How to Market Your Organizing Business on a Shoestring Budget
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The idea of marketing your organizing business can be a daunting prospect, especially for small businesses with limited budgets. When funds are limited, marketing budgets are often the first thing that gets cut.
What if I told you that marketing does not have to be a costly process, and that you can still lay the foundations for finding new clients without breaking the bank? Read on for some affordable, tried-and-tested marketing strategies for growing your organizing business.
1. Post Valuable Content to Your Blog
Creating targeted blog content is one of the most accessible marketing tactics available. Assuming your organizing business already has a website and blog, all you need is time and an understanding of your clients’ needs. When generating content ideas, think about the problems that your target audience experiences, and try to provide invaluable content that draws on your experience and expertise that helps to directly solve a problem. Producing useful content can help you to get your brand in front of those who require your services and, if shared online, can also help to expand your online presence.
2. Create a Google Business Listing
This should be the first step for any business seeking to gain local customers. While organizing services can be conducted remotely, some customers will prefer to work with a company who’s located nearby and who they can meet up and have a face-to-face chat with. Setting up a Google Business profile will help you to appear for those localized search terms, and it only takes 5 minutes to do.
3. Referrals
Using referrals as a marketing tactic works particularly well for professions which require the building of a rapport between you and your client. What makes this tactic so great is that it’s a natural consequence of providing an incredible level of service to your clients. Once you’ve finished a project with a satisfied client, inform them that you run a referral scheme, and that they can receive a commission for referring your services to others.
4. Attend Local Networking Events
While some networking groups are expensive and require annual membership fees, there are many that are completely free to attend. Thanks to sites like meetup.com, smaller event groups are now being organized more than ever, and can help you to put you in touch with local business owners who are in need of your services.
5. Create Listings On Trusted Local Directories
A completely free method of expanding your exposure online is to create a strong listing on the most trusted local directory sites, such as Yelp and TrustPilot. Filling out a profile is a quick task, and doing so will make your site appear when people search these sites for organizing services in your area. Creating a profile on multiple directories of this type, and ensuring consistency of the information provided, is great practice for local SEO and helps you to rank organically on search engines like Google.
6. Organic Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is another marketing tactic that can be performed affordably. Your first step here should be to identify the social platforms most relevant to your business and, more importantly, your target market. Then, decide on the types of content that are most likely to engage your target customers, and set up a consistent posting schedule to grow your following. Tools such as Hootsuite and Buffer can help you to schedule posts ahead of time, allowing you to more efficiently use your time to maintain a consistent presence, reinforcing your brand image to your target audience.
7. Email Marketing
If you already have an email list, email marketing can be an invaluable tactic for finding new customers, and it is relatively inexpensive to implement. Tools such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact make it easy to design and manage email marketing campaigns, and depending on the size of your recipient list, many of these services offer free plans to get you started.
So there you have it; seven marketing strategies that can be implemented relatively cheaply to help you find new customers. Which ones are most suitable for you will depend on your particular business and target market. Try some out for yourself and let us know in the comments which ones worked for you.
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All great tips, many of which I have used. I also donate time to local charity auctions and do a lot of public speaking, both of which have gotten me clients. And then there is the old fashioned, “Bring up what you do in conversation all the time” tip:)
I really need to work on bringing up what I do in conversation! Even when it’s a business event, I never seem to be prepared with an explanation that’s neither boring nor a sales pitch.
Thank you for these tips. Fabulous website design is a key to my success. 99% of my clients find me via Google and tell me they liked my website–Thank you Janet!!!
Jill, I’m just getting started and am exploring setting up my site. Do you have any tips to share to ensure the site aligns with your vision?
Hi Holly, I made sure that Janet and my photographer knew the look I was going for. Clean, organized, simple, informal, friendly, warm, inviting, fun. Convey your image to your designer (Janet is awesome) and photographer.
Wow, that’s awesome, Jill! So happy to have had a hand in that. 🙂
Your strategies are amazing and to the point.
These are excellent tips. With the rise of social media, my marketing efforts have morphed over the years. However, revisiting some of the more traditional marketing avenues is valuable to look at. I used to do more print advertising, which stopped being a good investment as social media became more prominent. But I’ve put my toe in again to test the waters. So far I’m not convinced, but it’s a bit early to tell.
Speaking gigs are another good way of marketing.
I agree, speaking is a great way to market your business!
Great tips on how to market your organizing business online. I found that social media marketing has evolved over time. But, one tried and true post that works to engage others to check out my services are before and after images. Over many years, this strategy of sharing before and after images in a Facebook post helped engage others to ask questions. I do find that spending a little money on local advertising works best on Facebook these days.
I find this subject of before and after photos very interesting! Many organizers swear by them, while others feel strongly against them.
I’ve done all of those things. The key is to figure out which ones are working for you, and do them consistently. (I’ve also dropped the ball on all of those things at one time or another.)
It’s definitely difficult to do all of them consistently, especially when things keep changing (especially in the social media world).
Great ideas. Hard to implement all at once. What do you think is the best place to start. I started with networking and then email marketing. Now I’ve done all of these, since technology has become so important in marketing a small business.
Thanks, Janet. You’re totally right. Without a dedicated marketing department (a luxury few of us have), it certainly is difficult to implement them all simultaneously.
In terms of priority, I would say it makes sense to approach the one-off tasks first, by which I mean fully setting up your listing on Google and on the other trusted local directories.
Beyond that, I think it’s important to set up your process for gaining referrals (such as a page on your website), so you can capitalize on those when the opportunities arise. I also feel that strategies for growing your email list should be in place early on.
With those elements in place, I feel you should then focus on ongoing investments, such as content marketing through your blog and social channels, as well local networking events.
Great tips! I have used all of those strategies in marketing my business. I think that setting up a local Google business listing has been the most effective for me, but all of these actions can certainly help potential clients find professional organizing services.
Google business listings are great – and they’re not that difficult to set up either!