WHAT IS ADVERTISING?

Advertising is attempting to influence the buying behavior of your customers or clients by providing a persuasive selling message about your products and/or services.

There are many different types of advertising that are effective for small businesses, from traditional forms of advertising such as signage, yellow pages listings and newspaper advertising through newer forms such as pay per click advertising on the Internet.

Technically, advertising is only one way of promoting your business, and you will want to be sure that whatever form of advertising you choose fits in with your marketing plan and overall marketing strategy.

Ten Low-Cost Ways to Promote Your Business

1) Use every outgoing piece of paper, and every electronic document as business promotion.

You have business cards, but you also put out a lot of other documents in the course of doing business. Check these to make sure you're logo and brand is consistent to make the most of your promotional possibilities.

2) Writing articles on topics related to your business expertise is an excellent business promotion technique.

Well-written articles can provide free advertising and build positive word-of-mouth. If you're a realtor, for instance, you could write a piece on preparing your home to be shown. The more specific your topic, the better. Write a short biographical note, or "blurb" about you and your business to go with the article. Then send it out!

Where? As the goal is to promote your business, ideally you'd like it to appear in a publication that your target audience will be reading. Realistically, you may have to send it to a publication that accepts unsolicited work from unknown authors. Magazines generally have a long lead time, so I would focus my first efforts on the 'Net. There are an astronomical number of e-zines and sites with newsletters that are hungry for content.

3) Sending out press releases is another great way to get some free business promotion.

The caveat to using press releases as a business promotion tool is that your press release has to actually contain information that is newsworthy, and be engaging enough to get people's interest. Has your business recently expanded? Do you have a new product? Have you been involved in some promotional activity such as sponsoring a charity event? Have you or your company recently won an award? All of these are examples of "news" that you can capitalize on to get some free promotion for your business.

4) If you're an Internet user, spend some of your online time on business promotion.

Posting messages in forums (a.k.a. bulletin boards) is a great way to make your business known to people you would otherwise be unable to contact. You can't blatantly advertise your business on most forums, but you can show others that you're a knowledgeable, personable individual and promote your business through your signature file.

Getting people interested in your business and perhaps attracting new customers works best if you choose forums that are business-related or directly related to your business' product or service.

5) Use buddy marketing to promote your business.

If you send out brochures, you could include a leaflet and/or business card of another business, which had agreed to do the same for you. This gives you the chance to reach a whole new pool of potential customers.

You might also plan and carry out business promotions with complementary businesses. A pet store and a pet grooming business, for example, might use shared advertising, or run a contest together. This can considerably cut down the cost of business promotion, and allow each business to use promotion techniques that would be too expensive to implement alone.

6) Give out freebies as business promotion.

We're all familiar with hearing or reading advertisements that promise that the first 50 people to visit a particular store will receive a free (____). You fill in the blank. It could be anything from a red rose through an ice-cream cone! We're all familiar with this kind of spot promotion because it works. People love to receive things that are free.

Besides using freebies as business promotions, you can also use them regularly as customer "rewards". What small, inexpensive things could you give out with your product or service that will get your customer thinking good thoughts about you? Combining business promotion with customer rewards is definitely a win-win situation.

7) Promote your business on a talk show.

Your local radio station or cable TV station may have programs that are looking for guests - a great low-cost way to promote your business! I recently was invited to Metro Cafe TV where I spoke about the benefits of good design and marketing tips that allowed me to promote my business to my desired target audience. Business-related programs are ideal. Find out who the host is, and approach him or her as willing to share your expertise on a particular topic.

Call in programs are popular; you may be able to appear as a guest expert where you might offer to take call-in questions on your expertise; e.g. a CPA answering tax questions. Have your proposal clearly worked out before you contact the program host, and make sure the parameters of your appearance, are clear beforehand.

8) Promote your business by giving a seminar, presentation or informercial.

You have expertise that other people are interested in! (You couldn't be in business if you didn't.) Why not share that expertise and promote your business at the same time? For example, a local carpet company advertises a free seminar on installation techniques for a type of laminate flooring. Participants not only learn how to install this type of flooring themselves, but are offered special discount prices if they wish to purchase laminate flooring. Another local retailer who sells goods made of stained glass offers courses on working with stained glass on-site.

9) Use your vehicle to promote your business.

Mobile business promotion isn't just for white delivery vans. Where I live, one in every four vehicles has the name and phone number of a business decorating one of the windows or doors. Think of all the people who see your vehicle when you're driving around - especially if you live in a place where people often get stuck in traffic!

10) Promote your business through your lesiure activities.

One savvy businessman I know relaxes by being part of a rock band. Guess what? Every time his band's gigs are mentioned in the newspaper, the piece also mentions the name of his business!

You may not be part of a band yourself, but everyone does something for "fun". Whether your chosen leisure activity is working on a Spitfire Restoration project, rock-climbing, or shopping, there are all kinds of ways to promote your business while you do what you love to do.


Scared? Start small and start building a name by making a presentation to one of your local groups such as your local Chamber of Commerce or business network groups, and of course, you can always give us a call.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Bella Lane (CEO)
And The BLD Team