Step Nine: Keep
Marketing
Date Added: June 3rd,
2002
By Chris Stallman
| E-mail
A lot
of businesses fail because they just can't sell their products/services
to enough people. And part of the reason why is because not enough
people knew about the business. That's why marketing plays such
an important role in the success of a biz.
I won't
lie...advertising can be pretty expensive. But it doesn't have
to be. Sure, a 30-second spot on the Super Bowl will cost over a
million dollars and some newspapers charge over $50,000 for a full
page ad, but that doesn't mean that there aren't affordably
ways to get the word out too. Here are some:
Print out flyers
and promotional materials to give out
Find a public place and hand out flyers to people who
might be interested in what you have to offer. Or you can even consider
mailing them but then you would incur postage costs. It might sound
cheap to mail out a flyer...after all it's only 34 cents for
a stamp. But if you send out 100 flyers (still considered a small
number), that'll cost you $34.
Attend conventions and public
events
If you're in a niche market, attend any type of convention
that fits your business category. Like if you are running an investing
newsletter, attend a financial seminar. You'll meet lots of
people to whom you can inform about what you're offering. Who
knows...you might end up becoming the most popular person at the
convention. I've actually heard of this happening.
If you're doing a mailing,
try postcards
I wanted to
do a mailing but I was turned off by the postage prices to get my
stuff out to a lot of people. Then I considered postcard advertising.
Postcard rates are only $0.21 per postcard. This will save you over
38%. And you can print postcards on your own computer for a
reasonable price.
Try internet advertising
Internet advertising
used to have a reputation of being very pricey. But over the last
couple years, prices have come down over 90%. Here are some
ways you can get some cheap internet advertising:
- Submit
your site to search engines: There
are many search engines out there, like Yahoo and Google, that
allow you to submit your website to. People can then find your
website when they search for something related to your site. This
is free but you will need to install "meta-tags" on
your site to do this.
- Pay-per-click
search engines: Some search
engines out there, like FindWhat.com, have created a system that
allows you to "buy" the rank in which your site appears.
For example, if you wanted to be the first site to come up when
you enter the word "shopping", you just have to bid
higher than anyone else. If you bid just 1 or 2 cents per click
and you register a lot of keywords, you can get quite a bit of
traffic. Twenty-five dollars might buy you 2500 visitors to your
site.
- Cheap
banner advertising - Design
an ad and display it at the top of another website. Sites typically
charge on a CPM basis. CPM stands for "cost per thousand
impressions". So if a site charges $5 CPM, it means that
you can have your ad displayed 1,000 times for $5.00. But remember
that only about 0.8% of all people will actually click on
the ad. So be sure not to pay more than $5 CPM for this kind of
advertising.
Put an ad in the local newspaper
If you want a lot of awareness in the community, you
might want to consider putting an ad in the local newspaper. Print
advertising can be costly but if you're selling a service, an
ad is one of the best ways to get you more clients. Be sure to research
the rates and decide what size ad you can afford.
Always carry a business card
Be sure you have a business card handy to give to anybody
you meet. It's one of the best ways for people to remember you.
And they'll also have your contact information handy in case
they decide they're interested.
With the right marketing, you'll be on the track
to success...
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