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Many small businesses as well as home-based businesses know they need to market, but have little to no money to do so. Unfortunately, many use this as an excuse not to market. Even on a limited budget, you can promote and gain visibility fory you and your business. Here are 3 ways to market your business: 1. Press Releases: Is very effective. You must have a well written release that is pertinent to the media source you are sending to. 2. Articles: A great way to get recognition as an expert in your field or specific industry. By providing information, you can reach a targeted audience. 3. Presentations: An effective way to market your product or service is to offer complimentary information seminar. When you provide great information that is of interest to your market, you have become a resource. |
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You should check out www.aditall.com. I just started working for the company and I’m not trying to advertise : ) but it seems to be exactly what you’re looking for. The platform makes the creation and distribution of video ads extremely quick and simple. On top of that, it’s relatively inexpensive. If you’re at all interested let me know! You can reach me through email at Allison@aditall.com. |
Thank you Allison. I copied the link and saved it to my favorites. I will take a look at it later on and see whether it fulfills my needs as well as suits my pocketbook. If you I need your help or input, I will also email you. Thank you again... |
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There is a new site called providemeservice.com that specializes in promoting local home businesses. They normally charge a small fee, but if you sign up now as a charter member and type promo code "newbiz" at the payment screen you can waive costs indefinitely and get it listed for free. Try it out!! www.providemeservice.com <a href="http://www.providemeservice.com">ProvideMeService.com</a> |
Hi jimbozack i tried useing the above site but it wasn't workiing correctly do you have any idea why? |
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Hi Jimbozack, I actually did what you said and I now have setup my account and it is working. Thank you so much for your help. It should be interesting to see how this works. |
Thanks Jimbozack, I also added myself to the site you provided, I will let you know if I recieve more contacts. Shelley Smith |
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seem we are all trying good sights I also found Jumpup.com . The best book I have read so far and It could be my last book. Guerrilla Marketing for Free, by Jay Conrad Levinson. I went to all my Marketing Web pages and just reading what I was saying was all wrong. My business cards are all wrong. |
Where did you find this Dean? I looked on the internet for it and all say that you have to buy it. |
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Free is the name of the book sorry, I got mine a barns and noble $14.00 |
www. providemeservice.com this an easy page. take the cheap payment, and when you get to the why to pay leave it blank . see how it works. It worked for me. If you want to leave the squares blank till you see if it is still free. you can go back and edit them latter. Dean |
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Hi Guys, You've got some great marketing methods listed here but it's interesting that no-one has mentioned joint venture marketing. From my experience JV's are without doubt the best avenue for Low-Cost marketing. There's a book that explains it all really well called the 3 way win. It's not free but it's worth the small investment. If you're interested check it out - www.the3waywin.com Nat |
To jimbozack Excellent advice on the providemeservices.com site. Great tool for small business owners! Tamika Alexander |
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I still am not able to find the book from the site providemeservice.com. When I access the site, I see a list of categories; such as, personal, home, entertainment, to name a few. How do I access this book? |
I have been looking to use prweb.com to put in press release. has anyone ever heard of it or used it? Devin Distributor SendOutCards.com/35720 |
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I heard about HOMESTEAD.COM as well, another way to advertise. I do advertise on a monthly basis and also use craiglists.com., it is free, plus it works.!!!... |
I just found a site that seems pretty good for retail stores. http://www.MerchantcCircle.com lets you create a business listing, newsletter and blog for free. |
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I have heard of MerchantCircle. In fact, I have participated on the site for another former business I was involved in. I believe I have also heard of prweb.com. One of the members in my downline informed me of this site. I have not heard of homestead.com. Homestead.com looks to be a web hosting site. I did not see any place for advertising. It is possible that I may not have found the place to place an advertisement. |
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Check out our card service that will help you get tons of referrals and create life-lng clients http://www.socreview.com/cardsender |
Three Free Ways to Market Your Home Business With limited budgets, most home business owners are always looking for ways to effectively promote their business at the lowest possible cost. Well, the cost doesn't get any lower than free! 1. Three things you can do to promote your home business for free. They include: 2. Posting free ads for your home business on Craig's List 3. Promoting your home business through Google Video or YouTube Teaching a class or a seminar as an expert on your home business' specialization All 3 are valid ways to promote your home business. What types of free marketing promotion do you use for your home business? |
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Hello Steven, I am currently doing 2 of the 3 methods you mention to help market my business. I am using Craig's List and I have used YouTube; I created 3 videos. I can't see myself at this time teaching. Although I have learned a lot, I am still new to network marketing and I believe I have a lot to learn. |
Hey Guys, First time poster to the forum. Anyway, A couple of ways that my wife and I have been able to advertise our dog day care business is by using car magnets. We have a logo with bullet points of services rendered along with a phone number and a website address. We have made more from this low cost method than what we paid for the car magnets.  I am sure this could be incorporated for various type businesses. I am learning a lot from the posts and will be trying some of these tips - thanks. Have a great day! K |
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Hi DoggieLife, I used to do this when I was a member of Herbalife. I have debated over and over again as to whether I want to get car signs for my Healthy Coffee business or just a bumper sticker. I may start out with a bumper sticker and place my web site on it and maybe my number. Who knows, I may even go back to getting the magnetic signs. I also used to have a window sign to go on my car. I did this when I had my Ford Expedition. It was easier to see being that the car sat high up. Now that I have exchanged the Expedition for a Focus, I won't be getting the car sign. |
All the suggestions are great and work. My suggestion is to see what works best for you. Try all of the free suggestions first including free classifieds. Here is an article I wrote on low cost advertising. http://homebizseo.com/Low_Cost_Advertising.html Greg homebizseo.com online business magazine http://homebizseo.com/ |
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Hi Guys, I want an answer ... I'm not very familiar with email ads, i recently bought 1000 email ads, from taketheinternetback.com and paid $15 for that and I got about 470 visits from them in about one week. I did sell more ebooks (my online business), but I paid for 1000 emails and sincerely, was expecting to get at least 70%. Do you think this is a good result? If no, do you know websites that provide better results? I got to the website by searching for opt-in email advertising on google, I heard that 'opt-in' is necessary otherwise my emails will be considered spam. Thank you and I'm waiting for your replies. |
I am not familiar with email ads. I am glad to hear that you had some success. Getting close to 50%, actually 47%, is better than getting nothing. Homebizseo, I do use free classifieds. I have not had any great results yet. I know there is a way to work them so that you get more leads. I was told that if you update your ads every 3 days, you will have better results. This is because it keeps your ads near the top. |
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Guess it depends on who the email list is sent out to and if those that visited had genuine interest in your site. I find Google adwords to be the most effective for low cost. You set the price per click you are willing to pay so you only have to pay if people visit your site. You can also set it as a daily $ cap, which is easy to control. |
I have used Google Adwords randallu and it can be quite expensive; especially if those who visit your site do nothing but take a look. I have spent as much as $350.00 in one month and got nothing. Of course, I understand that my keywords and such were poorly created and I continue to work on this until I get better. I would suggest to anyone that if you want to use Google adwords, be sure you either have the budget or money and/or the know how because it will cost you in your wallet or pocket book. |
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But isn't that the point of online advertising? For visitors to take a look. You've obviously caught their interest if they clicked on it. It's up to your website to sell them on your product or service, not your ad. Good Ol' bait and trap... Just make sure you set the daily/monthly limits and target the proper audience before you use Adwords. And yes, have a budget, no matter the size of it. |
I had always thought that Google adwords was supposed to get people not only click through to our website, but also to go on ahead and purchase the product. If they don't purchase the product; and by product I am also including service, I am left with having to pay for the click through without having made a sale. Yes, I agree that I need to set a budget, but the budget I can afford would not be worth the time to setup a google adwords account because $3.00 or $5.00 a day is not going to get me anywhere. I am just going to hold off from adwords for now. I need to get more skills in Adwords so that my participation in Adwords will be worth my money, if that makes sense. |
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Guys.... Think of a successful referral program! This will allow you to sit back while other people do the work for you! I started a referral program in my business where clients who give me referrals will get a nice incentive/reward. I recommend that you should figure out a way to include this in your business. You will be surprised at how many new clients you could get for FREE! This way everybody wins!!! Be successful with all you do! Duane Spires |
Jimbozack, thanks for sharing the information! |
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Angelinna, if you received 470 visits from 1000 emails that is tremendous! I just paid $1000 for 2.5 million emails and got maybe a 1% open. In my newbiness (is that a word?) I guess I got hooked up with a spammer and I am extremely unhappy. FYI, the company is Estrela Marketing and I highly do NOT recommend them. I don't even get a 47% open rate on my own newsletter, and these are people who asked me to email them. |
Another cost-effective way of advertising your business, or expertise for that matter, is doing what what we're doing now! By contributing to forums like this one, people get to know you, their curiosity is piqued, and then they will look at your profile. The rule of giving, and it shall be given back to you is very effective. |
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Hi CheriK, I have been there and done that. Yes, there are a lot of people who say that they will sell you tons of leads for whatever dollar amount, but the reality of it is rarely does this happen. There are companies who talk about selling you leads but often these leads are the same leads that they are selling to other people. The other scenario is the one you just experienced where the leads are bogus. Unless I absolutely know an individual who is getting great leads and because of these leads there business is doing well, then I MIGHT consider investing in buying leads from the same company. Otherwise, I choose to use the phone book. I first do some demographic research and see whether the area is an income that can afford to purchase my product or service, then I look for the addresses of people who live in those areas. I had started sending postcards to the homes of the individuals who live in these areas but had to stop due to time constraints, but I do intend to get back into it sending out my postcards, once time permits. |
I still think that the most effective and low cost marketing for your business is word of mouth. If you provide excellent value and great service then your customers will tell someone else and your reputation will grow. This is also true if you are running an online business. Your reputation is everything and you should do all that you can to build it up and get people talking about you. I guess if you do the basics right, everything else will fall into place. |
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I have tried out the Facebook Ads and found them very effective because I can really drill down to my target group to my local area. |
I agree with you 121temps that word of mouth is a good way to build your business, but how does one get the word out when fear is in the way. Most newbies are afraid to talk to people; therefore, in the beginning, talking to people is something they avoid. Many feel that by starting an online business, they don't have to talk to people. Unfortunately this kind of thinking can do more harm to your business than good because relationship building is key to growing a business whether offline or online. In order to develop the skills to communicate effectively with people either online or offline, one has to start out slow and step outside the comfort zone a little at a time. This is what I did. When I first started my business, I was extremely shy and so scared. It is funny now because so many people say that they don't see me as being shy. On the outside I sounded calm and collected, but on the inside, I am churning. You ever see that mouse running on the wheel in his cage. Well, that is how I used to feel inside. I am a lot better now, but I do have my days when it is a struggle. Anyway, my point is that developing skills to communicate with people so that you an utilize the power of word of mouth may take some time in the beginning. But, once one overcomes the fear of connecting with people, word of mouth can be, as 121Temps stated, good low cost marketing method for your business. |
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I totally agree Work2bfree, stepping out of your comfort zone can be quite daunting and you can come up with millions of excuses on why you shouldn't do it today, thus putting it off until you have no alternative but to take the plunge and actually talk to strangers. As someone who was a very experienced senior manager and used to networking in my paid job, I didn't not give this aspect a thought until I had to do it for myself. My self-confidence needed some boosting and a belief in what I was doing was paramount to me taking that first step. |
Yes, making that first step is paramount to one's business. If you let fear paralyze you to the point you refuse to ever move outside of your comfort zone, you will be doing you and your business an injustice. Being scared is normal and ok, but letting it control what you do in you life; especially when you are trying to do something good, is not going to benefit you. As I stated before, take baby steps. Try to do a little bit each day. Over time, you will see progress and soon to follow your fear will begin to lessen and eventually disappear all together. It does not matter how long it takes for this to happen. Whatever time you need, is the right time for you. Thank you 121temps for sharing your thoughts on low cost marketing such as word of mouth. |
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How about volunteering? There may be a charity event where you can volunteer. That's an opportunity to network with other people. Sponsoring a charity event could possibly be an inexpensive way to advertise, or purchasing an ad in a souvenir book for a charity event is another possible inexpensive way to advertise. |
That sounds like a great idea mthomas. I think it would probably work best for people who have the time. I am so busy, even on the weekends, that sponsoring a charity event would not be possible. My low-cost methods are usually applied during the times I am running errands. Since my time is so limited, I usually have to often multi-task. So, while I am doing my errands, I will put out my business card fliers. While standing in line, I will also talk to some of the people who are also waiting in line. I market healthy coffee and usually I will ask whether they drink coffee. If they say yes, I will tell them about the healthy coffee. It just so happens I also carry samples, so I will give out samples and give them my business card while at the same time getting their phone number and email address if at all possible. I also will put up posters on some bulletin boards in super markets and other places. I also have magnetic car signs on my car. I actually just got them, but I learned this from another business I was a member of. I just stick them on my car doors. They have my phone number and website address. There is also a little ad on the sign to arouse interests from people. |
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Guys, All these posts are valuable and spot on for marketing. However, one critical element to getting and keeping clients is Relationship Marketing. I can send anyone that is interested a FREE eBook that is very eye opening. Email me at harley@cardsenderusa.com P.S. Hi to my good friend work2bfree! |
Hello Harley, How are you doing? I haven't heard from you in a while. Glad to hear from you. Yes building relationships is key to building a business. Forums such as these are great ways in which to connect with people. Other methods that help build relationships are participating in social networking sites, blogging, and submitting articles, to name a few. |
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I just checked the website www.providemeservice.com and I think that it has a great concept and it was very easy to set up my business.....thanks jimbozack |
My name is Luis Mora and I am an Accountant that has several Businesses both here in the States and in South America. After 34 years of growing up and trying to mature I have learned that networking is a powerful resource when getting started or starting a business possiblity. As far as Low cost Advertising an outbound call center to telemarket your business at about 275 Us dollars a month running 8 hour shifts m-saturday is something alot of my clients are seeing results with. I am here at your disposal to answer accounting and or business questions in both spanish or english: Call Center is based in South America and we have English native speakers to handle your business. Luis www.vonnautica.com 515-963-5730 |
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