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6 Marketing Strategies You Should Start Using Before 2015

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As a small entrepreneur, you don’t have the money to waste! You want every single cent that you spend to be accounted for. This is why you need to think outside the box every time you are marketing your products. So,  without wasting much of your time, let’s see what you can do to make your business grow faster using a small budget.


1.E-Mail Marketing

What it is: In simple words, this is a marketing tactic whereby you get people to provide you with their emails so that you can send them emails on a frequent basis. You can then use these emails to market your products and services.
How to use it: Collect emails from your target market e.g by using a sign-up form on your website or blog. Create a good relationship with your subscribers so that they can trust you enough to read your emails.
Marketing tips in Kenya

You can use such a banner on your website/blog to lure people to join your email list.

What you require: A blog or website that has frequent visitors, an autoresponder. It takes some time to build a good email-marketing platform but we can tell you that it is worth the wait.
Budget: You can expect to spend a minimum of Ksh15,000 to create a good email list over a period of time. (Visit this resource to learn more about email marketing ).

2.Social Media Marketing

What it is: A cost-effective marketing tactic whereby you use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn (or any other social media platform) to market your products.
How to use it: Create a Facebook page such as the Kuza Biashara one, get many organic likes and then start recommending some of your products to your fans. Social media marketing should be done sparingly; “Too Much Selling” is a no-no here.
Social media marketing in Kenya

Used correctly, the social media world can generate sufficient market for your products.

What you require: You can spend a few coins on social media adverts or give free giveaways to lure your fans into buying your products or services. (Visit this useful resource to learn some more social media tactics that work locally).

3.Affiliate Marketing
 What it is: This is where you get people to market your products and you give them a small commission in exchange of every sale delivered. This strategy works pretty well when one is operating an online shop and wants to use bloggers to social media users as his or her sales agents.
How to use it: If you have an online shop, tell your web developer to create some unique affiliate links for your products. Then get people to use those affiliate links to make some money as they market you. There are thousands of people looking to make money online – so why not give them an opportunity to do so as they market your products?
affiliate marketing works in kenya

A simple explanation of how affiliate marketing works.

Practical Example: A Kenyan website, www.travelstart.co.ke, uses affiliate marketers to attract new clients to their fold. Amazon.com is yet another site that uses affiliate marketing to attract buyers.

What you require: You can sensitize people to use your affiliate links to make money as they recommend people to come buy your products. This way you’ll have hit two birds with one stone.
Budget: There is no fixed budget for this, it all depends with how you negotiate with your web developer and amount of commission that you’ll be giving to your affiliates.

4.Search Engine Marketing
What they are: If you have a website or blog that ranks highly on the search engine (for keywords that are relevant to your services) you can drive up demand for your products. Of course, you would need learn some basic SEO tips to understand how you can get your website to rank on Google for keywords that people often research about (in your niche).
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The websites marked in red would have a high likelihood of attracting online customers. This is what SEO marketing is all about.

How to use it: Work with an SEO expert (or learn some basic blogging tips), create useful articles that people search for on the net.
What you require: Good content writing skills (alternatively you can hire an article writer), good website and patience.
Budget: There is no fixed budget for SEO services. But you can expect to spend roughly Ksh10,000 (minimum per year) or more if you hire a full-time SEO expert to work for you. If done right, SEO marketing works like magic.

5.Paying a social influencer to endorse you
What it is: Look for popular people on social media and request them to endorse your products for a small fee. It doesn’t have to be a big celebrity, though, just look for a people with at least 1000 followers on Twitter or Facebook and you’re good to go.
How to use it: Identify a person who has the right audience for your products. If you are selling beauty products, for instance, you would be better off working with a fashion celebrity or blogger to promote your products.
What you require: Good reputation so that people don’t shy off from endorsing your products.
Budget: Again, there is no fixed budget for this. It depends with how good or bad your negotiation skills are.
 

6.W.O.M Method
What it is: This where you get people to talk about your products with their friends; the more they talk about you the more buyers you get.
How to use it: Give your customers good value for their money and they are going to talk about you everywhere. Your task here is to keep people talking positively about your products or services.
Marketing tips in Kenya

WOM is where you get people to talk about your good services or prices with their friends.

What you require: Good reputation and a high degree of loyalty from your past customers.
Budget: You don’t really need to setup a side budget for this. You may however need to spend a lot more to improve the quality of your goods and services.

Ask Us Anything
Is there any one of the 6 tips mentioned above that you would like us to delve deeper into? As usual, we are here to handle all of your tough (business) questions…use the comment box provided below to air your views.



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