10 No-Cost, Low-Cost Ways To Promote
Your Web Site or Small Business

If you own a small business, you might feel one of your largest obstacles is a lack of a big marketing budget. Billboards and television ads are certainly effective — but you can still get your name out there without making a huge financial investment.

The trick is to get creative. You can drastically increase your business by merely rethinking your approach. Get clever, and use the marketing dollars you are already spending to their full potential. The only investment you need to make is time, but the returns will be tenfold.

1.

Track Your Advertising and Marketing

Most companies that track their advertising and promotions track leads. Most do not connect these source codes to the actual sales they get and produce a report showing sales or profits generated by each ad. Set up a system that allows you to record where your sales come from: ask your customers how they found you, and then note which ads or marketing campaigns were most successful this way, you can gauge where your dollars are best spent.

2.

Develop Your Unique Selling Proposition

Unique Selling Proposition means to define what is it about your business that communicates to your customers and prospects "Why do business with me instead of my competitors." Succinctly communicating this in all your advertising and marketing materials is the first step in improving your results. Once you have a Unique Selling Proposition, apply it to all your materials.

3.

Communicate With Your Existing Customers and Propects

You go to great expense and effort to build a customer list and get prospects interested in your products or services. Make sure you have these names on a database and communicate regularly with them. You will find it much easier to make another sale to someone who has already bought from you and was happy with your service than it is to get a new customer.

4.

Good Customer Service Equals Priceless Word of Mouth Advertising

If you think of customer service as a cost center and have a goal to minimize costs, you are missing a great opportunity that has very low, if any, costs. Go out of your way to make sure your customers are pleased with your service. Don't ever underestimate the power of word of mouth. For every complaint you get, there are 10 more that don't bother to complain to you—but may tell others. Use this to your advantage. It works the other way, too.

5.

Cultivate Referrals & Testimonials From Satisfied Customers

The best time to ask customers is after you have provided them with a product or service they need and have helped them out in some way. You can even include a form for them to return. Offer them some incentive to give you a referral that doesn't really cost you anything (a discount on a product or service you offer). Testimonials are a powerful thing to use in your marketing. I get them by mailing customers a short letter asking for a testimonial and providing a short form where they can write whatever they want, positive or negative. At the bottom, I have them sign to authorize me to use their comment in literature or on my web site and I include a self-addressed stamped envelope.

6.

Ask For Referrals From Prospects Or Other People Who Are Not

If you are making sales calls or contacts with people who are not prospects for you, ask if they know anyone who could use your product or service. Even if they do not turn out to be prospects for you, they may know someone who is, and they may be willing to help you promote your web site or business. It never hurts to ask.

7.

Increase Order Frequency By Offering Frequent Buyer Discounts

Offer a discount for prepaid orders. A punch card for 10 car washes or 20% off encourages a customer to return 10 more times. People tend to use a service more often if they have prepaid—they think of it as paid for already. You will always have some people who don't use up all the prepaid service, so the actual discount you end up giving will be lower than it appears due to that shrinkage.

8.

Do Joint Venture Strategic Alliances

Find other companies whose product or service you can offer along with yours for a percentage. Do the same deal the other way, and give them a percentage on whatever they sell of your product. Or just offer to distribute and endorse each other's information for no cost. As long as it goes both ways, you'll both benefit. Use these offers as a ride along offer in mailings, brochures, package inserts, billing stuffers, or anything else you're doing—and there is no cost to you. Be sure to include a URL to promote your web site.

9.

Promotions And Free Offers

Since most products are sold at twice the cost, a "prize" only costs you ¼ of its perceived value to make. If your product or service is sold differently, you still sell it at more than your cost (hopefully!) so the value of your "prize" or gift is substantially higher than its cost to you. This is also a way to get samples of your product or service into the hands of potential prospects. Once they win something you provide, they may want to buy it from you next time.

10.

Network

Most people in professional or service businesses always tell me they get most of their business through referrals. The way you get referrals is through networking. This is the general term for getting out and meeting people and cultivating business relationships with them and contacts they have. The more people you meet, the more you will be exposed to. Some good places to start are with personal friends, family members, business contacts, and other professionals in your field.

You will probably find some of these techniques more effective than others for your business. Just because they are free, don't let that stop you from tracking the results of each technique. You only have so much time, and you should use it as productively as possible. In a few months you may find some techniques are dramatically better than others, so concentrate on what works best for you personally to promote your web site and your business.

For More Information Contact:

Joe McVoy
Profitable Marketing Systems, LLC
1100 Nautilus Court
Lafayette, CO 80026
Web: www.ProfitableMarketingSystems.com
Email: Joe@ProfitableMarketingSystems.com
Phone: (720) 890-8760
Fax: (303) 604-6839

You are free to copy this article to use on your web site or blog as long as you make no changes and keep contact info including web site and email address intact.

© 2006 Profitable Marketing Systems, LLC