The Miserly Marketer - How to promote your business on the cheap

1. Get a big return for small ads. The price of print advertising may have scared you off, but big half-page or full-page ads don't always pull more. Try running small ads regularly. Or look to the classifieds to find a group of ready-to-buy prospects actually searching out your ad. Make the most of the small space by providing a quick tip, offering a big benefit, or giving a strong reason to respond.

2. Don't waste any opportunity to market. Mail a sale announcement with customer statements. Print pertinent sales information on your business cards. Put your name, number and a strong reason to call you on your vehicle.

3. Use media ops. Gain credibility and reach a huge audience without paying for it, by generating publicity about your business. Create an event or find something newsworthy to say, and package it as a news story to make it easy for editors to respond.

4. Get others to advertise for you. Word-of-mouth advertising and testimonials from happy customers carry ten times the weight of your own claims of quality, price and service.

5. Share the cost. Talk to a company that provides a complementary service and combine your efforts. A wedding planner and a florist might join forces. Or seek co-op opportunities in which manufacturers contribute to your advertising as long as you feature their products.

These are all do-able marketing activities that take some time but don’t squeeze your bottomline.