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Home Business Marketing: Advertising on a Tight Budget

Michael Laleye

October 18, 2006

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For small businesses, advertising can often be costly, often prohibitively so. Many small business owners find it difficult to engage in home business marketing, because it just seems to be so expensive. However, there are many ideas that you can use to increase your visibility.

Here are some ideas that can be very useful in home business marketing:

Start a frequent buyer club.

Your loyal customers should be rewarded for patronizing your store. That way, they will give their business to you, and no one else. It might be helpful for you to track the purchase information of your customers, and once they’ve reached a certain threshold, give them a gift certificate or a rebate. Alternatively, you can give them future discounts, or simply a free gift. These ideas can be varied almost endlessly, so get creative and experiment with what works best for you.

Use your phone time wisely.

There are many ways to use your phone time for advertising purposes. Again, you simply have to be a little creative. For example, when you put your customers on-hold, instead of playing some music, remind them of some of the upcoming events concerning your company. For, example, invite them to a sale.

Give away business cards.

This is pretty intuitive, so you really shouldn’t need someone to tell you this. However, a reminder always helps. Business cards are one of the most inexpensive ways you can advertise, so to neglect their use would be pretty foolish. As much as possible, the card should have an attractive design, and it must include all information relevant to your business. Give your business cards to just about everyone that you meet. You never know when your little “gift” will earn you money.

Utilize e-mail signatures.

Whenever you mail a potential customer, furnish him or her with your complete business information. This helps you to form associations in your prospect’s mind – you want them to remember the business when they think of your name, and vice versa.

Website promotion.

Aside from the usual methods of getting listed in online directories and optimizing for the search engines, you should seriously consider other, less prestigious methods. For example, try to include your URL on just about every surface available – on your business cards, on the uniforms of employees, and on all promotion items such as key chains, coffee mugs, and T-shirts. You want people to be reminded of your site everywhere they turn.

Home business marketing is not as difficult as it may first seem. As long as you have a good supply of creativity, you should be able to generate enough ideas to promote your business. The ideas enumerated here should get you started, but make sure you think up your own variations!

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