CIT Group, Inc., arguably the largest bank and financier to small business and entrepreneurs, is headed for bankruptcy possibly leaving millions of small businesses, entrepreneurs and startups in the dark. Small firms hoping to leverage the bank for loans on everything from daily operations to expansion just got the rug pulled out from underneath.
Simply put, access to money for programs, expansion and paying down debt just got much harder for many small business owners.
As always, we’ll take the marketing and PR angle on this one. Entrepreneurs will now need to focus even more on marketing programs that are effective without having access to lots of money to run the programs. Many of these small businesses will have to rely even more on cost-effective marketing programs found in social media marketing and even public relations.
With limited funds available you can still effectively reach customers and prospects even on a shoestring marketing budget. But this means you’ll have to focus almost exclusively on blogging, Facebook
Remember that social media is community first, sales second. Your visitors use social media as a place to share thoughts so you have to be careful to not drive them away with pushy sales and promotions of products. Social media is very much a soft sales approach but it can pay off in due time. Public relations, also, isn’t specifically about selling your products but rather more about establishing awareness and credibility. When reporters write stories about you it motivates customers to check out your company, ultimately leading to higher sales. Download the PR Toolkit here to start learning how to do your own PR.
Are you affected by what’s going on with CIT? How are you adjusting your marketing programs by using social media and PR? Please tell us about it here and leave a comment.
