|
Affordable Advertising for Your Home Business
Affordable Advertising for Your Home Business © Terri Seymour of www.seymourproducts.com
Marketing and advertising a home business takes a lot of time, commitment and work. Those who say all you need to do is put up a website and watch the cash come in couldn't be further from the truth!
We need to do as many things and try as many ways as we can to get our name out there and establish our business and reputation, whether it be online, offline or both! This takes imagination, and perseverance! Below are affordable and fairly easy ways you can begin to build your home business.
1. Word of Mouth - talk to as many people as you can about your business. Bring it into the conversation at every opportunity. By doing this, you could be starting a domino effect. Some of the people you talk to mention it to others and so on & so on. Your business has to become a part of you and your daily life.
2. Business Cards - When you are talking to all these people, be sure and give them a business card. Business cards are very important and do not cost a fortune. A good place to get business cards for only a small shipping charge is http://tinyurl.com/6t7mw . Take advantage of the backs of the business cards as well for sales, specials, catchy messages - anything to help make you and your business more memorable. Business cards can be left almost anywhere and can also be sent in all your mail correspondence.
3. Prizes - Contact your local radio stations, stores, etc. that have contests. There are many places online that have sweepstakes and contests as well. Offer your products/services as prizes in these contests. This is a great way of getting a lot of affordable exposure.
4. Use Testimonials - Take advantage of what others say about you. Have one on your business card, flyers, etc. Use them whenever you can. Most people will put a lot of stock in what other customers say.
5. Customer Service - For a lot of businesses these days, this seems to be a lost art. You need to go the extra mile for your customers and make them feel special and appreciated. This will do a lot for your business. These customers will give glowing reports of you to their friends and family.
6. Flyers - Design and print flyers right from your computer. Post them on bulletin boards at grocery stores, churches, malls, post offices, banks, etc. Use brightly colored paper to get people's attention. Make the message interesting enough so they want to visit your site.
7. Article Writing & Submitting - This can be a very powerful method of advertising as it not only brings people to your site, it builds your reputation as someone who knows what they are talking about an this will bring trust. I believe just about anyone can sit down and write information on things they know. You do not have to be a writer nor a college graduate to write effective articles.
After you have written your first article, start submitting it all over the net. There are article groups, article banks, and publishers who accept article submissions. http://www.workathomearticles.net/ http://www.creativehomemaking.com/submit_article.shtml http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Reprint-Articles
For more information: mailto:articletips@getresponse.com mailto:articlelibrary@getresponse.com
8. Networking Groups and Boards - Networking is when you come in contact with as many people you can to learn, share, promote, and form relationships with prospective customers and associates. Get to know others, learn from them, let them learn from you and get to know you. This is an excellent way of building a strong foundation for your business. Networking can also bring you a lot of referrals from your associates. http://selfstartersweeklytips.com/forum/ http://www.bizymoms.com/discus/ http://www.williecrawford.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi http://bltshw.proboards37.com/ http://www.javajane.com/forum/index.php
9. Online Mailing List - Make sure you capture your visitors' emails and mailing addresses, if possible. Start a mailing list or newsletter for your visitors. Keep them up to date on your products, services, specials, etc. You might also want to give them some useful information in your newsletter. For more info on starting a newsletter sign up for this free ecourse: ezine-publishing-ecourse@getresponse.com
10. Moving Billboard - Turn your car into a moving billboard. Put a magnetic sign or decal on your car so you can advertise your business wherever you go. Be sure and have catalogs/business cards handy for anyone who is interested.
11. Link Exchanges - Link exchanges can bring you a lot of traffic and they can improve your search engine ratings. For those of you who are not familiar with link exchanges - this is when you and add a link to another site on your site and they would add a link to your site on their site, linking them together.
Choose sites that are complimentary to yours, example: if you have a site that sells pet supplies, link to sites that give info on how to care for pets, or where to get pets, etc. Email the webmaster and invite them to have a look at your site.
I hope some of these ideas help you get started with an effective advertising campaign. They have helped me tremendously!
About the Author
************* Terri Seymour and her husband Terry offer a no-cost, non-MLM home business opportunity. More information and resources provided for your home and business at http://www.seymourproducts.com FREE Ebooks and Ecourses available also!
****************
Terri Seymour
More Articles
Advertising Revenue - Murray Hughes Advertising Revenue - Making Money With Adsense Advertising revenue and Google Adsense go hand-in-hand. The Internet has regained a lot of credibility since its fall from grace at the end of the 90’s. This means more businesses are spending more...
Advertising Your Home Business With Pay Per Click Can Be Risky - Kirk Bannerman An unfortunate byproduct of the pay per click advertising business is click fraud. Many people with an online business spend large amounts of money on pay per click advertising only to discover that many of the people clicking on their ads weren't...
Ezine Advertising Strategy Exposed-16 Tips to Boost Your Profit - Greg Root In my opinion, Electronic Magazine (Ezine) advertising is the
greatest, untapped source of online advertising available today.
The reason: Ezine Advertising (EA) matches your product or idea
to people with similar interests.
Example: who...
Five Unique Ways To Get Free Advertising - Dan Brown Here's 5 POWERFUL ways to get some free advertising 1. Give Testimonials When you purchase a product or service and it exceeds your expectations e-mail the business a testimonial. Tell them in the testimonial the benefits you got from the product...
"Simple Messages in Advertising" - Kevin Nunley It is better to advertise with simple messages and have everyone understand you, than to advertise with complex messages and have only 20% of viewers understand you. Brilliantly clever advertising executives often come up with ad campaigns that...
Profiles Of The Powerful: Advertising Exec Steve Grasse - Allan Kalish After ten minutes with Ed Tettemer in the offices of the agency
he founded with partner, Steve Red, you begin to understand the
agency's passion for excellence. After an hour with Ed, you
begin to understand the intensity of his personal passion....
Cinema Advertising is Big Business, So Mergers are a Natural - Louis Victor Cinema advertising has always been an effective marketing tool for some advertisers, while for others they have yet to see the benefit of this unique form of media. When an advertiser hears the term “Cinema Advertising” automatically they think the...
How To Effectively Use Offline Advertising To Build Your Online Business - Jeff Schuman
First of all let me say that having spent the past 20 years working closely with small businesses I know exactly what works when it comes to offline advertising.
What I have found today is that online businesses have a built in advantage when...
Insights to Advertising - Patrick Hale Pat Maxaid .......................Insights to Advertising By: Pat @Maxaid If you're in biz online nothing can make you happier than those notices or invoices in your email telling you that you've made another sale. Right? Okay these little checks just...
12- COPYWRITING TIPS TO MAKE YOUR ADVERTISING MORE PROFITABLE... - Thom Reece © Copyright 2004 Thom Reece All Rights Reserved Year after year people make the same mistakes in direct-response copy and advertising. You can avoid the most common and costly blunders by following these proven tips... 1. WRITE IN...
|