Maximize Your Small Business Marketing Budget: Tips for Using Print Postcards and More

If you're a small business starting out, it's likely your marketing budget is low, or even non-existent. That said, any savvy entrepreneur knows marketing is essential to building your business and should be seen as an investment, not an expense. While it's nice to dream about having a marketing budget the size of Antarctica, it's necessary to think realistically about getting customers through the door (or to the homepage). The good news is there are tactics every small business owner can implement to maximize marketing spend and see results, especially when it comes to printing marketing materials. Read on for three of the most important.

1) Tap into Your Network with Postcards, Emails, and a Custom Invitation

It's all about who you know. Referrals and word-of-mouth go a long way in building your customer base, so don't be afraid to reach out to your network of associates, friends, and peers. Send an email or a batch of personalized postcards to your friends and let them know about your business. Send out a custom invitation to your network inviting them to an event hosted at your location and offer discounts to everyone who brings a friend. There are plenty of ways to leverage your relationships - get creative!

2) Give Your Knowledge Away for Free - Print Informative Brochures and Booklets

It's been said time and time again that one of the best marketing strategies is to give away your knowledge, for free. Host a webinar, put together a newsletter, write guest blogs or bylined articles. You can also print brochures and booklets on specific topics relevant to your customer database. Do what you can to let people know you exist and have an opinion, and position yourself as someone willing to help and share your knowledge. Once people see you as a friendly, knowledgeable resource, they are more likely to hire or buy from you, not to mention tell their friends. It's a win-win.

3) Track, Analyze, Optimize, Repeat - Make Sure Your Printing Is Turning a Profit

Since the advent of online marketing, where every click and movement is easily tracked, the importance of tracking and analyzing the results of marketing efforts has become top of mind. Though big businesses need to track data just as much as smaller ones do, when you're dealing with smaller marketing budgets, tracking and analyzing your campaigns becomes even more important. Don't create a campaign or promotion without also creating a way to track it. There are various ways to track including toll-free phone numbers, special coupon codes, and custom landing pages tools like Google Analytics which you can install for free. Once you gather data on your campaigns, analyze to see what's working and optimize your efforts to make the most of your spend. Once you start tracking, you'll have much more peace of mind knowing you're spending smartly and not just throwing money into the abyss.