Kaye Marks |
Kaye Z. Marks is an avid writer and follower of developments in the color printing industry and how these improvements can benefit small to medium-scale business. |
Kaye Marks
has written 38 articles for SB Informer. |
View all articles by Kaye Marks... |
Various Reasons Free Still WorksWhy free still works magic in advertising Kaye Marks
May 30, 2008
For the small business owner, advertising can be a major expense. When
you add that to the cost of commercial printing costs it an seem as
though advertising costs go above and beyond any potential profit that
one may incur because of advertising efforts.
If you know the
right methods, you will know that you can do many ways to advertise
your business, which would not cost anything. Many of these methods
will allow your business as much if not more exposure than it would
have received with paid advertising.
Using free advertising to
offset the costs of commercial printing is something many businesses do
not utilize as much as they could or should. Whether it is because they
are not familiar with free advertising options or have been led to
believe that only high paid advertising is effective is unknown. Some
of the methods from which you can choose include the following:
• Place business cards or copies of your circular on bulletin boards in high traffic areas in your community.
• Sometimes small newspaper will place advertisements free when they have unused space.
•
You can sometimes “buy” free ad space from mail order publications in
exchange for writing informational articles for them.
• Include your advertising slogan on any letterhead or envelopes you utilize to increase your business’s exposure.
•
Include your advertising in your email signature as well as in your fax
correspondence. Both of these will give your business exposure each
time you send something to potential vendors, publishers, customers, or
anyone else who may be interested in your product or service.
These
are only a few of the ways you can utilize free advertising. Of course,
online methods include free advertisements in addition to the above.
Some businesses tend to also place advertisements on doorsteps or on
the windshields of cars but in most cases this is not effective because
the information tends to be tossed to the side and never viewed. These
methods can be used in addition to other methods you choose but are not
ones upon which you should place much emphasis.
One very visible
advertising method is placing your business cards on bulletin boards in
spots that have high traffic. Some businesses have places just for
that, purpose or you may choose to scatter a few on counters in retail
outlets you frequent.
The key to success is choosing those
methods that allow your business exposure to the greatest amount of
traffic. If your business operates both online and offline you must
develop a balance allowing the greatest exposure to both markets. The
greatest exposure for any business is a combination of online and
offline advertising even in cases where the business does not tap into
the online market.
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