Cheap Marketing Ideas

Okay, so the latest news from Infuze is compliments of Vertical Response. Vertical Response, for those of you who don't know, is an online marketing service that can help grow your business through email campaign and printed materials. The following 9 ideas are what Vertical Response emphasizes as cheap ways to market your business and who doesn't love the word CHEAP?

Every now and then we'll write about ways to market your business on the cheap. In this economy we all need to think about ways to be creative. Here are a few more ways to add to the ever-growing list. Gas Gift Cards - Have a promo where your customers need to purchase over a certain amount and they'll get a gas gift card from you!

SVM Cards has small denominations. You can buy $5 and $10 cards in 10 packs.

Cost: The cost of the card you choose. For example, $5 cards in a 10-pack is $55. Benefit: You'll get people who might drive to come to your store!

Hand-written Thank-You notes - When you ship out a product, include a nice note that you hand write to your customers. They'll be shocked you did it!

Cost: The time it takes to write a note. Benefit: Your customers could tell their friends about this amazing thing you did which will potentially spread positive word of mouth.

Selling to a Business? Scour BizJournals in your area for new business listings, there are hundreds of them. Also see InfoUSA or DemandBase for business addresses nationally or locally depending on your zip code.

Cost: A Bizjournals Subscription is around $50-$100/year (depending on your local area) for 52 editions. Plus you get the Annual Book of Lists (which is huge) for free. Benefit: You can call/direct mail the businesses on a weekly basis and enter them into your contact management system or your VR account. I counted about 500 businesses listed with all contact information in a single week.

Swap - Ask a neighboring business if you can put your business card stack on their counter and vice versa.

Cost: $10 to print business cards. Benefit: You may get some new business from people that didn't know about you.

Advertise On Your Car - If the cost of gas hasn't got you riding your Schwinn around town, why not put a magnetic sign with your logo, phone number and website address on it. Great for sitting in traffic! While you're at it buy a license plate frame with your info on it too. I've been thinking about putting a VR sign on the ole' Yellow Mini Cooper.

Check out: LogoMagnet, Vista Print, Magnet Signs

Cost: $20-30 Benefit: Doesn't take much and who knows? That person riding you on the highway might just take note! Make sure you find visible parking spots too!

Tradeshows - See if a colleague who owns a business would want to share in a tradeshow booth or sponsorship. NetBooks asked us if we would co-sponsor the Small Business Development Center Technology Bootcamp and we did!

Cost: Your time and the actual sponsorship. Benefit: For half the price you can both get new business.

LinkedIn - If you don't have a LinkedIn account create one, it's free. Then fill out your profile as much as possible. Also, answer questions in the categories you choose to. It turns out to be a great way to get known as an expert in your field. Also when people search on your business name or your name, often times your LinkedIn profile comes up on the first page.

Cost: Free Benefit: You get your name out there for potential new business.

Contests & Awards - Have people submit their favorite picture of their smile (dental office), favorite dog picture (groomer/kennel/vet) or favorite pose or strut (retail clothing).

Have them post the video or picture to picasa, flickr, or YouTube so you don't have to host anything. You've got a gig or two of free storage at most of these. Then send an email campaign to tell your customers about the contest. They'll upload their content, then send their friends to see it. As an offshoot you'll get more traffic. Then reward them with discounts or cash.

Cost: Free. Benefit: Your customers drive more traffic to you. Post Videos of Customers - When a customer walks into your business or you visit one at their offices, why not take a Flip camera (cheap) and ask them to talk about your business. Then simply plug the Flip into your computer (it has a built in USB!) and upload the videos right to YouTube. Don't forget to tag the video with your company name and some keywords so you'll come up high in the search engine rankings.

Cost: Free if you have a camera. Flip is $99. Benefit: There's no better advertising than you're customer testimonials. Then you can get ranked in the search engines more as well.