MASON CITY,IA-Some small businesses in the area are getting a little help getting their names out there.A marketing expert is helping them with all the latest tricks of the trade.
It's part of North Iowa Area Community College's Entrepreneurs' Exchange.
The Mason City based college host events every so often on different topics they think will help small businesses in our area.
This time it's all about marketing and one new business we talked with says it's one of the most important issues they faced while starting their company.
Being the little guy can sometimes make it hard to get noticed.
But for some local small businesses a few marketing techniques are helping them stand out.
Small business owner Kevin Breister says, "in our business alone it's definitely been an increase since we started marketing recently."
Breister and his partner Luke Benjamin started PSF Design in January.
They are one of business in the incubator at NIACC.
They use traditional media like TV and radio, along with new media like Facebook.
Breister says, the ease of updating through Facebook is a lot nicer than going to your website which takes hours and hours to update."
A social networking site like Facebook basically serves as free advertising.
Mark Olchefske is in charge of the business incubator at the college.
He works with Breister to help him learn all the ways to make a business grow.
Olchefske says, "so anything that you can do to utilize both existing or old media as well as to take advantage Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, to expand awareness of your business. The more it’s going to be able to grow."
He says not only does marketing allow these startup companies to get attention locally, but all around the world.
Olchefske says, "so it is a wonderful leveler for small businesses to be able to utilize new media to expand their reach into other areas and find new customers that they wouldn't normally."
For PSF Design that's exactly what all their marketing efforts are doing.
Breister says, "people definitely recognize it and they've come to us from that."
An Entrepreneurs Exchange session is put on every month during the school year.
