Advertising On A Budget

Advertising! As a small business owner you know you need it, but it can sometimes be a catch-22. You don't want to spend a lot of money advertising your business, but if you don't advertise you won't make any money.

Fortunately, there are a lot of easy ways you can stick to your budget and get the word out about what you have to offer, especially online. Online advertising is one of the easiest ways to spread the message about your business, but there are right and wrong ways to do it.

If you're spending a lot of money on advertising, do an audit of your spending. You might be spending a lot more than you need to. For example, many new small business owners start spending money on pay per click advertising without checking their spending. They'll bid on a ton of keywords that they think are related to their sites and then they let their PPC ads run 24/7. A strategy like this will run you into the poor house pretty quickly!

Look at what is giving you the most bang for your buck, advertising wise, and then cut out all of the rest. You can always expand more when you have more money coming into your business. PPC isn't the right place to start for new small business owners.

There are plenty of opportunities for free advertising online that will have much bigger returns on your investment. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Idea #1 - Ebooks

Ebooks are digital books that can help you promote your business and inform your target market about what you have to offer. You can write ebooks or have them written and then submit them to free ebook directories. People can download them for free and learn more about what you have to offer.

Idea #2 - Banner Exchanges

Try a banner exchange with another website owner who promotes a complimentary product or service. It's modern day equivalent of word of mouth advertising! Have a graphic designer create a professional banner to advertise your site. Although this will add to your advertising budget you can use it again and again in the future.

Idea #3 - E-mail marketing

E-mail marketing is very low cost compared to other forms of advertising. All you have to do it get the recipient's permission to send your advertising e-mails. Give your website visitors a free ebook or short e-course in exchange for their e-mail address. After that you can send them messages about the benefits of your business, special reports and discounts.

The bottom line here is to remember that if you use these free (and cheap) methods of advertising, you can really boost your profits!

By: Tricia Mischler

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