As a small business, you’re unlikely to have a lot of capital available. You’ll want to ensure that your initial investments make a difference and positively impact on brand awareness. By pooling your resources into savvy marketing, you’ll be able to help your company grow.

You might have noticed the popularity of logo quizzes in recent years. This prove to us how important brand is. The ones that work best are the ones which are instantly recognisable. Sometimes you can even guess the industry of a company whose logo you’ve never come across. Simply put, a lot of thought should go into your brand image. Once that’s sorted, it’s time to spread the word.

1. Build a strong web presence

Gone are the days when you needed an office to run a business, now many companies operate online and perform extremely well.

To get your company off the grown, all you need is a good website. It doesn’t need to be complicated, or hugely expensive, but it should be strong. The branding will be representing you, and it will be a great way of people finding your company. Once you have a bit more capital, you’ll be able to use SEO companies to help further establish your presence, so that when people search for relevant terms they’ll be able to find you easily.

2. Produce a blog or a newsletter (or both)

Producing regular content such a blog posts or newsletters will keep your web presence fresh, and will remind people who’ve found you in the past that you are a growing and active company. It’s easy enough to build a website and then leave it to stagnate. If you’ve spent money on the design you’ll find that you’ve just wasted part of your marketing budget.

Regular interesting blog posts will show you as a source of relevant information, and hopefully you’ll be able to pick up some new customers along the way.

3. Freebies

Giving away things is a great way to get yourself noticed. And it doesn’t need to be really expensive. You just need to think about your market and your budget. Start out by ordering a batch of promotional pens to give out at events and to customers. Give some to your friends and family as well, and get your name out there.

Promotional pens have a longevity few other marketing products can claim. They get passed from person to person, and because they’re useful they’re less likely to get thrown away than a business card, for example.

4. Network

Making contacts is a huge part of your initial phases of marketing. There are plenty of free events you can attend all over the country, and signing up to your local chamber of commerce will help you meet other businesses as well.

Brand awareness is key to the success of your business. Make sure you have plenty of business cards with all your relevant details including your website, name, email, telephone number and position within the company.

Trade shows are also really good networking opportunities. Again, make sure you have plenty of business cards, and bring along some of your promotional pens. All these simple acts will help build your brand, and you’ll learn a lot from them as well.

5. Organise a giveaway

On a bit of a larger scale than the promotional pens, you can organise a competition. If you are selling a product, make one a prize. Set up a form so people need to subscribe to your newsletter to enter. You can gather a lot of prospective clients this way. If you’re running a service based company, offer some kind of discount. The more people who hear about your industry the better, and if you have to do some work for free to get several leads, it will be worthwhile.