Many small businesses are wasting fruitless energy on pursuing mass marketing tactics — aiming to blanket their local area. In addition to newsletters, there are plenty of other ways to  promote yourself and your services to a narrower, more interested audience.

1. Publicity in the local newspaper, if you are new in town, have just joined another partner business, are hosting a seminar, or are in the midst of inventing something.

2. Putting on a low cost event that resonates with your target market or a free seminar night at your office. (Or at Redcliffe Hive / event hire space).

3. Ask a supplier or a noted author/blogger to feature your story on their website, if your goals and markets align nicely.

4. For those who write articles, there is a wide range of digital magazines cropping up which you can be a part of. Many of them are women focussed or location focussed, e.g. Samara magazine (women), ROOOAR magazine (women), MyTown magazine (Moreton Bay), etc. Some of them offer very low cost advertising as well.

5.  Similarly, there are a growing number of communities which help connect people businesses, such as LocalSmile.com.au (I can add you if interested), SavvySME.com.au, and FlyingSolo.com.au. You can interact as a community member or choose to upgrade to a premium member, or in the case of SavvySME, choose to list promotional articles ($20 each).

Whichever tool you use to get the word out, make sure you consider your target market and their reader habits. Explaining things at their level of understanding, without being patronising, is a fine art… so don’t slop that paintbrush!