by Akua Hinds

Created on: December 19, 2010

Small or home based business owners are responsible for promoting their businesses to the public, and they usually have to market their businesses on a limited budget.  There are many different ways to advertise a business and some marketing methods cost little to nothing to get the word out.  If you are a small or home business owner, these are some helpful advertising suggestions that won’t put a dent in your wallet:

Face to face networking

Joining and actively participating in an affordably priced networking group will offer you and your business plenty of exposure.  The networking group you join should have an online presence and allow members to post their business information on the networking group’s website.  At the group’s face to face meetings, members are usually permitted to provide a short verbal infomercial describing their business to the other members.  Face to face networking is one of the most affordable and effective ways to advertise your business and establish trust with potential customers or clients.  Members of networking groups will usually try to support each other’s businesses in exchange for the same treatment. 

Online networking

Thanks to video websites like You Tube, small and home business owners can film their own commercials and broadcast them to the world without having to pay expensive fees to television broadcast companies.  Small and home business owners should consider hiring a videographer to film a creative and compelling commercial that will appeal to the intended target market.   Posting information about your company on online social networking websites like LinkedIn and Facebook will increase awareness of your company on a global scale and make your company like bigger and more accessible. 

Business cards and merchandise

Placing business card in strategic places like community billboards and other people’s storefronts (if they will allow you to) is a great way to “silently” advertise your business.  You can’t be in every location at once, but if your business cards are placed in various places, you won’t need to do “extra work” to advertise your business.  Also, getting t-shirts, car magnet decals and stickers made with your business logo and contact information on them will also be permanent advertising tools that will get people curious about your business, leading them to check out your company website or ask you questions about the business.

Marketing your business does not need to cost a lot of money in order for it to be done right.  Word of mouth will always work, so ask your friends and acquaintances to help you spread the word about your business by telling all of their contacts about it!  Following these advertising suggestions will help you increase awareness for your company and eventually bring in more profits for your business. 

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