Marketing:

Affordable Marketing

Marketing can be a drag on your budget and can take money away from other areas that need development. Spending your marketing dollars wisely will pay dividends in the form of a larger chunk of the market. Following are some inexpensive ways to market your product or company:

• Try to sponsor community events or company picnics in your area. By giving your business to local retailers you are not only benefiting them but also yourself. Plus chipping in with a few dollars in special events around the community only builds better rapport with the people.
• If you are large retail store, holding lotteries with your merchandise as prizes can be a great way to get the word out.
• Sending out letters or brochures in the mail can be expensive but if done right with research about whom you want to send then it can be very effective.
• Build an inexpensive web site for yourself and place your banner on various sites around the Internet. This can be the best marketing tool these days.
• Produce press releases for all the special events that take place in the company and place them with local and national trade papers. Try to be concise and grab the attention of the reader.
• Place an ad in the yellow pages. This can be great promotion because yellow pages last a whole year compared with magazines that become old in a month and newspapers that become old in a day.
• Lastly, try attending trade shows and book some space on the floor. Take your best workers with you that are the most knowledgeable and the best products that are going to induce the best responses. Trade shows always end up in the news and can really boost business.

These ideas work great for small businesses to mid size businesses. But if you are a larger company you need to hire people who have experience in this field to conduct marketing.