After years of working with Zimbabwean businesses all shapes and sizes, I’m amazed by how difficult and expensive some people make their marketing. They see full page ads, high priced websites, huge bill boards and massive sales teams and assume that marketing has to be expensive to be effective. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Here are just 5 (of many) ways to get more customers, make more money and grow your business in Zimbabwe (or anywhere) with a ridiculously small budget.
1) Classified ads. Classifieds can cost as little as 3usd at the Herald newspaper. Unfortunately, the way most classifieds are placed means that you waste even the little budget that you do have. Here are a few tips…
a) Don’t attempt to SELL in a classified (or any kind of small ad). If you don’t have enough space to tell a convincing sales story and present a decent presentation, DONT! Instead write a sentence or two to get the attention of your target market and arouse their interest enough to enquire for more info. This is where www.getmoreinfo.wordpress.com can work great for you. Refer clients to your specific page/link where you’ve put enough info for them to make a buying decision. The more expensive, unique or complicated your product, the more important this is.
b) Don’t be boring! The average classified section in the paper can have anything from 10 – 1000 competitors – all selling the same product the same market. Unless you’re different or special there’s no real reason to call you instead of your competitor. Remember in results based marketing, it’s more important WHAT you say, than HOW you say it.
2) Email It! It cost’s less than 2usd for 30 mins at an internet cafe and ‘free’ at your office. Developing an email database of clients and prospects is basic strategy for a business that’s going anywhere. Write an attention grabbing subject heading (one that will get your email opened) send it to everyone on your database. Offer them valuable info, then refer them to your getmoreinfo page for more info on your offer
3) Sacrifice a $1usd! That’s about all it costs to send an SMS classified to the Gazette newspaper! Come on… they’ve been advertising this for ages and so few people still use it. All the better for you if you’re the only one in your market promoting your product in a half empty classifieds section of a national newspaper! Follow the tips above for effective classifieds.
4) Develop a referral program. There are dozens of ways to do this that ANY business in Zimbabwe can take advantage of. Basically, it mostly comes down to these three things
a) Develop an offer worth talking about.
b) Make it easy for people to refer people to you.
c) Reward them for their efforts. By the way, ‘reward’ doesn’t always mean cash…there are many other ways to do it.
5) Join www.getmoreinfo.wordpress.com Even before it’s official launch, it’s gaining lots of interest. Having your company/product/services info on that site, well written is worth gold to you. Nothing beats being able to advertise your business to potential thousands by simply sending an email! Get in while it’s still free to join – or even better, for just $50 get Gold Membership. Listen, the site isn’t even finished being designed yet, but has already received over a hundred visits – get in early for a great advantage. Find out more here.
By the way if you haven’t read Cash Baron Secrets, why not? Once you’ve read that, you won’t ever have to be limited to ‘cheap marketing’. There’s a story in there about how i got a company to ‘finance’ over 12 months of marketing FOR me…100% FREE! Download it at no cost here.
Regards
Max Soutter
p.s. Thanks to everyone whose been following my estate agency challenge. www.propertyplace.wordpress.com – in record time, has overtaken 96% of local property websites including most of the ‘Big Boys’.
Do you know of any more ways to market effectively alcheapo? Do share with everyone…
the second way, ’email it’ does not explain how to ensure this does not evolve into spamming your clients. “Developing an email database of client” is a slippery slope. I receive weekly emails from companies i only contacted once some 7 months ago. It’s so frustrating I blocked their email addresses on my mail client and blacklisted them on the mail server. I’m sure this hurts more than help their marketing campaign
Email marketing is great but would suggest adding the following:
– You should contact the recipient and ask for permission to put them on a list.
– give your recipients a clear Unsubscribe link at the top (yes, not bottom) of the email. those that that don’t want more emails will respect you for that. And in future will consider you when looking for a product
– never send a marketing email to a recipient you got from a 3rd party. Few people appreciate receiving a marketing email they didn’t expect from someone they don’t know. That’s what spam is, unsolicited commercial email.
– create a newsletter and let interested people subscribe to it.
– just because a client inquired on a product through email doesn’t mean you can use that email to interest them with more products. Clients should choose to receive more emails from you.
Hi limibikani,
Some great points there. I was emphasizing email as a communication vehicle – but you’re 100% accurate. Spam is a certain to work against you. Many people attempt to spam as a short cut vs actually developing a real database of people who want to hear from them.
Thanks for the detailed contribution Limibikani.
Max.
the business set up kit is really good. i would really like one for the business i intend to start.
thank you so much for the tips. I have followed your work for some time now and an impressed with your vast knowledge and generosity. God Bless you.
Hi, this weekend is nice in favor of me, for the reason that this
time i am reading this wonderful informative post
here at my residence.