? medianet_width=’600′;medianet_height=’120′;medianet_crid=’711758437′;Let’s face it, starting a small business in this economy can be tough. Fortunately there are a few great low cost, or even no cost ways you can market your business to local customers especially.Don’t ignore champaign marketing because your budget is small. While you may have to work harder, think more creatively to stretch your dollar further, it is still so important to keep marketing. Marketing Champaign Il connects you to new customers, other businesses, the community and helps you brand your business. The business that doesn’t market will likely find themselves out of business. Here are a few low cost marketing champaign il ideas for your small business to help you reach local customers.There are many reasons to do this. For one, it has become more and more difficult to connect with local customers. People are busier than ever. They just don’t stroll into shops or spend as much time in their local communities as they used to. The chance of someone seeing your store sign and just walking in is slim, you need to be more proactive than that. Try some marketing to help attract local customers and create a bit of buzz for your store or local business.Sponsor a local sports team. It takes serious coin to sponsor a Major League team. But a Little League team or local adults softball team would be glad to have you as a sponsor. Best of all, it is great promotion for your business in the community. You never know who will see your business name out there. Even if your team doesn’t make it to the championship, you are still a winner for getting out there and doing some local marketing.Diner place mats. Been to the diner lately? You may have noticed that many of those paper place mats have ads on them. While hungry diners are waiting for their dinner, they wind up reading the ads. Some of them even rip them off, so they can follow up on a new product or service that interests them. This is the perfect opportunity to offer a coupon or service. You’ll also reach a lot of people in your community.Be a +do gooder+ and help out a charity. This is an ideal opportunity to get the +warm fuzzies+ while helping out a local cause you believe in, and also let others know about your business. There are so many charities out there, from senior citizens, animals, children, the environment, education and more. Find one that tugs at your heart and get involved.Connect with other local businesses. This method has been proven to be very successful: connect with other local businesses and create co-sponsored events or coupons or opportunities for customers. Your businesses can be related or they can be entirely different. The most important thing is to not do this with a business that directly competes with yours, so if you are an accountant and offer tax services, don’t do this with another accountant.Social media. Not only is this method low cost, often it is pretty much a no cost way to market your business! The most popular ways to market your business through social media are Facebook and Twitter. Using social media as a small business you want to inform and educate your customers in a fun and entertaining way. Don’t simply talk endlessly about your products. Social media is about having a conversation. Encourage them to have a conversation with you!Lawrence Reaves writes for Galorath, a project management company offering Seer software and hardware for informational technology and manufacturing. Check out Galorath and the services they offer here.
