LUBA Business Tips: Low-cost, High-impact Marketing Ideas

Make Sure Your Current Clients Know They’re Appreciated

Don’t forget to make your clients feel appreciated. Consider small gift boxes for clients featuring branded coffee or tea as a “perk” of doing business with you. Or, you might have custom-printed donut boxes made, and then deliver a box of donuts unexpectedly to existing clients and offices that do business with you. 

Host an Event and Store Up Some Digital Artifacts

Host a small event with a professional photographer. The photos (and video, if you can get it) will become “digital artifacts” that you can file away and use on social media or in other promotional materials all year long. 

Send Promotions with Your Invoices

You’re already sending out a document to a client—so why not include a promotion while you have their attention? Remind them that you send gift cards or other prizes as a thank-you for referrals, for example.

Join a Local Networking Group

Entrepreneurs like to help each other out. Joining a reputable local business networking group, such as a local BNI chapter, can expand your network widely by establishing trust with other small business owners in your area. Couple this with small branded notebooks to hand out with your business cards. 

Learn to Ask for Referrals

Call us old-school, but remember that in sales, you’re much more likely to get something if you ask for it. You can’t assume that your great service and high-quality products speak for themselves and cause current customers to shout your name from the rooftops. Challenge yourself to get in the habit of graciously asking for a referral from every satisfied customer. 

Give Back

For less than the price of a quarter-page ad in the local paper, you can sponsor your child’s (or your client’s) soccer team, or get your name on the sponsor's banner at a local charity event. Charity involvement goes far in generating customer goodwill. Show people that your business is involved in the community.