| Statistics |
Total online: 1 Guests: 1 Users: 0 |
|
Main » 2014 » February » 11 » Advertising Your Home Business on a Budget _0
10:46 AM Advertising Your Home Business on a Budget _0 |
| Advertising Your Home Business on a Budget When you are starting out in a new
home business and no one knows who you are, one of the greatest challenges you
will face is how to drum up new business. If there were not people in your
community or marketplace that you knew who needed your products or services, you
probably would not have started your business to begin with. But, once you have
talked to those who you personally knew who needed your what you offer, then
your next task is to find others who will help keep your doors open. Many people
know that they must turn to advertising at some point in the future, but they
hope that day will be long down the road. For some, this utopian concept will
come to fruition. But for the rest of us in the real world, we must come up with
creative solutions for meeting our home business advertising needs while working
within our budget. Most people have a misconception about having to spend lots
of money in order to advertise their home business. When you start out, you
honestly will not have much money available for advertising, and if you do, you
should still spend it wisely. Before you jump headfirst into the world of
advertising, let me share some of the lessons I have learned concerning this
most important topic. LESSON #1 It does not have to cost an arm and a leg to
advertise your home business, unless you fail to plan and fail to test. As much
as is possible, you should always test your advertising. If you jump in and
start dumping tons of money in to advertising without first testing your
advertising, you might find yourself broke and without sales at the end of the
road. Most people who commit this error write off their failure on the home
business they chose or the economy or any of a hundred other excuses. But, if
they are unwilling to take responsibility for their mistake, they will never
learn from their mistake huanghaiyan121. Don't let this be you. LESSON #2 All
testing should be done in blocks. If you begin to advertise simultaneously in
newspapers, radio and television, how will you know which advertising is
bringing people to your cash register? You won't. All you will know that
something might be working, but you will not know what is actually doing the
trick. Even if you tell people in your advertising to tell you how they found
you, my experience shows that fewer than 10% of the people ever will tell you
anything --- and those people who do may not even get the facts straight! You
cannot rely on your customers to tell you what advertising is working for your
home business. You must put in the extra effort to know for yourself. LESSON #3
Only when you have a proven and solid advertising portfolio should you venture
to drop big bucks in an advertising campaign. Even then, you should be careful
to keep further measurements to determine how much the maximum advantage of an
ad would be. Sometimes you might be able to reach ten times as many people, but
depending on the kind of media and other factors, the additional exposure will
only generate twice as many sales. Keep your eye attuned to situations like this
to get the most from your advertising dollars. LESSON #4 As Lesson #3
illustrates, sometimes your best advertising investment may actually cost you
less money. When you are first starting out, whether you are running a home
business or a business outside of your home, you need to be able to get people
talking and thinking about your business. If you are busy testing ads in media's
such as the newspaper, magazines, radio, and television, you need to learn ways
of promoting your business that do not require large cash expenditures. A few
examples are:Word of MouthBusiness CardsPress ReleasesNon-Primetime Ads on Radio
and TelevisionHere is more information about each type of low-cost
advertising:WORD OF MOUTHThis of course is the cheapest kind of advertising on
the planet --- it does not cost you anything. Ask your customers if they know
anyone who could also use your products or services. When they are happy with
your offerings and service, they will be willing to tell you whom you can
contact, and they will pass the word for you.BUSINESS CARDSYou can usually pick
up 500 business cards for about $20. When you do, hand them out. Do not give
more than a couple of cards to each person Isabel Marant Dicker Boots. If they need
more cards from you, they will ask.Some people are known to network with others
on a regular basis. Some of these people are also known to be always looking for
an extra few bucks. With these people, you can suggest to them that if they
write their name on the back of one of your business cards and the card is
presented to you, then you will pay a referral fee to them. You do not have to
offer much --- sometimes one dollar is enough. Look at your home business and
your offerings and decide how much would be a good referral fee.PRESS RELEASES
Press Releases are a good source for generating news about your home business.
The business editor at your local newspaper is always on the lookout for a good
business story to fill the business news section of the newspaper. Of course,
the business editor understands the economics of running a paper and is more
inclined to run your story if you buy advertising in his/her publication, but
will still print stories for special events and openings. The important thing to
remember about Press Releases is that it must be constructed in the form of a
news story. Even if you are a sole proprietorship, quotes from you should be
written in a third person format: John Doe said, "Your quote here." A Press
Release should pack the most important information at the beginning of the copy,
and leave extra details towards the end. You should always provide the reporter
who gets the task a simple and easy way for him/her to contact you directly.
Often the reporter will want to contact you to get details that will enhance
their take on your story. To learn more about creating Press Releases, you may
check out Rusty Cawley's site: / NON-PRIMETIME ADS ON RADIO AND TELEVISION
Believe it or not, some of the best rates for radio and television are on the
overnight and non-primetime venues. These target times are not a total waste as
they can easily keep the infomercial people in business. These off-hours are
just less populated than the primetime hours. Don't be afraid to check your
local radio and television rates for non-primetime hours to see what bargains
may exist. With television, primetime is 7pm to 10pm. With radio, primetime is
8am to 5pm. This sure leaves a whole lot of hours available to advertise your
home business at discount rates! IN CONCLUSION When it comes down to it, there
is a lot to understand about advertising, but when you have the basic knowledge
down pat, everything will fall into place and bring more dollars to your bank
account.
|
|
Views: 292 |
Added by: fdshf
| Rating: 0.0/0 |
|
|
| Calendar |
| « February 2014 » |
| Su |
Mo |
Tu |
We |
Th |
Fr |
Sa |
| | | | | | | 1 | | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | |
|
