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How To Advertise Your New Business on a Shoestring Budget

by Mitone Griffith

Here's 7 ideas to start with--especially designed for those business owners on a tight budget.
1. Buy Business Cards. This is, in my opinion, the single most important printed medium you can buy. Why? You get a lot for very little. You can carry them easily and give them to everyone. It's a great ice breaker to ask for someone else's card as well. Usually your graphics designer will help you set up a nice graphic that you can use as a logo included in the cost of your cards, and therefore you will save on logo design (branding.)
2. Call the newspaper. Speak with the local business editor and tell them who you are and what your business is about. Ask if they would like to interview you for a news article. If they are too busy to schedule one right away, offer to send a press release.
3. Create a mailing list. You probably already have a good idea who your target audience is. You may even have names and addresses. If you don't, you should get these right away. If you're marketing to other businesses, joining your local chamber and purchasing their mailing address is a good place to start. You can purchase a mailing list online for relatively inexpensively at http://infousa.com for consumer marketing. Lists can be created with all kinds of geographical and biographical data. (Age, gender, etc.)
4. Have a professional designer create FULL COLOR postcards for you to send to your mailing list. Full color increases the likelihood your mailing will be read by 40%, raises ad retention by 20% and the desire to call on the ad by 30%! Postcards are also relatively inexpensive, and you also save 14 cents versus sending regular letters.
5. FOLLOW UP. Get names, addresses and phone numbers of everyone who comes in your door, everyone you talk to on the street, everyone who responds to your direct mail and make a call or email back to them. Always be there for them. Be ready to answer questions. Be able to listen.
6. Be a guest speaker. Local civic clubs in your area frequently look for speakers (experts in their fields) to give talks about 15-20 minutes long. Prepare a speech and an interesting topic and make the calls to your local Rotary and Lions clubs.
7. Write press releases. Even if you get an interview, you should still learn to toot your own horn. Your press releases should be newsworthy, not sales-related. If you're not doing enough that could be considered news, get involved with the community and make such involvements news by sending the announcements to your local papers.
You'll create a buzz in no time, and soon folks will remember to turn to you the next time they need your service or product. To recap: talk, write, toot.