ForumsAdvertising, Sales and Marketing

Well, the cheapest is free. There are many kinds of free advertising. Of course, nothing is totally free--it takes time. So, what is the best free advertisig for your time. I think it's PR, but that is assuming you can find something that makes your business news worthy. Have you donated at products to a good cause? Does your website feature any interesting articles? Can you start doing any of these if you haven't already? You might try PR with Good Housekeeping and the like and local resources.

Start blogging on about anything, but something involving your product would help.

SW, I think Luckiest's answer is on the mark. Get more information on advertising.

There is no one "magic bullet" when it comes to advertising, no one medium that will reach everyone for every business. It depends on who your customers are, what they like, how they spend their time, how much education they have, how much money they make, etc. You have to get a better understanding of who you are talking to.

I have always believed the best approach is a blend of media (print, direct mail, internet, TV, radio, point of purchase, outdoor and guerilla) to match the trends of your customers. Once you develop this blend, you tweak it as you get feedback and results. Leaning too heavily on one form of adverting can mean a business owner is risking missing potential customers.

Luckiest, this is what I meant in my post - too many folks (who say they provide adverting services) are out here not providing small business owners with helpful advice, they're too busy trying to push their services. It misrepresent what small businesses should be getting from adverting folks, and it hurts the client's business. Sorry, I am on my soap box again. My bad.

Here is an overview of what the general marketing industry says:

Datran Media recently released the results of its second annual survey of over
2000 online marketing professionals, finding that 82 percent of the marketers
surveyed indicated that they plan to increase their use of email marketing in
2008, and 55 percent of the respondents cite that they expect ROI from email to
be higher than any other channel. The reports says that the survey results are
consistent with the Direct Marketing Association's recent report, which found
that email ROI will hit $45.65 for every dollar spent in 2008, more than twice
the ROI of other mediums including search and display. In addition to increased
use of email as a media and lead generation channel, the Datran Media survey
found:

• 80
  percent of respondents indicated email was the strongest performing media buy
  ahead of search and display.
• Search
  is the favored channel for complementing the email channel.
• More
  than 80 percent of marketers send targeted email campaigns.

Selected key findings include the following...
Company Email plans for 2008, compared to 2007:

• 82.4%
  to increase use of email marketing
• 15.3%
  to stay the same
• 2.4%
  to decrease email marketing expenditures

Source: Datran
Media, January 2008 Expectations for company's Email marketing ROI in 2008:

• 55.3%
  say higher than other channels
• 25.9%
  feel ROI roughly equal
• 18.8%
  say lower

Source: Datran Media, January 2008 Advertising
media buys that perform strongly for your company: (multiple response OK)

• 80%
  say eMail
• 37.6%
  display
• 70.6%
  say Search
• 16.5%
  feel Print
• 10.6
  say Broadcast
• 7.1%
  Cable
• 1.2%
  think Mobile
• 2.4%
  report RSS
• 34.7%
  say Ad Network
• 8.2%
  uncertain

Source: Datran Media, January 2008 Media
channels that complement the eMail media channel: (multiple response OK)

• 51.8%
  say Display
• 71.8%
  say Search
• 24.7%
  think Mobile
• 17.6%
  say Broadcast
• 10.6%
  Cable
• 41.2%
  report Direct

Source: Datran Media, January 2008 Of those who
plan to employ eMail, they also expect:

• 80% to
  send newsletters
• 78.8%
  drive sales
• 67.1%
  will increase upsell or cross sell opportunities
• 50.6%
  will sent transactional messages
• 52.9%
  to reactivate dormant customers
• 70.6%
  plan to enhance customer relationships
• 64.7%
  expect to increase brand awareness or lift

Source: Datran
Media, January 2008 The respondents say eMail planning includes these elements
in 2008:

• 74.1%
  to conduct content or creative split testing
• 36.5%
  will test creative across inbox devices
• 29.4%
  to pay for eMail marketing based on CPM model
• 58.8%
  will pay on a CPC or CPA model
• 36.5%
  will include banner ads
• 25.9%
  will measure effect on Brand lift
• 36.5%
  will measure effect on customer satisfaction
• 64.7%
  will measure eMail effect on sales

Source: Datran
Media, January 2008 Response to... "use and/or plan on using an outside vendor
for email marketing?"

• 69.4%
  say Yes
• 20%
  say NO
• 10.6%
  Not Sure

Source: Datran Media, January 2008

regards,
Robert

www.robertbusse.com

I would have to say what I have seen is that a person will spend $300 a week for a good newspaper ad for 6 weeks straight and see 2-3 new faces a week. Then I see people buy a website for $400-$1000. This drives in 2-3 new faces a week, but never has to be touched again.

I say if you are going run a newspaper campaign, you should also do a good website with a lot of information; so when you do decide to do a newspaper that is one more tool to ad to your ad. Your web address can be a powerful tool on a flyer, a newspaper ad and even your business card. Give it a thought. A good way to find out how much your site might cost visit the non-profit company http://www.websitequote.org/.

Good Luck!
Dave

I have seen online (pay per click) advertising be incredibly effective but it has to be done correctly. Honestly when most people try to do this themselves they end up making having far too few keywords that are way too broad. For most businesses very targeted geographic regions are the way to go. Feel free to email me at info at lauraroeder.com for specific suggestions for your site, I run adwords campaigns for my clients.

I agree 100%

My carpentry business has faced the same issue. At the end of the day, what has really helped us get sales back on track is setting up partnerships with others. So, now we have a builder, a bunch of real estate companies, painting companies and some others with whom we have referral programs. I wonder if something similar could work for your business