Marketing Without Money

Editor’s Note:  Those of us in the marketing trade hear it all the time, “I need a good effective way of marketing my service, but it has to be free or cheap.”  You need to market your business, but when you are low on customers or you have simply outdone your budget, business owners look for marketing on the cheap.

Marketing without money can be hard, but there are ways that it can be done if you are inventive and willing to put in the time and effort.  

3 Strategies to Market Your Business Even When There’s No Money

by: Kathleen Gage

Many small and home-based businesses know they need to market and yet, have little or no money to do so. Sadly, many use this as a reason not to market. Even on a limited budget you can promote and gain visibility for you and your business.

The following three strategies have proven extremely effective for countless businesses as they can for you.

1. Press Releases – Very effective and they offer a great deal of credibility when published. You must have a well written release that is pertinent to the media source you are sending it to. You can distribute press releases both online and off.

A quick Internet search under media resources in your city will bring up radio, television, newspapers and magazines in your area. To find online resources do a search under “free online press release distribution.” Numerous listings will come up. Be sure to utilize the free services when on a limited budget.

There are services you can pay for if you are so inclined. Two excellent resources for both free and paid are www.prweb.com and www.arrivenet.com.

Prior to writing a press release, determine the following:

• Who is your target market?
• What is your target media?
• Who is the contact person at the media outlet?
• What is the timeframe for submission?
• Do you have an attention-grabbing headline?
• Do you know the who, what, when, where, why, how?
• Do you have good quotes, research and technical date if appropriate?

2. Articles - Writing articles is a great way to gain recognition as an expert in your field or specific industry. By providing practical information, you can reach targeted audiences. This can create exciting opportunities for you and your business.

 

Whatever you write about should be something you are knowledgeable on and your information is factual. Incorrect or untrue information can come back to haunt you.

 

Recently I read an article by someone claiming to be an Internet marketing expert. Their article was about gaining visibility on the Net. To find out how much visibility this so called expert has I did a name search on the author. The “expert” author had only 10 postings under his name. Not very impressive when other experts have thousands of listings. The author immediately lost credibility.

 

3. Presentations – One of the most incredibly effective ways to market your product or service is to offer a complimentary information seminar. When you provide great information that is of interest to your market you have become a resource before you are a vendor.

 

By positioning yourself as a resource you are marketing in a very unique way.

Hosting a presentation can be virtually expense free. You can offer to do a presentation at a staff meeting for a client. Many large companies have brown bag lunch speaking opportunities.

 

You can host a meeting open to the public at your local library. Be sure to send press releases to the local media when you are offering a presentation open to the public.

 

Many associations, including your local Chamber of Commerce, are constantly seeking presenters who can provide timely and content driven talks that benefit their members.

 

When you apply one of the three recommendations to your marketing mix you will gain benefit. When you apply all three the results can be phenomenal.

 

About The Author

Learn how to market online with little or no money. Access FREE eBook Street Smarts eMarketing Tips Guaranteed to Jump Start Your Internet Presence to Put You Miles Ahead of the Competition www.streetsmartsmarketing.com/free-ebook.htm written by Kathleen Gage, an award winning entrepreneur, keynote speaker and author, specializing in low cost, high return marketing strategies for small and home based businesses.

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