Low-Cost Advertising Tips

Marketing Tips for  Budget-Conscious Entrepreneurs

The thought of starting your own business is a step in the right direction.  But to truly become a successful independent business owner, one aspect of the planning process that must not be overlooked is your  “marketing and advertising” plan. Without effective strategies put in place for the exposure of your business, its foundation will become weak and eventually crumble. 

Most successful business owners who have experienced failure at some point knows that. Regardless of the size, span and niche of your business, workable advertising methods are crucial if you plan  to stay in business for the long haul. Even if you are a brand new entrepreneur with no business experience, understanding the power of advertising and what works for your type of business will take you to higher heights and help yours become a success story.

In the beginning of your journey, it may be difficult  to know what works and what don’t.  There may be times when you will be faced with budgetary constraints.  It may even become more challenging to market and advertise blindly, not knowing whether you message will get to the right ears and eyes.  In that case, it will be money wasted which is always a disappointment.  

So if you are just starting out, there are cost-effective ways to help you get started in your promotional and marketing campaigns without exhausting your advertising dollars.

Solo Email Blasters

There are several “Safe Lists” blasters out on the internet that can blast your ad out to their members for pennies on the dollars. Depending on the option you choose, your ad may go out all by itself without any other ads clouding it.   It may not be the best strategy when it comes to advertising, because members of these programs are also there to advertise their own business.  But with an option to upgrade, so will get a chance additional features to help enhance  your ad and raise your chances of making a sale.  Although many of them has a "free" option, there is a 95% chance that your Ad may be clouded with other Ads.  

A Commonsense approach:

If you plan to do “safelist” advertising, it will be wise to set up a separate email to be used exclusively for junk emails.  If not, you will be bombarded with emails from members of the list that are also advertising their own product or service.  

This kind of email marketing is more about others trying to advertise their own products.  But while you may not get that many sales (if any at all) chances are, you will gain some organic traffic for your website, if you have one, which will help with your Google rankings.  When you feel that overwhelmed or think you are ready for a more effective advertising, you can unsubscribe.

 Always use them with caution.  Don't spend a whole lot of money hoping to generate massive sales.  As mentioned they should mainly be used to get organic traffic.  

Texting

Texting has become an easy and cost-effective way to advertise in recent years, and it keeps getting better. The biggest advantage is the likelihood that your message will be seen, compared to emails that may be sent to your recipient’s junk folder. If you are not good with writing or just don’t have the time, this is a very good way to promote your business with only a couple of sentences.

Your text can be a graphic or picture linked to your business (if you have a website or a social media page), a video or just a couple of sentences with your website link.  Although it won't build your business overnight, your ad is guaranteed to be seen if your message is done right.

Social Media Marketing

Social Media marketing has more popular for marketing rather than socializing because of its power to bring massive exposure to businesses all over the world, with little to no money. When done right, you can build a sizable fan or subscriber base for your business in a matter of weeks.  Usually your subscribers or fans are people who may be interested in your product “liking,” “sharing” or commenting which helps you go viral.  However, don't expect to always get positive feedback no matter how good your product is.  There are trolls that will leave negative feedback no matter what you do.   You just have to take a more proactive approach to monitor your online activity and block them if necessary.   monitor and block such negativity, or respond if you have the time.  Usually your fans knows this and ignores them.  So it may not affect your business unless your product is very bad. Other than that, social media marketing is very effective.

Video marketing is another effective strategy for promoting your business. It use to be very expensive to get a video done for your business but not any more.  Nowadays, there are far more cheaper ways to get your video done without cleaning up your account.   The good news is, if you video marketing can be used in conjunction with the other marketing strategies mentioned above.

If you are working on a low budget, each of these strategies when combined, can get your advertising efforts on a fairly strong start. 

A word of caution:

 When using email and text messaging options, ALWAYS include a link for the recipient to “UNSUBSCRIBE” if they don’t want to receive your messages.   And PLEASE when they do, respect their decision.  There are many fishes in the water.