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by Barbara McKinney
Marketing on a shoestring budget? There’s still a way: Sometimes there is just no way to justify the cost of hiring a big-budget PR firm that you have to take chances on modest consultants or even your own in-house specialists to perform the marketing aspects of your business. You’re going to have to take refuge in the arms of your own talents and resources to create a buzz in the industry even with a limited budget. Basically what you have to achieve is to discover what will work best for your company, and maximizing on that approach to generate public interest without spending much. To do this, you must beef up your own internal structure before revealing yourself out in the open. Define your “elevator pitch”. You don’t necessarily have to use a formulaic speech when interacting with prospects, but it helps to really know how you would present your product or service to the media. The truth is, it’s no different from the way you would pitch to your customers one-on-one. You just need to develop what story you will tell the world, so that all your limited resources are channeled through one source of impact. Be at the right place at the right time. Some would say it takes a little bit of luck to instantaneously influence a particular group of people at any given time. But you could increase the chances of that “luck” by being strategically present wherever the action is hot: social events, popular commonplaces, holiday promos, or center-of-commerce locations. Leverage your links. If you’re a believer of the six degrees of separation theory, you might be encouraged by the presence of your social connections. In one way or another, you must know someone who has a friend who knows someone else from a company that might be able to help you or become a prospect itself. Referrals don’t cost anything. Don’t hesitate to ask the people you associate with if they can help make useful introductions. Be resourceful. Okay, so you don’t know a lot of people. That’s okay. What you need now is to generate ideas to expand your marketing. You can look for a popular “news hook” and see how your business can fit into a bigger story. You can follow industry experts, writers or reporters on social media and see how they could be resourced. Do your research on creative ways to spark a buzz in prospect-laden community. Or better yet, do a throwback to a traditional marketing technique and see if you can put a modern twist into it.
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