How much should I spend on advertising? It is a question that every business owner asks themselves and struggles with. It is tough to track how much new business you get in most cases and therefore you don't know if you are just throwing away your money or putting it to good use.
Of course, the flip side of that is that if you don't get the word on the street about your business, you have absolutely no shot of ever succeeding. You know you have to advertise, it is just common sense. You watch TV every day and see every major company in your face every time a commercial comes on. If McDonald's is still advertising, you better! Problem is that you don't have their budget, how can you keep up with the times. The answer is FREE advertising!
There are plenty of free outlets for you to advertise in and you are going to take advantage of every one of them. Each and every one of them are 100% free, all they take is a little time on your part.
The first facet is to post on as many free classified sites as you can find that involve your particular business. There are some well know national ones like Craig's List but there are thousands of other ones too. If you have no knowledge of them, do a search on the web and you will get the general idea of how many opportunities you have to advertise for free.
Social networks offer a unique opportunity for free advertising. They offer you two possibilities in developing your own page and usually also have their own classified sections. If you are not familiar with these networks, you may think that they are for hooking up and socializing, that is far from the truth. People spend hours on these sites reading about anything and everything. If you are selling wine and Jane Doe does a random search, she just may come across your site and you will have found some new business.
Finally, at least as far as the web goes, you are going to have your own dedicated site. If you have a limited budget, you should start out with a simple blog that you can talk about your business and make some daily posts about what you are selling. All of these sites are totally free so it will not cost you a penny and you will be competing with the people that have spend thousands on getting their site up an running.
Once you have your own site up you will also offer link exchanges with other bloggers and web sites. Do some searches in forums and blog sites and see who is popular. These sites don't necessarily have to be affiliated with what you are selling, actually for this, you would probably prefer that they were not. You are just trying to let people know about your business and this is a great way to do it.
You can use this technique with the fellow members of your chamber. Most communities have a Chamber of Commerce and you need to join. You are going to buddy up with all of these guys and offer to promote their business if they promote yours. Nothing major, just a flyer, or maybe a poster in the local drugstore. Anything you can do to expose your business to more clientele. All of this will cost you not one cent and you will have more advertising for free that you would have ever thought possible. - 16651
Of course, the flip side of that is that if you don't get the word on the street about your business, you have absolutely no shot of ever succeeding. You know you have to advertise, it is just common sense. You watch TV every day and see every major company in your face every time a commercial comes on. If McDonald's is still advertising, you better! Problem is that you don't have their budget, how can you keep up with the times. The answer is FREE advertising!
There are plenty of free outlets for you to advertise in and you are going to take advantage of every one of them. Each and every one of them are 100% free, all they take is a little time on your part.
The first facet is to post on as many free classified sites as you can find that involve your particular business. There are some well know national ones like Craig's List but there are thousands of other ones too. If you have no knowledge of them, do a search on the web and you will get the general idea of how many opportunities you have to advertise for free.
Social networks offer a unique opportunity for free advertising. They offer you two possibilities in developing your own page and usually also have their own classified sections. If you are not familiar with these networks, you may think that they are for hooking up and socializing, that is far from the truth. People spend hours on these sites reading about anything and everything. If you are selling wine and Jane Doe does a random search, she just may come across your site and you will have found some new business.
Finally, at least as far as the web goes, you are going to have your own dedicated site. If you have a limited budget, you should start out with a simple blog that you can talk about your business and make some daily posts about what you are selling. All of these sites are totally free so it will not cost you a penny and you will be competing with the people that have spend thousands on getting their site up an running.
Once you have your own site up you will also offer link exchanges with other bloggers and web sites. Do some searches in forums and blog sites and see who is popular. These sites don't necessarily have to be affiliated with what you are selling, actually for this, you would probably prefer that they were not. You are just trying to let people know about your business and this is a great way to do it.
You can use this technique with the fellow members of your chamber. Most communities have a Chamber of Commerce and you need to join. You are going to buddy up with all of these guys and offer to promote their business if they promote yours. Nothing major, just a flyer, or maybe a poster in the local drugstore. Anything you can do to expose your business to more clientele. All of this will cost you not one cent and you will have more advertising for free that you would have ever thought possible. - 16651
About the Author:
Alex Wu runs a free advertising website that lets people post their ads, build profiles, and connect. He hopes to create an active environment for businesses place their free ads.
