Low Budget Advertising For Success
Oh no! You’ve invested all your cash getting your business started but you failed
to set aside a budget for advertising. You could have a cure for the common cold
and still die broke if people don’t know you have it. Fortunately there are still
ways to get your business off the ground. In this article I am going to try and
show you how you can start from where ever you are, and with whatever money you
have left and build a successful business. The key is you have to start today, and
you have to continue everyday. Let me give you a little background on how I learned
the importance of advertising.
After high school a friend and I both ended up at art school. It was great and I
truly enjoyed it. The problem for both my friend and I was that after graduation
we got our first look at the world of the "starving artist". Jobs were available
but the starting pay rates were a positive joke! In most cases we could have gotten
better offers just going to work at the local supermarket.
We had to do something (I later went to college) and what we did at the time was
borrow money and open a craft store. It was like a gift shop but everything in the
store was handmade by local craftspeople or us.
We put up grand opening banners and made up flyers and the first 2 weeks were very
good. Good enough to make us both feel, "this is it!" Those first two weeks gave
us a real false sense of security. During the ensuing weeks business dropped off
rapidly. Each week got worse than the last and we couldn't figure out what was wrong.
We had great merchandise that everyone seemed to love, but we didn't have enough
people stopping in. In 4 months totally broke we had no choice but to call it quits.
We pooled the little money we had together and ran a decent sized "Going out of
Business” sales ad. I'll never forget what happened. After the ad broke, within
3 days we were totally sold out to the bare walls! Of course at this point the money
we made was not going to help us. The landlord had already rented the store to a
new tenant who was just waiting for us to leave. But it was a lesson I never forgot
and over the years it was a lesson I saw others learn the hard way, over and over
again. Here's the bottom line. Regardless of the type of business you begin you
must place an advertising or promotion budget right up there with your rent and
phone bill. You must put whatever money you can into this account on a weekly basis
and it is not to be touched for anything but promoting your business. At the end
of the month sit down with your monthly budget even if it's just $10 and make a
list of the ways you could spend it to promote what you are doing. If you do this,
each month that budget is going to get larger and larger giving you many more options.
Oh, I can hear you now. What could I possibly do with a budget as low as $10? Well
I'll tell you just to give you a few ideas. Of course like I said above you will
have many more options once your account grows but for now let's assume its your
first month in business and that is literally all you have $10, period. So you work
with what you have. Sit down with paper and pen and start thinking. Make a list
of any ideas you can come up with to spend those bucks to get you even one or two
new customers this month. As I write this I am doing that right now to come up with
a few ideas for you. How about... Getting as many flyers as you can copied advertising
a sale of some kind. Then you could distribute them on weekends at car shows or
even on car windows at flea markets and places like that.
Or, how about asking a busy local car wash if he will allow you to put them by his
checkout and you can offer to display his cards or flyers in your store for him?
How about having a bunch of plain black and white business cards printed up (Staples,
Office Depot etc can give you good quantity for that 10 smackers!) offering a new
buyer discount of some percent. If you have the equipment you can even print them
yourself. Then just leave those cards everywhere you go. On counters when you stop
for coffee. In phone booths, all over in nightclubs, in men’s rooms and any place
else you happen to be in your marketing area. Get the idea? Getting any other ideas
now?
I'll stop there but that list is the result of just 10 minutes thinking on my part.
Imagine what you could think of giving yourself a day or two to make the list! After
you've completed your list choose one and do it. Then repeat it the following month
with a much larger budget in all probability.
As your budget grows so will your options for advertising. You will also find that
now salespeople will be calling on you because they saw your ad or promotion somewhere.
You’ll be getting offers to advertise and most of these will be fairly expensive.
Here’s an easy way to remember what to do: forget em! When you’re just starting
out investing a large sum of money in a single place is just not the smart way to
do things. Right now you should be placing smaller bits of advertising in as many
places as possible. The objective here is to find out what mediums work best for
you. As results come in you then invest more in the most productive ones. By working
in this fashion you are always building from a position of strength and knowledge.
That is always more desirable than experimenting.
Perhaps the most important thing is that you become promotion minded. Always be
on the lookout for opportunities to spread the word about what you have to offer.
After you’ve done this for a while it will become a habit. A habit that can be the
very key to the success you seek. So if business should get slow don’t throw your
hands up in frustration. Sit down with paper and pen and start generating ideas,
then go out and make them happen. Beat a door to the customer and then…they’ll beat
a door to you!
Do it and watch your business grow every day. Good luck!
Author:
Joe Gomez