Marketing is a creative activity, you can keep finding new and better ways to make that impact and suck in those sales, even if you have a limited budget.

There are those that want free offers all the time, and it’s difficult for new businesses to get going without them. But everything DECENT costs I’m afraid, and that’s a fact of life – unless ofcourse you see yourself doing link exchanges and written articles for the rest of your lives

Then yes, there are free ad opportunities out there! But they are useless!

oMake your communications more striking, by including images and attention grabbing layouts. This can include: Brochures, Direct Mail, Emails, and Website

oBuy ad space on Search Engines. This is quite cheap if done correctly via Adwords. MSN charge £1500 per month. Related websites are in abundance – are you using them? Have YOU contacted them recently?

oHost an Event to generate publicity. It doesn’t need to be expensive.

oSend out Press Releases every 3 months. Stick a news page on your site – to keep your visitors updated on events or industry news perhaps.

oWeb design something or create a new service that makes people return

oCreate a great resource – and give it away. No I don’t joke about such things!

oOffer a guarantee. If your product is that great, stand behind it

oMeasure your ads. You won’t believe how many of my clients don’t do it! They use the same old techniques, just let them run without seeing if they actually work. If an ad isn’t working – Stop running it - AT ONCE!

oDon’t use the same publications as your competitors. Ad salespeople are the most highly trained in the world, and are trained to tell you that it’s a great idea to go with their magazine or whatever – as your competitors are in it too.

Yellow Pages are very good at using this technique. Beware.

oVow never to lose a customer. If you ever get an upset customer – find out why, and try to win them back

About the Author

Christopher is owner of an ad company