In this day and age of the internet, even a simple hobby of yours can be turned into a profitable venture. All you need to do is to promote it smartly.
According to the US Small Business Association, 50% of all small businesses saw their humble beginnings at home.
If you have a home-based project you are passionate about, here is a handy guide that can help you give it wings.
Before you begin
The success of any marketing effort lies in the foundation laid by prior research and an inherent understanding of the market you operate in. With that in mind, you should specify the following aspects of your marketing plan before you begin with promotion:
- Define the scope of your products and services
In the excitement of promoting your home-based project, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed and confused. Clearly define what products and services you will provide, how you will provide them, in what you expect to charge for them.
Feel free to conduct appropriate research for it. Look up insights from entrepreneurs, and ask around in your community or similar venturers.
- Define your target market
Who are the people you are trying to target with your promotion? Most home-based entrepreneurs will say ‘everyone’ narrowing the target market down will help strengthen your promotional efforts.
It depends on the products and services you wish to promote. As a rule of thumb, define the gender, age bracket, occupations, and cultural affiliations of your ideal customer.
- Define your budget
Most home-based businesses can be started with about $5.000, with micro businesses requiring less than $3,000 even. That being said, you can spend as little as you wish on the promotion of your home-based project.
Most of the ideas presented in this guide will cost nothing or minimum. It’s up to you how much you want to spend.
- Be ready to improvise
YouTuber Alex Meyers is known for his comedic videos about television and movies and has amassed over 3 million subscribers today. He says in the celebratory video of surpassing 1 million subscribers that he tried every type of content until something clicked with his audience to get where he is now.
This is the correct approach you should look to adopt. Try everything you can to see what sticks and double down on it. Be open to feedback and tweak your plans accordingly.
How to promote your home-based project
The key to promoting projects of a smaller scale lies in going one step at a time and being open to improvising. If at any point, you get overwhelmed, remember to step back and analyze everything to go again.
Let’s take a look at some ideas to promote your home-based business.
- Create a website or something similar
Customers are increasingly visiting company websites before purchasing anything from them. Having a website is a must in this digital age. If you can afford professional services to create your company website, it will get you a lot of complementary benefits such as consultations.
If not, you can make one yourself with plenty of DIY tools available online. However, both these options cost money. If you cannot spend anything on creating a website, use a blog or a social media page as a placeholder for a website until you can afford it.
A statutory blog, the ‘about’ page on Facebook and an Instagram profile can all function as placeholders for a website. Use them to display information about your products and services and showcase them in exciting ways.
- Create engaging content on social media
The operative word here is ‘engaging’. Social media is free and it is everywhere. it should be your go-to tool for promotion even if you aren’t sure about how to go about it. However, posting pretty pictures and videos of your project isn’t enough.
You need to post unique content that captures the user’s attention and engages them. Post about how your product can be used and how it can help a user. For example, Coca-Cola has an advert that shows the person pairing up with different food items to enjoy a superior culinary experience.
Similarly, you can show what goes into the preparation of your home-based project. It will make users appreciate the finished product more. Remember to keep social media posts short and easy to consume.
- Create engaging content. Period.
Not everything can be encapsulated in short and flashy social media posts. You need to create long and engaging content to reel potential in. It helps in educating them about what the product is and how it can bring a difference in their life.
You may write articles, white papers, or create videos giving interesting details about any subject related to your project. It may take time but it helps increase the quality of your online presence.
It helps establish you as a thought leader in a niche and improves your SEO rankings. Most importantly, it makes your audience see that you are truly passionate about your project.
- Engage the local community
The biggest market a home-based project should target is the local community. It’s easily accessible and interactions with it can result in long-term associations and gains. There are many ways you can go about engaging with locals around you.
The most common is creating posters and flyers with a flyer maker like PosterMyWall and spreading them around the area. Post them on local notice boards, distribute them in houses, and commercial establishments such as restaurants and shops.
Your flyers and posters can also be shared on social media in digital form. You may post on local forums or geo-tag your posts to be seen locally. Additionally, you may collaborate with complementary local businesses to reach a wider audience.
- Focus on SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of making sure the content you create is visible to people when they perform related searches. The higher you rank with Google, the wider your reach is.
While there are many tricks to SEO, the heart of the matter is that you have to make people stay on your web pages as much as possible. The longer they stay on your pages, the higher it ranks with Google.
To do this, you need to create engaging content that makes them stay. One way to do this is to embed videos between articles to make a user stay on the page longer.
Additionally, make sure every social media post links to a primary web page of yours. This way, interested people will have somewhere to go to and engage with you further.
See to it that all your web pages are optimized for providing the best user experience as UI can prove to be crucial in drawing users to your sites.
Conclusion
Home-based projects are an excellent avenue to engage yourself in constructive and creative ways. They are also immensely marketable with an incredible potential for both short-term and long-term gains.
Remember to start small and take one step at a time. Focus on reaching a wider audience first and foremost and not on profits as much. The larger the number of people you reach, the more the potential for profit there will be.
Connect with your audience in new and exciting ways to promote your home-based project and watch it grow organically.