10 Ways to Advertise Your Business On the Cheap
Who couldn’t use some more advertising, and what are some of the easiest ways to advertise a business on the cheap?
That’s the question I was asking myself today, when I decided to see if my friends on Twitter had any ideas. As usual they didn’t disappoint, and within minutes I had a list of 10 cheap, or free ways to advertise your business.
Advertising on the Cheap
- Add/Claim your business on Google
- Article Marketing – Write expert articles and submit them to sites such as Ezine, or pick from this list of 200 article submission websites
- Advertise on yourself – make some simple t-shirts with your company name and website on them, wear them around town
- Add your business to review sites such as Yelp, or Feedback Jar
- Email signature – Use every email as a way to promote yourself and your business
- Social Networks – There is a social network for every niche. Join one and start networking.
- Forums related to your business
- Leave biz cards in library books
- Post cards on windshields
- Leave biz cards, flyers, etc on community boards
In this economy there is nothing wrong with being frugal, and there are literally dozens of ways to advertise your business economically. Think creatively, and just get out there and do it!
Let me know your best cheap marketing idea in the comments below.
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Wow – what great tips from your readers.
Here’s the extra free benefit I discovered when I went to “Add/Claim your business on Google”:
one can create coupons that appear online next to one’s business – and it is a very easy process to create these offers.
Hint: offer your partnering businesses’ product when people make a minimum purchase from you an ask your partnering business to reciprocate.
Then both businesses secure more visibility
+ gain a warmed-up introduction to each other’s customers
Excellent tips. I would add:
Put your company logo or URL on your car window. I get a lot of hits on my site from simply driving around town.
@Kare
Great addition to adding your biz to Google maps. Done right a coupon can get you plenty of additional traffic, leads, etc to your biz.
Thanks for sharing,
Matt
@Aaron
Perfect! And you’re going to be driving around anyway, why not take that as an opportunity to advertise right?
Thanks,
Matt
Another great one, especially for these trying times. Gonna pass this along to my clients.
Stumbled!
Thx
@Will
Hey, good to see you around these parts. A great list put together by the Twitterverse, thanks for passing it along!
Matt
Awesome list, I’m planning on getting a shirt design for Simply Blog. Also, create a Google profile for your personal blog and business. I’ll keep ya posted.
-Mig
These are really great ideas. Thumbs up!
@Mig
Please do keep me posted, would like to know how the marketing goes for you.
Matt
I like the “Leave biz cards in library books” but add a twist. Go to a bookstore and leave your biz card in all of the “… For Dummies” books in your niche. Print your cards double sided and include an offer on the back of your card for anyone that tells you what store they got your card from.
Thanks for the list. I a link to your site from good old Twitter
. I’m definitley going to have to look into some of these ideas.
@Mac
Love it! A great way to target market to those individuals looking for exactly what you offer.
Matt
@Perspective
We should add that one to the list as a great way to advertise your biz on the cheap – hang out on Twitter! If done right, Twitter is a great way to market.
Glad you found us!
Matt
Send a Private Message
I offer free advertising for Business on my yahoo group at finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/local_coupons_usa/
Businesses can post 1 free ad or coupon a month on that group. If the business wants to post more than 1, the cost is $30 a year. Plus for the same $30, their ad or coupon will appear on all 3 of my web sites.
contact me to learn more, send an email to local_coupons_usa-owner@yahoogroups.co
Those tips are fine but I’m unable to get this point of adding my site to yelp and feedback jar.Can anyone help me out ?
Thanks.
Add your Business for free.
Describe your Business in 1500 words or less.
For more information go to http://www.559magazine.com
Munish Ghai
We use customer referral incentives!
A few years ago I created my own advertising t-shirt: I had a plain shirt, used a sharpie to draw my website’s logo and name on the shirt, and wore it
Drats…don’t know what happened, but I didn’t finish my comment. Anyway, I wore my homemade t-shirt a few days when I was out and about and the traffic to my site increased about 25%. Granted, this was not sustained traffic, but it did work on the days I wore my shirt. I think this worked for me because I run a work from home jobs website in a community that has a very high unemployment rate.
facebook advertising is really cheap and really effective, a local builder i work with had 3 jobs in 2 months from ads run on facebook. really easy to target local area.
give it a try, it’ll work for any business as long as your target the right people.
Some planning is absolutely necessary. Advertising willy nilly without strategic planning and preparation will result in you falling flat. The above pointers are legitimate marketing tools for e-business and must be approach that way. I have an associate who spends her whole working time on business forums. This is her key strategy. She speaks to as many people as she can and as a result gains the business volume she requires. I personally find this limiting, but she is content with 3 or 4 clients per week to achieve her business aims.
Good info and great post. I have been doing all these listed ways right from the start except the 3rd one. However, I believe that the methods listed on number 3rd, 8th, 9th and 10th are for boosting and publicizing a local business and will not be able to help much in International Business, where there are lot of countries involved. Thanks anyway kudos, for a great job well done.
Great list! I forgot about a couple of these.
Brian Speer´s last blog ..Search Marketing Expo – SMX East New York City
it is really great tips and i think if every person follow this tips sure his business gone on top and thanks for post this useful tips it really help me
The tips are great and a very easy to follow article. For small/local business review sites like Google reviews are a great marketing tool. Have an option on your site that allows users to add reviews and use them to submit to Google and other sites.
Sara Sentor´s last blog ..Why Small Businesses need Social Marketing
Love some of these ways . http://hootsuite.com/ makes social Marketing very easy
Great post!
I just got a promotion at my job at a marketing agency, where we are going to start offering consulting services to clients who need help setting up Facebook and Twitter accounts. I think Facebook can be a good business tool, but it has be used the right way.
mcx tips´s last blog ..Post Market Discussion
If you have friends who have a shop front, leave some promotional items to let customers take away when they purchase from your friend’s shop. I have a customer who leaves stirrers with his logo and website at his friend’s cafe, works wonders for both of them.
This was really helpful thank you
Classified ads, is the best way to promote / market for very cheap, sites like Gumtree, Craigslist, etc really work so well.
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Angel and I have just started selling weight loss products and became mentors too those seeking too lose weight we have tried advertising on any and every website available that is free this usually gets us about 7 or 8 customers a week. so to def. get your business going Google free websites that let you advertise this is cheap and only takes about 3 hours a day.
Good one. I often leave Biz cards in bars and other frequented places. I have an offer on the back of my Biz details to encourage contact. You never know. I run security company so am always looking for people in the market for CCTV or an alarm system.
Try innovative advertising, on something like kiloads.com or http://www.10dollarpixelblock.com.
yamph´s last blog ..how to convert PFX certificate to PEM format
I have magnetic signs that I designed, pretty cheap, and act like moving billboards when I am driving around.
My most successful Cheap Advertising routine is, taking my menus to offices. I shake their hands, introduce myself and ASK for their business. I do deliveries and always notice a spike in business following an adventure out and about the town. I don’t have this activity scheduled, when we are slow, that’s when I hit the road.
Deb Blecha´s last blog ..Looking at The Big Dogs on the Playground
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Sale in Islamabad´s last blog ..Groupinpk makes its strong mark in Islamabad
Free samples! How will they know until they try? Works everytime!
Thanks for a great list! I definitely think advertising through Google and social media websites are great and inexpensive ways of advertising.
It’s true, but some time it doesn’t work. If my business is based in overseas then except Google and face book i tend to advertise in print magazines but it’s too expensive.
wholesale pashmina´s last blog ..Beaded Silk Pashmina stole – $55.00
There are many ways to promote your business and the best ones are cheap espetially on the internet, thanks for sharing some of them
Web Opportunities´s last blog ..5 Great Job Boards for Freelance Writers
If you are a service based business, such as a home contractor or a professional, make sure you list your business and website on PinBud.
PinBud is an online marketplace for services with free basic business listings and free sales leads from prospective customers.
Users search for local service providers and are able to contact multiple companies with a single quote request, so make sure that you are listed and added to those requests. It’s free!
These are really the best ways to market in cheap.
Recipes with Twist´s last blog ..Mushroom Paneer and Peas Curry
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A very affordable way of reaching millions of readers for a low cost is classified advertising in shoppers like Thrifty Nickels and Pennysavers in bulk buys. I’ve been doing this for my clients for years and it’s an often underused strategy for getting the word out. Please trust and respond to their local papers. I highly recommend it. We have hundreds of these options on our site AdvertisingResults.com or you can Google options as well!
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Another good, cheap idea will be to contribute articles to your local publication relevant to your niche service or product offerings.
If you article is good enough many of the readers will want to check you out via the author byline info you give.