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Thread: Best Free (or Low Cost) Marketing Ideas

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    Default Best Free (or Low Cost) Marketing Ideas

    One thing I hear a lot from small business owners is the lament that they can't afford to do advertising or marketing. It is true that most advertising or marketing costs money, but it is also true that you can't increase your business without advertising or marketing.

    If you were advising a small business with limited marketing funds, what ideas would you give them for low cost or no cost marketing techniques?

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    Honestly - the advice I would give them is to get a job. You can't be successful if you don't have an appropriate marketing budget and at least a vague concept of how to market your business. I see it all the time in my advertising business - where the owners act like spending money on advertising is a luxury they hope to be able to afford someday. These businesses are usually out of business within 18 months. They might as well cut their losses now.
    Steve B

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    Good Base Materials (brochures, flyer, website) are the first thing I would invest in...

    Then Public Relations (Press Releases & Other Media Marketing)

    Establishing great lead generation (special reports, listbuilding, customer referral programs)

    For most small businesses these activities can be done for relatively low cost and can create enough of a return to start costlier marketing efforts

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    I agree with RadioGirl. To that list I would add networking.
    Access Communications
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    Winner, MarCom Gold Award 2012

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    I think networking is a great tool that a lot of people miss. It can be very low cost and it also can be a great way to get new business.

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    I don't believe it is impossible to succeed in business without an advertising and marketing budget. How much you need to spend will depend on your business and your industry. If you are a retail shop then a certain amount of advertising will be necessary, perhaps. If you are a service business, you may need to spend some money on marketing.

    In the construction industry, for example, you are likely to know people in the industry before you start your own business, and a few telephone calls to a few acquaintances may be all that is necessary to get the ball rolling. After that maintaining contact with as many industry people as possible could get you all you the business you want.

    In fact, I would encourage a small business, regardless of the amount of money they have available, to leverage their friends, family and acquaintances. Make a list of everyone you know (or, more importantly, who knows you), call these people and ask for their help - tell them briefly about your business (in no more than 20 seconds) and ask them who they know who could help you get started or expand. Ask your friend to speak to their friend and tell them something about you, then call your friend's friend and ask *them* if they know someone who could help you.

    As long as you are asking for help, you are likely to get help. Start selling and trying to get an order and people clam up. That sort of thing makes it a cold call and people don't like cold calls these days. But ask for their help and people are less likely to blow you off. If they can help you, they wll pass you on. If they want what you have to offerf, they will tell you, "Hey! I need some of that. Come and see me!"

    I guess you could call it networking - I call leveraging.
    Last edited by Spider; 08-13-2008 at 11:22 PM.

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    I do agree with spider, in your first week or two maximize anyone you know, if their is a chance they someone that may be able to use your business.

    Beyond this and even overlapping in this period it is essential to be marketing. I think there are a few things that can all be covered for under a few hundred and give you a much better start then nothing.

    1. Business Cards - To get 250 or 500 business cards, even if they are just black and white with your name and address and business details, should cost less then $50, and give them to everyone you meet, if you think that someone you meet may know someone who needs your services then give them two and say pass it on to someone else if you think they need my services.

    2. Flyers - If this seems like a suitable means of advertising for your business it can be done for very little, copies can be had for about 6cents a page or less, in black and white, so for 500 A4 flyers this is $30, or do A5 and get twice as many for half the price. Getting them into mailboxes is another thing, but sometimes you need to invest a little time to get some return. Later on it may pay to pay someone else to drop them off, but if you are really scrapping for dollars doing it yourself is low cost.

    3. Public Notice boards - Many shopping center's have public notice boards some require that you use provided cards to write your message on others allow whatever to be put up, while sometimes they start to look messy, it can be a way to get your name out a little more.

    4. Classifieds - Often it can be quite expensive to buy display ad space in newspapers, however placing a classified add can be relatively cheap, most papers have a section that has business categories, and you can advertise in the most relevant category. It is lower cost, and you may be advertising alongside other people in the same type of business, but i think the response to a lot of classifieds are pot luck mostly anyway.

    5. Adwords - While many people do send hundreds or thousands of dollars per day on adwords marketing, It is by far the lowest cost way to get into search results (admittedly to the side and not always at the top) but if you have a fairly low competition market, spending $1 per day at 9cents a click is hardly going to kill you that is just $30 per month, assuming that you use the full $1 budget each day.

    These are just some of the ideas, that to date i have failed to capitalize on even due to their low cost. Maybe you notice that i like to point out the fact i have failed to capitalize on marketing quite a bit, and it is really due to the fact that i hope i learn from my own mistakes, and do better at the marketing thing next time i try it out.
    Joel Brown
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    You may have overlooked the word "appropriate" in my post above. Depending on your business you may not need any budget - but most need some budget or they are doomed for failure.
    Steve B

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    People seriously overlook the power of a good article marketing campaign on the web. It doesn't cost anything but time, but you can attract a lot of attention to your service by providing people with information, tips and expertise, and making a name for yourself as an expert.

    That is why people are online...Information, Entertainment, or Shopping.

    If you don't have a budget at all, if properly done it is the best way to be sure that SOMEONE will see who you are and know about your services.

    There are many article marketers out there, that put the time in, post relevant content to article sites, blogs, and press release sites that make a killing in affiliate sales, and they don't spend a dime. Just time.

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    I agree, articles are a great way to get noticed and all they cost is time. I use articles as a tool to publicize our companies. You'd be amazed how many industry magazines are hurting for articles. Most will give you a bio and a credit if you write for them. They'll also be more likely to feature your press releases. It becomes a mutually beneficial situation. I've never yet had a magazine say no when I asked if they needed articles. It's certainly worth a try. The worst that can happen is they do say no and then you're no worse off than you were.

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