Inexpensive Ways to Promote Your Business :: Part 1
Ok you have your business model, the I's are dotted and your T's
are crossed, and you're ready for the customers. But where are
they? As much as we would like to believe customers will flock
to your doorstep (or your web "doorstep") overnight, that is far
from the true. Granted there are the lucky few that are
immediate sensations, but for the rest of us...we have to
advertise.
What you say? You don't have a million dollar advertising
budget? You, my friend, are in luck! Below are ten inexpensive
suggestions on ways to promote your business.
1. Have your email address match that of your domain
name. Now this may seem obvious but I can't count how many
times I have gone to a website and sent an email to the
webmaster at an AOL or Hotmail account. They are missing a prime
way of targeting website traffic and branding. Every time your
email address is posted somewhere or you send an email to
someone you are advertising your company and your website. Why?
Because anything that comes after the @-sign is your domain name
and might spark people to visit that website you worked so hard
on. I know, you may already have several email addresses and
don't want another, but you can have your ISP (Internet Service
Provider aka the place that hosts your website) forward the
emails to any other email address that you want!
2. Advertise your website on all materials sent out from
your business. That includes everything - include the
magical www. on business cards, promotional materials,
brochures, etc. Your website is designed to be at its best at
all times of the day and night - the perfect advertising agency
24/7. If you don't include it on your materials, people won't
know about it and all of your hard work was for naught. You can
also set up special URL links based on your promo materials to
evaluate your ROI.
3. Buy a car magnet and drive around. Do you or your
sales force do a lot of driving? Think about what you do while
you are stuck in traffic, you look around. This is a perfect
opportunity to bring brand recognition and promote your
business. Keep it short and simple, something like your slogan,
website and phone number. Make several versions for each of your
sales rep's territories. See which sparks the best results. Be
careful the person driving the vehicle is a responsible drive
however. You wouldn't want the wrong type of publicity.
4. Or screen your company slogan and contact information on
your back window. Depending on the size of your window you
may gain additional space that you would lose from the
peel-and-stick magnetic sign. This would be a permanent option,
so I strongly recommend doing this to company vehicles only.
This is also a great alternative if you would like to expand a
little more on your business or perhaps include your logo.
5. Look around your desk. How many pens have advertisements on
them and can you honestly tell me you don't have a coffee mug
from some company? What made you pick them up initially? Because
they were free of course. There is nothing more than people
love than a freebie! A great online resource that I have
found is called Cafe Press
(http://www.cafepress.com/?pid=356452). They have several tiers
of online stores and will assist you in marketing your materials
based on the tiers. The materials are created on an as-needed
basis so it cuts down on your overhead and material storage. And
the best part is, since it's on an as-needed basis you can
change your campaign over and over again! You will need a bit of
artistic talent or a fantastic friend willing to donate their
services because you design your own logo, etc. and upload it to
the store. You could even create a license plate and place it on
your car for additional free advertising and branding! Surround
yourself and anyone that visits the office with clocks,
mousepads, calendars and coffee mugs. You can ever purchase your
own creations from your Cafe Press
(http://www.cafepress.com/?pid=356452) store at a discount.
6. Become part of local networking clubs and groups. A
club or networking group is a great way to meet other people in
your area that have the same interests and intentions as you.
Contact your local government or library for a list or browse
your local paper under the events section for a list of upcoming
meetings and clubs. Most meetings are held at an eating
establishment and give you several minutes to stand up and
announce who you are and what your business does. Before, during
and afterwards the name of the game is networking! Make sure to
bring plenty of business cards.
7. Have a business card handy at all times. Nothing is
worse than being caught without one. I can't speak for others
but I collect business cards like I collect shoes, which means I
have gads of them. When I need help with something in particular
my first destination is my business card book. Why am I telling
you this? To illustrate that people can and do keep business
cards, and for most of us that means we hold onto them for a
long time. I may not need your services today, but that doesn't
mean that I won't remember you when I do. I even jot down quick
notes on the back of their cards to help me remember my
impression of them at the time of our meeting. One website that
I have found to be very reasonably priced is Vistaprint.com
(http://www.vistaprint.com). There are a variety of templates
for a nominal fee or you can design your own. VistaPrint offers
design services for those that don't want to design it
themselves and don't want to go the template route. If
VistaPrint isn't right for you, do a quick search for "business
cards" in Google or Yahoo and numerous options will appear.
8. Write articles to be picked up and published
elsewhere. If you do a quick search online you can find dozens
of websites that contain RSS feeds that will pick up your
articles for others to publish on their websites, online
newsletters, etc. Include a quick byline and an about-the-author
section at the end and you gain three-fold. You become an
establish authority on a specific topic, you gain link backs
from the website that publish your article, thanks to your
about-the-author section (after all you were including your
website, weren't you?) and you also have content to be published
in your own materials. Oh, did I forget to mention that your
website now gains additional attention and can earn higher
rankings in the search engines based on those link backs?
9. Create your own online newsletter. While printed
newsletters are the staple of many companies' ongoing campaigns
to stay in contact with their subscribers, many forget that
online newsletters are a great alternative. Depending on your
target audience many may prefer to receive the newsletter in
their email inbox instead of their mailbox. Why you ask? Perhaps
they are environmentalists at heart and would like to save the
trees and not fill the landfills. Maybe they are technology
junkies and prefer reading by the brilliant light of their flat
screen monitor. As you can see, you don't know until you ask.
Send a quick poll to your existing print newsletter subscribers
and see how they would prefer to receive their announcements. If
you haven't done so already be sure to include the opt-in online
newsletter option prominently on your website.
There are several services available that have the opt-in
feature code, allow you to create the newsletter using a
template, track click thru rates, etc. for a fee. An example is
Constant Contact. Or if you are savvier and a do-it-yourselfer
you can purchase software that you can use to send the
newsletter. You will have to maintain your own lists and have a
basic understanding of HTML though. Although a one time fee,
software can cover the gamut of price points from $20 to over
$1,000. The second of these options is typically less monetarily
expensive but does cost more time and energy. The choice is
yours of course!
10. Help other people! There are a variety of ways to
post information online. Answer others questions in forums and
use-groups and always include a link to your website. Don't
publish advertise-y material, but be helpful and considerate
which does go a long way. You never know, you may be gaining a
new customer. These replies are indexed (and therefore
searchable in the future) by search engines and other companies
and may be around and viewed for a long time. There are some
websites, like Epinions.com (http://www.epinions.com) that pay
you to express your opinion and answer others questions, which
may be another option for you to consider.
About the author:
Cassie Grove is the vice president and director of marketing for
No-U-Turn, Inc. (http://www.nouturn.com), a Bradenton, FL based
company specializing in custom web development, custom software
and computer consulting.
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