Hot Marketing Ideas To Help Grow Your Business On A Shoestring Budget

Whether you’re a Fortune 500 company, local proprietor, or online publisher everyone is looking to make more money, get more leads and grow their business … for less.

Below are some ideas to help you do just that.

• Online press releases could be a powerful tool that’s often overlooked. There are many free online press distribution services, like PRLog.org, that can help get your message on the web and picked up by media sources, online news aggregators and bloggers. If you have a relevant, useful, newsworthy message…turn it into a press release. In addition to driving traffic to your site, the link you embed into the online release will help you with SEO link-building efforts.
• Classified ads and internet bulletin boards are not just for selling items any more. They are a powerful way to create buzz, initiate backlinks and drive traffic to your site. Many sites like Craig’s List, which is a "Top 50" site that reaches over 40 million people, offers free postings and many categories to suit your message. Crafting the right ad for your objective just takes some creative thinking. I’ve used this platform successfully for many lead generation efforts.
• Leveraging local or regional newspapers with an editorial piece or captivating print ad is also a great trick I’ve used with fantastic results. You simply search online for list of newspapers by city or state, then narrow down your list by newspaper circulation. If you don’t have the budget for advertising you can offer the newspaper valuable content with your name and contact information mentioned in your byline or editorial note. Surprisingly, there are many regional newspapers that sell advertising space dirt-cheap. Years ago, I was targeting high net worth individuals. I researched the richest counties in America, and then those respective newspapers and publications within those counties. Aspen, Colorado was one area where a print ad cost me roughly $500. That ad generated several sales (I only needed 1 lead to breakeven) and produced an ROI of more than 1000%.
• Partnering with synergistic companies is often a tactic that doesn’t get as much priority as it should. In my opinion, at least 25% of a marketing professional’s role should be business development and relationship cultivation (including affiliate marketing). Reaching out to "friendly competitors" opens the door to a plethora of possibilities including revenue share deals, joint venture agreements, guest editorials, and reciprocal ad swaps (in ezines). These efforts cost virtually nothing and help with both your sales and lead generation efforts.
• Advertising on blogs and ad networks with either banners or text ads is another great way to target a particular prospect (by either channel or genre) and costs a reasonable fee. There are many high traffic blogs for almost any niche out there and some rates are under $1/CPM. With this, research and strategic targeting as well as relevant, powerful creative copy is essential. I’ve been advertising on select blogs for many years with great results.
• My SONAR Content Distribution Model TM is another cost effective, yet powerful, way of repurposing and synchronizing content (albeit text, audio, video) distribution into various, targeted channels. And it allows companies, publishers, entrepreneurs … basically anyone with content on their website … the ability to ultimately turn traffic into sales. For more information, check out http://www.precisionmarketingmedia.com/sonar.html.
• Pay Per Click can be a viable way to bring in leads and sales. Although in my experience, it’s hard to get a conversion with a "cold lead" that is over $99. The "sweet spot" seems to be products between $19.99 - $59.99. This is ideal for lead generation efforts of low cost info-publishing products, like paid eBooks. And you don’t need to break the bank either. With a robust keyword selection and bid management tool as well as engaging text ad and landing page copy, you could bring in several thousand names per month and spend less than $2,000 (which is about a $1/CPL). Note: for saturated markets (such as real estate related terms), certain keywords may cost a little more to get exposure.

There’s many more ways to market your business effectively … and "cost" effectively.
It’s just a matter of being a creative marketer.

If you’re interested in a marketing plan tailored to your specific needs, contact me and I’ll be happy to provide a proposal.