How to promote a company with minimal costs: IKEA experience. How to Advertise a Small Business

Low-budget marketing... Every business owner's dream. And it would be even “dreamer” - if at the same time the recognition of the company (product) would grow exponentially... and the sales curve would bend steeper and steeper every day...

But the reality is that marketing budgets ( advertising, PR - highlight what is necessary) are laid out using methods known only to the “layout designer” himself ( read - marketer, advertiser...) laws... And, with rare exceptions, they are a weak reflection of the reality and the company’s need for contacts with the target audience.

They say that the real professionalism of a marketer lies in bringing a company (product) to the market without a budget... Well, or with the minimum necessary cash injections.

I don’t know how true or controversial this statement is - I can’t imagine Coca-Cola, Mars and Adidas in the market without budgets... but still. The fact remains, and the realities of the market are such that not everyone has the budget to pay for “multi-layered” advertising campaigns. In addition, due to the still prevailing mentality of Russian business owners, who are skeptical and distrustful of their own marketing services, small and medium-sized businesses are not yet ready to part with money for advertising and other marketing communications ( because there is no clear understanding of “how will all this come back to us...”).

So, what low-budget ways do you use to market a company or product?

I can offer you tools that I have used quite often in my practice, which have been tested by the market and have shown their effectiveness, and which have helped me out more than once.

1. Barter. Many people don't like this word. Especially in accounting departments. I don’t really like it myself. But I must admit that such a cooperation scheme is quite common in the Russian business segment, even among large and respected players (for example, such as Rosinter). Of course, if you have something to offer your potential partner. And, obviously, the value of your offer for your partner should be no less than what you expect (ask) from him.

2. Exhibitions. Yes, your industry exhibitions are a good reason to promote yourself in your own market among your partners and target audience. And no, you don’t have to buy an expensive place and set up a stand. Be more creative - push the boundaries of your imagination. There are many other ways to introduce yourself at the exhibition, distribute your contacts and collect the ones you need.

Carefully study the proposal of the exhibition organizer, the site where the exhibition will be held - look for opportunities for a low-budget “performance”.

This could be simply placement in the exhibition catalog, posting on the website, renting 2-3 square meters at the entrance to the exhibition, placing a girl/boy with the distribution of samples (or just some “goodies”-useful things with your contacts), investing in a package participant, organization of a photographer with instant printing of photographs against a press-wall background with your logos, and so on - think of it! (by the way, such participation can also be closed through barter)

3. Internal events. This means your personal events for your target audience, for your potential clients. Create some kind of useful event for your customers - what is their pressing problem? What critical question do they have that they typically pay money to answer?

Give them this answer for free! Perhaps in the form of a mini-seminar or micro-training for 4 hours, maybe together with a representative of an authoritative opinion for them (for example, if this is medicine, then this can be the head doctor of a serious clinic, if trade - the manager of a large network, the head of the tax office, top - bank manager, etc.).

You can agree on holding such a seminar with the owner of the premises, who is also interested in the audience that overlaps with you, but is not a competitor to you in terms of services. For example, it could be a cafe, club or restaurant that is simply interested in visitors and sales of the kitchen and bar. In addition, in your pre-PR campaign to recruit participants for your event, you will promote them, as well as in post-releases and reports after the seminar. Don’t forget to mention this in negotiations with the site owner.

4. External events. Many people forget about the most useful semi-informal get-togethers or, conversely, professional “meetings” of their decision-makers (people who make decisions on cooperation) in the form of various chambers, clubs, communities, and so on.

Look for it - there’s probably a Chamber of Commerce and Industry in your city that periodically organizes parties for CEOs or financial directors. Look for different fashionable features, such as a mafia game club for HR directors. For accountants, these could be seminars conducted by the local Federal Tax Service. Find out where the marketing directors in your area hang out (if you offer printing, design, or advertising services, for example...). Find out where the logistics directors live (if you are a courier service or transport company).

If it’s completely boring in your city and poor decision makers stupidly go home after work - see the point above: come up with it yourself! Your own events. Finally, create your own club of mafia players for ____ ( insert the position you need)! Your expenses include purchasing or ordering printing of special cards, blindfolds and beautiful rules on A4 sheets!

Any restaurant in the city will be happy to lend you space on Wednesday evenings for such a theme. In addition, it is not necessary to make such evenings free. Freebies are relaxing. And the mafia club requires discipline ( read the rules on the net). Therefore, take 100-500 rubles from the players. per evening (the amount should be such that it can be dealt with painlessly, and the value received in return will significantly cover such a “loss” from the wallet).

5. Press releases. Make it a habit to issue press releases about your company's activities every Tuesday. Releases should not be large and voluminous - make 1/2 of a printed page of text plus a couple of key sentences about the company.

Look for news updates within the company all week! Set up a system for collecting and processing news and, in general, everything that happens in the company. Any sneeze should flock to your department. And you can decide for yourself whether to air it or not ( together with the business owner, of course).

And regularly distribute your press releases online and through all communication channels available to you: website, corporate newspaper for clients, newsletter, notice board in the sales area or reception area... Register your press releases in free press release directories ( they can be easily found in any search engine). Send your news to interested publications in your region - both print newspapers and magazines, and online media.

6. Publications. The same goes for longer-form press publications—provide free content to journalists and media outlets. These could be interviews on your market, on some problem of your consumers, analytical reports and cross-sections, statistical data ( many media like different statistical collections), just interesting publications “on topic”. Invite the leading publication in your region to organize and maintain some special interesting section - and supply your section with relevant and fresh information on a weekly basis.

Everyone needs interesting and useful content! Finally, ask your customers or potential clients - what are they interested in about your topic, what do they want to know about?

7. Cases. Or case study. Or success story. The nature is slightly different, but the point is, in principle, one thing - to show your target segments, using an example, a solution to THEIR problems. Write stories using the formula “Problem - Solution - Result”, “how bad it was before - and how wonderful it was after”, the principle, I think, is clear. Stories in this vein are very attractive and attractive.

8. Reviews. Customer feedback is something you should collect from the time your company is still a business embryo. Especially if your client is a more or less well-known company in your region. On branded colored letterhead, with a beautiful seal, with the signature of the first person or key top manager of your client.

Collect and store your reviews in a separate folder, each in a separate file, treat them with care and respect -) Well, without fanaticism, of course. You just have to understand that these are the results of your work. These are your “thank you, you helped us a lot” from your clients. And don't forget to digitize all your customer reviews. Only exactly, in color, with high resolution and readable text.

9. "Word of mouth". Involve the local population in promoting your company, products, brands. It’s no secret for a long time that “sundress” works best in the services market. But in order for your sundress to work, you need to work on it! What did you think? They just launched a rumor among the people - and they picked it up and carried it to the masses? Of course, it would be great if everything were so simple - no one would spend money on expensive TV and radio advertising, but would only be engaged in “injecting” rumors into the masses.

The simplest and most effective thing is to remember yourself. What information have you personally ever passed on “by word of mouth”? It was probably something shocking, out of the ordinary, or terribly funny, or curious, or disgusting, or improving some aspect of your life... Do you feel what I mean? Yes, that's right - it should be something that hooks.

But here, be careful - your legend should support and improve the image of your company/product, and not destroy it.

10. Free consultations, demonstrations, samples. The name speaks for itself. Don't be afraid to give! Nobody likes to buy a pig in a poke. Everyone wants to try first and then decide to buy.

Here your marketing must work more closely than ever with sales. Because it’s not enough to just give it a try - after that you need to constantly ask at a given frequency: “Well, did you like it? Let's buy the full version. Did not like? Why? and so on...". Keep in touch, monitor your potential client. Offer him special offers, inform him about new products, promotions, discounts.

But don’t be afraid to identify and cut off the “eternal tryers” - these are those who initially know that they will never buy, but will never refuse a freebie... You shouldn’t waste your precious time on such “under-customers”...

11. Atmosphere and design of the client office/service hall, reception area, meeting room/. In these premises, EVERYTHING should speak about your professionalism, the quality of your services and the specialists who, in fact, provide these services, inspire confidence in you, your company, your product - every little thing and every element.

Finally, remove all these antediluvian certificates and gratitude from 2003-2007, issued to you by someone for something! Leave just one - but a normal, fresh, up-to-date solid professional license, or certificate, or diploma, or whatever your specific requirement is...

No wobbly chairs, ragged tables, burnt sofas, cracked glass surfaces... Well, remove this piece of furniture if you don’t yet have the money to reupholster, repair, or buy a replacement. It’s better to throw in a couple of frameless “pears” for one and a half thousand rubles, if you need to somehow take up space - well, even if no one sits on them, but they will give a certain “your dude” freshness and dynamism to your office.

12. Gift certificates, loyalty programs. That is, do it so that the client wants not only to come to you again, but to bring someone else with him next time. By the way, this also works with corporate clients. You just need to think a little longer... And ask around/observe the clients to see what might stimulate them to take such an action.

An excellent example is large cosmetic chains, fitness clubs, mobile operators ( least). Copy this ready-made and perfectly working model and apply it to your business - what exactly is stopping you? ( The first gift certificates can be printed on a color printer, if things are really difficult... if you get rich, you can print plastic, no big deal!)

In addition, if you have a representative office of any federal discount and coupon network in your city ( like Groupon, but there are a lot of them now), or perhaps there is a local company with this kind of operating principle, contact them and let them plan an advertising campaign for you. They won’t take money from you for this, but you will clearly see how much you can earn in one day of such a promotion with zero investments in coverage and attraction. The decision is yours.

13. Cross-marketing promotions with partners. Organize joint promotions with your colleagues, with whom your products can complement each other for the same target audience ( “The printing house blah blah and the furniture salon blah blah are holding a joint promotion only from May 1 to May 20: buy office furniture and get an 80% discount on any advertising printing!”). Promote them well by region ( You can also take the media as partners), share contacts with each other, and work with the resulting client base, each in its own format.

14. Competitions, quizzes. This is about the same thing as cross-marketing, only in a more entertaining format. Each partner performs its own function, makes its contribution - provides prizes of different formats and nature, covers the event, prints banners, programs the web, handles logistics, takes photographs, shoots videos, feeds, clothes, etc. But someone must take on the role of organizer and coordinator. For example, you, as the initiator and creator of the concept ( which you pre-send to the partners you need for your contribution).

15. Cultivate feedback from your customers. Establish relationships with them. And develop them. Invite them to express their opinion on any matter - about your services, about the same services on the market in general, conduct surveys, call to action in your communications, provoke them to respond to your messages, conduct surveys on the website or jointly with partners, give them free advice and ask to rate them, get their consent to receive your marketing materials (only useful for them and not often!).

Final word

Of course, all these low-cost marketing methods do not require a lot of money, but they do require the investment of other resources - time, effort, patience, energy, imagination and your knowledge.

Yes, and you shouldn’t be scattered about all of the described promotion methods - try each of them in turn, see - which works best for you, brings the most clients? Focus on the few that are most optimal for you in terms of the combination of time and labor costs/number of completed deals.

And one more tip that I would like to mention, but which everyone often forgets... Due to confusion and immersion in routine, probably...

Promote and sell not your company and your products, but the “emotion” and “result” of using your services and contacting your company!

Few people need the services of a beauty salon, but a beautiful haircut and a perfect manicure - yes! I am not at all interested in the services of an advertising agency, but an increase in sales by 20% in 6 weeks - let's discuss this soon! There are plenty of cheap tours to Egypt and Greece, but complete disconnection from current worries and immersion in absolute relaxation for two weeks – there are few such offers! (if they exist at all...)

So stop, colleagues, disconnect from the hustle and bustle, take a time out for the day, go to the park, turn off your cell phone, sit on a bench, relax, look at the fountains, watch people - low-budget ways to attract clients are on the market, you can come up with them. It's just that in pursuit of feverish sales and abstract results, we don't always see them.

P.S. And don’t forget that attracting a new client costs FIVE times more than retaining an old one. Therefore, do not forget about your client after the first sale (obtained by one of the methods discussed in this report), in fact, this is where work with him is just beginning!

On how to promote a business - we present 5 free recipes. Read the article, share with friends, implement your ideas!

Among my friends and acquaintances there are quite a lot of entrepreneurs, including beginners.

While communicating with them, I repeatedly heard how difficult it is to start a new business, how much time it takes to start making a good profit.

Aspiring entrepreneurs are overwhelmed by the search for recipes, how to promote a business.

Moreover, these recipes should be either cheap or completely free, since most newcomers to the business do not have the money for a serious advertising campaign.

One day I came across an interesting article dedicated to the promotion of start-up business projects.

Having supplemented it, I bring to your attention 5 simple and inexpensive, but very effective recipes for promoting your business.

1. How to promote a business using a blog?

If you are able to allocate a certain amount, then you can make a full-fledged website dedicated to advertising your own goods and services.

If not, then there are also free platforms for blogging: WordPress or Tumblr.

With their help, you can not only post texts, but also illustrate them with photographs and video materials.

You can, of course, use social networks or LiveJournal for these purposes, but the resources I mentioned earlier are more convenient and effective.

Naturally, promote business you won't be able to until you make it popular.

Even the most excellent texts and beautiful photographs will not have the desired effect if only a few people see them.

In order to attract people to your blog, remember some rules:

Find out what SEO is.

Writing texts in accordance with SEO rules and proper use of keywords will help bring your own website to the top 10 or top 20.

If, when searching, the reader sees the address of your blog on the first or second page, then more people will visit it.

Place only unique articles on the site.

You should not repost other people's materials, this will lower your blog's ranking.

1. Think carefully about the headings, subheadings and descriptions of the texts, that is, those parts that can be placed as advertising for your materials, at least in the same.
2. Study which key queries are most often entered into search engines by Internet users, and be sure to use them in your texts.
3. Illustrate your materials with interesting pictures and motivating videos.

2. How to promote a business using video?

This method cannot be called absolutely free, but it is not as expensive as you might think at first glance.

There is no need to buy an expensive camera or rent a professional studio. An amateur camera, a digital camera, whatever - even good phones can shoot short videos is enough.

You can master the basics of simple installation yourself.

The Internet is full of educational materials.

You can post videos on YouTube.

You can literally purchase a channel on this site for pennies, but if you are not ready to spend money on a separate channel, you can simply post videos for free as a registered user.

As you understand, in order for people to pay attention to your video and become interested in the products and services you offer, you need to be creative.

We need to create a video so that children at school, office employees, passengers on public transport, and everyone around say to each other: “Watch a cool video on YouTube.”

If you just sit in front of the camera in a new shirt and start broadcasting in a boring voice how delicious the bread is in your bakery, then at best a couple of friends will watch this video. And if someone accidentally comes across him, they will swear off buying the goods of such a bore.

3. How to promote a business using photographs?

This method is absolutely free.

You can use social networks to promote your own goods and services, registration in which will take 5 minutes of your time and will not require even 5 kopecks.

If you intend to make interesting captions for photos, then you will like the Exposure service.

Photos need to be posted often: ideally every day or at least every other day.

You shouldn’t do this less often, because you won’t be able to keep the interest of your subscribers.

Pictures should be interesting and evoke an emotion, preferably a positive one: joy, surprise, delight, etc. This same positive emotion will be associated with the product or service that you are going to promote.

You can shoot anything with a camera: an image of a product, the process of its production, advertising campaigns dedicated to it, and much more.

4. How to promote a business using business cards?

Every self-respecting businessman should have a lot of business cards so as not to simply introduce himself: “I’m Vasya Pupkin. Now I’ll write down my phone number on a piece of paper,” and give the interlocutor a respectable business card.

These same business cards should be distributed to everyone as much as possible.

A good business card should be:

• printed on good paper;
• have an interesting design solution;
• contain no errors.

Ideally, their development and printing should be ordered from a professional publishing house.

But, if you can’t afford it yet, you’ll have to study graphic design programs on your own and find a couple of interesting ideas on the Internet.

You can print them yourself, but for this you need a good printer and high-quality paper.

I would like to invite you to watch an informative video about

how to promote your business through the VKontakte group:

5. How to promote a business by informing about yourself?

It is best to present yourself and your project at specialized conferences, trainings, presentations, exhibitions and other events.

Not only businessmen like you gather here, but also journalists, students of economic universities, and just onlookers.

This way you can find not only clients, but also partners and even sponsors.

I think that now you will not be in solidarity with those who ask in despair: “ How to promote a business without having the starting capital for it?

As you can see, there are plenty of free ways to jump start your startup.

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Most marketing experts recommend that companies spend about 2-5 percent of their turnover on advertising. But if you're just getting your business off the ground, you may not have the budget for large-scale advertising campaigns. It may also be that you are focusing your capital on other areas. You can take advantage of free ways to find potential clients and advertise your business.

Steps

Online Marketing

Show up online. Use the power of the Internet to attract attention to your business. The web is full of free resources that can potentially reach hundreds of thousands of consumers.

1. Visit Yelp. Yelp is a website where consumers can discuss and recommend businesses. Learn more about Yelp for Business.

   • You can use your Yelp page to post information and special offers, and monitor how well you are serving your customers.
   • Some business owners respond to negative customer reviews on Yelp by contacting the users directly or by offering a counteroffer that can correct the situation. This lets potential clients know that you take their concerns seriously.

2. Create an account in the free online directory. Most online directories allow you to upload an unlimited number of products, businesses and services, with detailed information about the product provided. They also automatically provide feedback for each item so potential customers can contact the owner directly.

   • Create lists. This applies to listings of products, businesses and services that you and your company offer. A good online directory allows you to upload a large number of listings, which allows you to increase your targeted market reach.
   • All your products will be stored in a database and displayed on the main page. All loaded positions are also optimized in the search engine within 24 hours.

3. Use of local media

   1. Write press releases. Have you recently opened your own business? Do you support a charity ride during the holiday season? Have you just launched a special project? Take your story to local media and see if they are interested in covering you.

      • Try placements in newspapers, news broadcasts, radio shows. By using multiple media sources, you can reach more potential clients.
      • You can write a press release about any event in your business. However, if you send too many press releases that don't contain engaging information, the media may quickly lose interest.

   2. Contact reporters. Try to build relationships with as many reviewers as possible. Sometimes they are looking for stories and may come right to you.

      • Some newspapers have writers on staff who specialize in writing about good deals and new businesses. Try to contact them first.
      • Look for reviewers who work for your target audience. For example, if you run a fishing store, try to connect with a local journalist who specializes in outdoor articles.

   3. Participate in charity events. Many newspapers print special reviews of charitable events, especially during the holiday season. Such charity events are often covered in the local media.

      • You can post a small notice that you are accepting canned goods or used items to donate to local shelters or charities.
      • Be sure to contact newspapers and other news outlets about the event and indicate that you are sponsoring it.
      • Place your company logo in a prominent place without obscuring the main reason for the event. You can use badges, banners, and even clothing items with your company name and logo.
      • For greater exposure, offer customers who donate a discount on your company's services. This will increase income from both the charity and your business.

Yulia Manaeva,

In this article you will read:

How to reduce promotion costs and stay on top

What budget marketing tools are effective?

IKEA's experience in using budget marketing

Promote your company with minimal costs and prove to yourself and your colleagues that a good idea beats big money? Sooner or later, a businessman has to face such a problem. It may seem impossible, but this is only at first glance. Experience with budget marketing proves that there are always options.

To promote a company using budget marketing, you need to look at the situation a little differently, for example, through the eyes of clients. Indeed, in conditions of a limited budget, the success of an advertising campaign more than ever depends on how correctly you answer the question of who your target audience is, where and how to convey information to them. This will be a good basis for creative promotion.

Know your consumer

A typical buyer persona can be created for absolutely any business. The task is easier if you already have an established customer base. In this case, it is enough just to analyze the buyers.

In our company, a marketing, advertising and PR strategy for each city is developed using market research. We monitor it, and then annually analyze the activities of the opened store. In addition to independent research, we use data from media agencies, which also constantly research the effectiveness of one or another channel for promoting a product or service in each city. In this regard, highly focused professionals from the media agencies with which we cooperate are very helpful.

• How to competently deal with customer objections

But there are other, less standard ways to research your target audience. Each enterprise can carry them out depending on the specifics of its activity and type of product. The main task of our company is to create new interiors. But before we rearrange the interiors presented in the store (as we usually do on the eve of the release of a new catalog), we conduct a study called Home Visited. Its essence is as follows. Designers and decorators visit the houses of residents of our city, look at their layouts, take photographs, ask what they are missing, what is convenient and inconvenient, what suits them and does not suit them (picture). This year, about a hundred such visits were made. In addition, all existing layouts that are presented in Nizhny Novgorod, especially the most typical ones, were analyzed. And based on the information collected, the first five interiors were rebuilt.

There are many options for influencing the target audience (table). Not all of them are on the surface, but I would recommend moving from simple to complex.

Advertising at points of sale. If you have a store, why not use this platform for promotion? POS materials can be an effective and inexpensive option. Video advertising works great on monitors, displays, and multi-screens. It is precisely this kind of advertising that visitors pay the most attention to. For example, in our stores, videos are constantly playing (on TV screens built into the interiors), where employees talk about products, including new products.

Crowdsourcing. A good tool for low-budget marketing is using the potential of the crowd to realize your ideas (so-called crowdsourcing, from the English crowd - “crowd”, source - “source”). One of the elements of this technique was implemented during a low-budget campaign involving young designers. They made for us huge figures of furniture out of cardboard, replicating those presented in the IKEA store. We displayed these models on the street in front of the entrance to the shopping center. Such an exposition attracted the attention of not only buyers, but also the press. An information environment for the event was created, people began to talk about us, give assessments, and share impressions. For IKEA, this was a good opportunity to express itself, and for aspiring artists, it was an opportunity to gain experience and be featured in the press.

• Promotion on Instagram: useful ideas

Partnership programs. Low-budget projects in collaboration with other companies or government agencies have a good effect. In one of the projects, employees of a vocational college sewed clothes and accessories from our textiles, then professional models staged a fashion show. Many media outlets wrote about the event and it was attended by many regular guests. As a result, it became an annual event.

Club of regular buyers. In my opinion, this is one of the most effective ways of promotion. In our company it all started with IKEA Family club cards. We issue such cards to our regular customers, and once a month they can be used to take part in a home improvement seminar for free. People participating in our promotions are active buyers of products. Sometimes they themselves offer us some ideas, saying that they would like to learn more from the company, what kind of special offers they would like to see. In the process of this interaction, the idea arose to create a club of customers whom we can periodically invite to conversations, so that they share their impressions, tell us what changes they would like to see in the store, even remodeling the interiors.

Find a creative approach

Creative solutions can help you save a lot. I would consider flash mobs and promotions to be a good option for such solutions. They are inexpensive and still have good returns.

Enter the consumer's life. One of the effective campaigns can be called our “Night at IKEA” campaign. It was as follows. We provided an unusual opportunity to spend the night in a store at a time when there are no longer any customers in it. You could choose any bedroom. The first event was dedicated to February 14: we organized it specifically for couples. The second time “Space Night at IKEA” took place on Cosmonautics Day. If a person decides to do such an unconventional act for the sake of the company, it means that he belongs to the category of loyal, regular customers. And then the logical goal is to get to know them better and communicate, which is what we did.

Interesting promotions include “Wedding at IKEA,” when for two years in a row, on February 14, we organized a wedding ceremony for everyone. And the only condition was the presence of a wedding dress. We issued an official certificate from IKEA stating that these people were married. And now the company has several dozen couples registered on this day. Every year on February 14, they come to the shopping center to receive a gift using this certificate. And if they have a child, he also receives a souvenir. We try to maintain communication with all these people, because they are the most loyal customers, and therefore are ready to share ideas and advice.

• Profitable business in a crisis: 9 fresh ideas

Bet on the desire for popularity. Many people like to share photos, post them on the Internet, and send them to friends. This is a natural desire, and you need to use it. For example, we launched such a project for buyers. Any of our clients can take a photo on the cover of the new catalog and then receive it (with their photo) by mail. We talk about the promotion in leaflets, which can be found both directly at Mega and in other stores in the city.

Perform a theater show. It sounds loud, but in terms of complexity this action is not too different from organizing a New Year’s corporate party and at the same time it is very impressive. We used this technique in anticipation of the opening of a new catalogue. With the help of actors, typical life situations were played out in our interiors, and the main functions of the objects used in the interior were demonstrated. The actors acted out scenes, and our decorator spoke in detail about the advantages and features of the new furniture. To enhance the effect, we invite media representatives and our regular customers to each such event. The returns from such events are really high.

Use your customers' potential

Dmitry Smirkin, Director of Public Relations of the central branch, Megafon

The most effective and low-budget way to promote a company’s services, products and brand is to establish communication with regular and new customers through your own website. In our case, through the “Forum” section. This is a kind of targeted social network that unites people by interests. Moreover, the subscribers themselves act as moderators on our forum. They do not work for the company, but actually manage our information resource. This is its main value.

Today, more than 10,000 users are registered on the forum of the central branch of the company. We meet with activists and moderators quarterly. Typically these meetings take place in a democratic atmosphere. We discuss current topics, answer questions and, most importantly, wait for feedback on the company’s operational activities. Often callers offer very valuable ideas. Surprisingly, people working on our forum can often give a head start to any technical specialists. They are a kind of fans of mobile communications who have information about the initiatives of domestic and foreign operators. And this is the core of our forum, because they form the information resource. They discuss all the new products, talk about them themselves, and thereby expand the audience of our loyal customers.

Yulia Manaeva Graduated from Nizhny Novgorod Linguistic University. N. A. Dobrolyubova (translation department). In 2005–2007, she held the position of creative director of the event company “Your Holiday”. Since 2007 he has been working at IKEA in Nizhny Novgorod.

IKEA- manufacturer and seller of home improvement products. The company began its activities as a small private enterprise in Sweden almost 70 years ago and over the years has grown into an international network with representative offices in 41 countries. There are 14 IKEA stores in Russia; the company came to Nizhny Novgorod seven years ago. Official website -www.ikea.com/ru

Dmitry Smirkin Graduated from Bashkir State University (Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology). While still at the university, he began working in the press service of the leading Russian aviation enterprise OJSC UMPO, where he prepared materials for the internal corporate newspaper, website and radio station. At Megafon since 2004, he worked his way up from PR manager to director of public relations.

Promsvyazbank is a Russian private bank, one of the leading banks in Russia and the 500 largest world banks. In February 2010, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development became a shareholder of Promsvyazbank. The bank's regional network includes more than 290 points of sale in major cities of Russia, a branch in Cyprus, representative offices in India, China, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

Holding "Unity" engages in business in several diversified areas. The leading one among them is the production and sale of printed products in Nizhny Novgorod. The printing house employs about 100 people.

Photos on the topic

What type of advertising is most effective today? Complex. Use all types of advertising available to you; the client should constantly see and hear as much useful information as possible about your company. Advertising companies are not cheap, but they usually guarantee results. The main thing here is to be persistent and use the services of advertising firms that have an individual approach to each client and creativity. You can also distribute advertising yourself.

Just follow these simple step-by-step tips and you'll be on the right track.

Quick step by step guide

What you need to have: - cash investments;
So, let's get down to action, focusing on the result.

Step - 1
Use traditional methods of advertising your company. For example, contact the advertising departments of newspapers, radio, and television. Refrain from posting advertisements on poles, entrance doors, etc. This doesn't make the right impression on potential clients.

It is better to use specially designated notice boards for this. This immediately speaks about the status of your company; the client understands that you have the opportunity to pay for advertising space.

Step - 2
Use all kinds of outdoor advertising, advertising on the sides of public transport, on LCD monitors, building facades, in the subway. Conduct telephone consultations and surveys. To do this, you can enter into an agreement with one of the city call centers. Having done this, move on to the next steps.

Step - 3
Advertise your company via the Internet. This is a unique opportunity to post information about services for free. Internet advertising is one of the most effective. To do this, use all sorts of thematic forums, websites, and start a group on one of the social networks.

Step - 4
One of the most effective methods of advertising is to carry out various promotions promoting your company. It is best to use the method of distributing free product samples. This is especially suitable for those companies that sell any piece goods. For example, soft drinks or cosmetics. Having done this, move on to the next steps.

Step - 5
Advertise your company with specific completed projects. For example, if you own a construction company, tell potential clients about the construction you've already completed. Build a commercial plot around this fact or conduct consultations for potential clients demonstrating the results achieved. Having done this, move on to the next steps.

Step - 6
Introduce a system in which the first stage of working with your company will be free. For example, your company is engaged in renovation of apartments. Make the first consultation - an assessment of the scope of work - free. The same applies to legal, medical, educational activities. Having done this, move on to the next steps.

Step - 7
Constantly run promotions. Two goods for the price of one or one service is paid in full, the second (related) is provided free of charge. Once a person uses the services of your company, he will definitely tell his friends about his positive experience. Having done this, move on to the next steps.

Step - 8
Remember that each company advertises itself, primarily through the quality of its service. It is a well-known truth that a client who is satisfied with the service will share his pleasant impressions with a narrow circle of close people, and a dissatisfied client will share his pleasant impressions with at least 20-30 people he knows. Be attentive and patient with each client, not only your earnings, but also your reputation depend on it. Having done this, move on to the next steps.

Step - 9
Present your company's activities at specialized fairs and conferences. In this way, you will let not only clients, but also potential partner firms know about your existence. Despite the considerable budget, this method of advertising is very effective, because such conferences bring together people who, as a rule, are truly interested in finding partners and performers.

We recommend paying attention to the following tips:
Don't skimp on advertising your own business. It’s better to find an additional source of financing or take out a loan for this than to sit and wait for clients to knock on your door.

Additional information and useful expert advice:
Advertise your company primarily with quality goods and services. The word of mouth method will work, and soon everyone will be talking about your company.