{"id":107,"date":"2014-05-16T09:41:29","date_gmt":"2014-05-16T16:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/creditcontrol.me.uk\/?p=107"},"modified":"2023-04-13T05:10:00","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T12:10:00","slug":"marketing-your-business-on-the-cheap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.creditcontrol.me.uk\/marketing-your-business-on-the-cheap\/","title":{"rendered":"Marketing Your Business on the Cheap"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The internet revolution has led to some amazing boons for small businesses, not the least of which is free (or nearly free) opportunities for marketing.\u00a0 Of course, it helps if you have a website set up for your company, which could cost you a fair amount of dough.\u00a0 But considering how much you stand to gain, and how much you can save through online advertising, you\u2019ll be surprised how quickly you virtually recoup your costs.\u00a0 So forget about paying someone to place those irritating paper flyers under windshields (most people just throw them away out of sheer annoyance).\u00a0 And use your TV advertising budget to improve your product.\u00a0 Here are a few great ways to get your brand name to every household for a lot less money.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. SEO.\u00a0 Search engine optimization is not cheap, unless you do it yourself.\u00a0 While an SEO specialist could charge your hundreds of dollars a month (and deservedly so, considering the results they can deliver), you can do it for free if you learn how it works on your own.\u00a0 Pick up a copy of SEO for Dummies<\/em> to get started, and then move on to more in-depth literature on the topic.\u00a0 Eventually you\u2019ll also need to read guidelines for different search engines (Google, Bing, etc.) to make sure you\u2019re not inadvertently engaging in \u201cblack hat\u201d SEO practices, which can get you banned.\u00a0 Although there\u2019s a lot to learn, you\u2019ll be happy you followed through when you see an increase in traffic, page rank, and ultimately, sales.<\/li>\n
  2. Start a blog.\u00a0 This is a great way to bring new people to your site and get them interested in whatever it is you\u2019re selling.\u00a0 You can write it for free, and if your content is engaging, people will come back for more (and bring their friends).\u00a0 You can also guest post for related blogs to get links back to your own site.\u00a0 And of course, you can use it as a forum to post product reviews, user testimonials, and host giveaways to drive business.<\/li>\n
  3. Ad exchange.\u00a0 By joining an ad exchange network, you are basically agreeing to post ads for other industry sites even as they host an ad for you.\u00a0 It\u2019s often free to sign up and it could be a good way to bring in more business.\u00a0 At the very least, it couldn\u2019t hurt (you can\u2019t really go wrong with free advertising).<\/li>\n
  4. Offer incentives for referrals.\u00a0 Grass-roots, word-of-mouth campaigns are one of the best ways to spread your name on the cheap.\u00a0 By encouraging customers to become brand ambassadors, you\u2019ll not only promote your company for free, but you\u2019ll also achieve better results because your customers are trusted sources. You would hope that satisfied buyers would do this on their own, but why reward their loyalty by offering discounts or freebies to those who bring friends and family to your site?<\/li>\n
  5. Viral videos.\u00a0 A television commercial can run you tens of thousands of dollars on the low end (and that\u2019s before you even sign a contract to air it).\u00a0 By opting for viral videos you can significantly cut production costs (hand-cam?) and stream them for free via you-tube and email blast.\u00a0 If you create something that catches on, it will spread like wildfire on the internet, and all for the amazing price of nada.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Consider investing in print materials to grow your business<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n

    Sarah Danielson writes for Purchase Order Financing<\/a> you can grow your business and pave the way for more.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The internet revolution has led to some amazing boons forRead More<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.creditcontrol.me.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.creditcontrol.me.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.creditcontrol.me.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.creditcontrol.me.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.creditcontrol.me.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.creditcontrol.me.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":431,"href":"https:\/\/www.creditcontrol.me.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.creditcontrol.me.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.creditcontrol.me.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.creditcontrol.me.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}