve worked out the forum(s) to be in, build out some new-ish content on those platforms – obviously showcasing your own offering, but also just building a bit of a brand as being someone who knows something about this. It gives you more credibility of knowing a bit about what these decision-makers need or are looking for.

For me it came down to “you need to sell a solution to a problem they know they have”. If they don’t know they have the problem, your content can be more about educating the market about the importance of said problem. If they know they have the problem but don’t know how to fix it, your content can be more about why your product is the best solution, etc.

@nicko74 is giving good advice.

@joeyr

It’s reaching those people in the first place.

Indeed. You’re a start-up too.

At this stage you’re not looking to scale up your funnel, instead you’re looking to find your first customer, which is a different kettle of fish and needs a different skill set.

If you haven’t done already, it’s worth constructing a hypothetical persona for your first customer.

• Who exactly is the customer?
• What is the problem that you’re solving for them?
• How and when do they make their purchasing decisions?
• Where do they go, virtually and IRL?

Then when you’ve worked out where they go, go there too and start hustling.

Thanks nicko74, I really appreciate the time you took to write this out. I’ll have a look through it and see if I can make it apply to my business 🙂

Thanks Kramer (and everyone who’s contributed) – I’m really grateful for the ideas and support!

I work in marketing, but I wonder if what you really need is a sales function?

I’ve setup an instagram account (no followers yet) but don’t really understand how to get the first few followers?

I just follow all those people that I want to sell to – they may start following you back!

Although I’m retired I do like following a business development guy on TikTok “Dave Solomon Solutions Store’. He offers a £5 per month Business Club as well as 121 mentoring but much of his content is free. Check it out and it may give you some ideas e.g. a recent video is titled ‘would YOU buy from YOU?’

What’s your insta name? I’ll give you a follow, I’m sure others on here will too.  Good luck with it 👍

Thanks chakaping – you’re probably right, but as I can’t afford to pay anyone (other than commission only) then this might have to be me on my own trying this for a bit!

Thanks sharkbait, I’ll look into the easiest way of locating my target market and see how I get on.

Thank you shinton – I’ll take a look now, and see if I can get any inspiration / motivation.

Thanks blokeuptheroad – I have put nothing up on Instagram yet other than a logo, as I’ve been focusing on Facebook (and feel free to delete this bit mods if it’s frowned upon to self promote, I don’t want to break any rules) but it’s https://www.instagram.com/affordablewebsites.co.uk/

Thanks again everyone for all the helpful advice, I really appreciate it.  If anyone else has anything else they can suggest, then please let me know, I’m grateful for anything you can offer. Thanks, Joey

Followed

Where are you?

I’m in central Hampshire.  There’s a few startup initiatives, business groups about the place and some business coaches etc. that may bring both opportunities for you to make connections who can help or peer support or potentially be your customers.

If you’re vaguely local drop me a PM and tell me a bit about what you do and I’ll see if it fits with anything I know of.

About to clear off for Easter so might take me a couple of weeks to get back to you meaningfully.

Thank you blokeuptheroad, have followed back!

Thanks garage-dweller – I’m a bit of a distance away in (not-so) sunny Cornwall – will take a look and see what’s local to me 🙂

Maybe a bit different as my related exposure to this is in France.

But I would strongly suggest visiting a few coworking places: more of the growing a community ones, rather than just rent a desk places. Here ,they have evenings dedicated to practicing the art of pitching products, by doing exactly that….on an open mic style. I think they would have resources to help you, but also form what it sounds like, your target audience on their books.

(I occasionally go to such a place as I work for myself and appreciate sharing my working day with other people in real life, as a change from working at home and seeing no one for days on end.)

Good luck, sounds exciting!!

Dan

(I work for myself so hang around in such places as a means to work alongside others from time to time rather than being alone at home.)

Agency SEO copy/content writer here.

I’ve had a quick look at your website and would definitely agree with the comments above.

Also:

Are you on Linkedin? I’d have thought that was a better place to start building a network than Facebook. Then maybe consider sharing content on TikTok as another way to build a network (disclaimer: I know nothing about social).

Have you done any SEO work on the website? Optimising for right keywords could make a massive difference.

Is your website style right for your target customers?

From a copy point of view you could do more – don’t focus so much on what you do and provide, focus on your target customers problems and how you solve them.

Building an email list is a great idea but it’s a bit of a chicken/egg thing. Linkedin could be a big help here too.

Can you get any reviews? People love reviews.

I’ve recently made a push to get my sideline hustle more or a reliable revenue stream in this currently climate.

Website made on Go Daddy, pretty straight forward using their templates.  Google Business Page, Instagram account, Yell business page and anything else I could think of to get in my name out on the web.

SEO is king, so the more presence you have on the web to legitimise your own web page the better.  Get these all back linking to your page to again help legitimise your website in the eyes of Google.  Alt image text another way to improve your page on Google.

After a few months of doing this I saw a spike in web traffic.  I did it all myself but you can hire companies to do all this web technical stuff for your but it’s not cheap.  Go Daddy wanted £5k to work on my site for a set amount of hours

HTH!

A lot of good advice on here already.

I think generally you need to work out where your potential customers “hang out”, be that LinkedIn, Insta, Facebook, etc, in person events, etc.

Once you have that you can focus your energy on the right area. That will mean putting regular content out, commenting on posts, interacting with others in the area. Local networking events can also be useful.

I also agree it sounds like you need a sales strategy rather than marketing.

It’s very general advice but it’d work for a website builder – try Seth Godin’s book ‘This Is Marketing’ and his writing about Permission Marketing. Basically the book is about natural growth and covers how why the company or product needs to stand out in some way plus how net promoters will do a lot of the work for you if you can engage then channel or share their product satisfaction. A very easy read and a great summary of the topic imo. Permission marketing aiui is about being generous with some of your knowledge and people signing up to know more – a website with a newsletter or similar content people sign-up to, to create a following ie a sales channel and leads funnel. Good luck!

Followed ( @ukgravelco )

Currently have a wordpress based site http://www.ukgravelco.com but want something more adaptable and to be able to add commerce to bring my merch store in house.

Hit me up with your ideas DM me on insta

Hey Guys – thank you all so much for your advice, I really appreciate it. I’m currently putting together some of your ideas into a plan, and will see how it goes!

rOcKeTdOg – thank you for this, I’ve just followed back – I’ll have a look through your website asap, and put together some ideas for you 🙂

Have a great Easter everyone! Thanks again, Joey