Advertising Your Home Business - Pay And Don't Pay For It http://www.ChooseHomeWork.com http://www.WorkAtHomeForDummies.comWhen considering the numerous ways to marketing your new home business, there certainly are the obvious choices which we will discuss here but there are beneficial advertising opportunities that might not immediately come to mind. Some will naturally be more cost effective than others.
At the outset, it isn't reasonable to expect to advertise yourself on a local billboard. However, it’s most definately smart marketing to say post an advertisement in your local newspaper, or to print flyers, mail postcards, or maybe consider placing an ad in your church bulletin. If you'll use some creative thinking, you might surpise yourself at the places you might come up with to advertise that in many cases cost nothing or close to it.
Posting links to your website on certain online forums while actively participating and contributing to those forums is never a bad internet marketing idea. If you’ll look you can find really good free classified advertising avenues to start getting the word out. Some classifieds are not free, but if not they usually very inexpensive.
Then of course, we don't want to overlook the most valuable advertising of all and that is word-of-mouth. Not only is is the most valuable but certainly the most cost effective, FREE! You can't beat free and valuable not to mention effective. It never hurts to ask your cirle of influence to help you get the word out. If they do, you will see success come at you faster than any other method.
Most forms of marketing other than word of mouth have costs that range from relatively small to some that can be rather expensive. Printing fliers can be fairly low cost, but you must consider your paper and ink cartridge costs. Postcards are a very nice and effective way to advertise, but of course you have the cost of the cards first and then the postage. People love getting postcards though and they are
virtually always read. This is a great way to ask your family, friends, and acquintances to help you get the word out. This adds some up front costs to getting your word of mouth going, but again it will be worth it. Posting an ad in a newspaper or other such places, even online as mentioned will cost you for the ad space so it's important to know how much you are willing to spend for various advertising avenues.
Depending on how much you are willing to pay for advertising, your marketing may be limited. However, it is still prudent to try a method or two to determine which one is showing a return. Be prepared to cut your campaign immediately if it appears it is going to cost more than it is going to bring in. One way to determine whether or not one of your methods of marketing is profitable is to survey your customers. When they make their purchase(s), give them a way to respond to the question of how they heard about you. Knowing where your best return is coming from is crucial to your advertising success. Initially, the best strategy is to test. Test each chosen method and increase the ones that show the best return while eliminating those that are just costing you time and money. The money you save from eliminating the non-productive methods can then be redirected to strategies that are working.
It usually takes some time to find the best marketing solution for your home business. Ultimately the best return most often comes from a combination of methods. Consequently, it is important to not limit yourself to a one method for advertising. Constantly be searching for the best solution that brings in the most results at the lowest cost.
Some ask, Should I Even PAY For Advertising At All? The answer is yes and no. Pay AND don’t pay. :-) Paying for quality advertising can have a significant impact on your business, though it does not have to be expensive. On the other hand, there are many ways to get your message out that cost nothing or close to it.
I posted on this blog back on February 2 an article titled "A Home Based Online Business - The Cost Of Doing Business". In that article I mentioned a valuable ebook written by Doug Gorman that spells out 150 FREE ways to advertise your home business. I suggest read that post and Doug's ebook if you want to maximize the free ways to advertise.
To Your Success,
Todd
Todd Thomas is the Founder of ChooseHomeWork.com http://www.ChooseHomeWork.com
and WorkAtHomeForDummies.com http://www.WorkAtHomeForDummies.com.
Todd writes business related articles ranging from internet business to network marketing and everything in between. Todd is also a baseball coach and hitting instructor. He owns http://www.HitItHere.net.
Contact at support@workathomefordummies.com for info on articles for your website!
Labels: Adversting, Business Marketing, Free Classifieds, Home Business, Internet Marketing