Spend Your Money Well: Cost-Effective Marketing Tools

Home business owners experience a unique challenge when deciding how to market their business. MLM marketing groups or associated branding provides their representative with generic marketing products. But the majority of home business owners face these decisions alone.

You have a unique advantage, however, in selecting marketing media. That’s because building a relationship with the customer is the strength of the home business and that is the definition of marketing. Advertising is the information you give the customer to make a buying decision and sales is what you to do gain a customer.

So with this framework in mind, you are already ahead. You know your information and you know what you are going to do to gain customers. You have your short claim, hook or pitch firmly in your mind as your opening with potential customers. Now let’s look at which media are right for you – and they aren’t always costly.

You already rely on word of mouth. Let’s consider what is effective in the other inexpensive media. Many companies offer inexpensive marketing products (like business cards, brochures and postcards) but knowing what to put on them will save discarding useless ones later.

Business cards: It’s frustrating and costly to order 250 business cards only to have the information change, making them useless. Conventional wisdom says not to put your personal email, address or phone on your business card. Home business owners are tempted to disregard this but it is not a good idea.

You need to separate your personal life from your business for your sanity. It helps you switch to your business side if you keep them separate, with hours and other boundaries like other businesses. Consider two cards if you must, one as your marketing tool and one as your contact card that you can use separately.

With social networking sources changing rapidly, business cards are one place that less is more. Keep to your stable information (phone, fax, major social networking source) and share changing information person to person.

It is important to use a design unique to you rather than the packaged generic ones. Your card does make an impression and you don’t want to be confused with the other pet shop that uses the same design. It is not difficult to customize the background image, color scheme, layout or other feature to make the card yours alone.

Fliers are less costly than brochures. Obviously they contain your name in a large, bold font, contact information and website address (we will discuss websites later on in this article). Successful fliers feature your product or service without large blocks of text – this invites others to throw your flyer away. A testimonial or two is always good, used with permission of course. Include a special offer that depends on the customer bringing the flyer to you, and directions or a small map.

Brochures are your voice! Full color is nice but you can save by using four non-contrasting colors for the same impact.

Put your hook on front, bulleted point by point benefits on the inside, and your contact information on the back.

Feature one large single photo or graphic on the cover with a headline under it. Beware of generic graphics that do not point to your business or service specifically. The headline should be larger than 12-point type and not more than 12 words.

Including captioned photos, text boxes with testimonial quotes, or white space always work. You can also include simple, easy to read graphs and maps. Short paragraphs in 12 points contain the bulk of your information. Complete the back cover hopefully with photos of people using your product or service with bold captions.

Websites, blogs and email –

Emails should always have your hook in the signature and your contact information. Offer a way to interact further with your company in your email through links, contests, or feedback. Avoid doing email blasts or buying lists. These lists are out of date almost as soon as you purchase them and are usually not opt-in.

Collect emails at other points of contact with customers for higher yield results with email marketing. Tools like SurveyMonkey provide another way to collect valid email leads.

Blogs have grown up as high impact and free ways to reach your customers. According to Janet Thaeler of OrangeSoda, Inc., a recent Hubspot survey revealed that bloggers have more than 50% more visits to their websites.

Inexpensive ways to blog if you are not into writing or have the time are hiring interns from local colleges or collecting your information and giving it to someone else who knows SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and can convert it to an effective blog.

Basically your website is your two -second chance to introduce yourself. Home business owners must use this digital doorway to step out of focusing on themselves and into a focus on customer concerns right away. If you can reach a heart or touch a nerve, you can benefit from an inexpensive website.

Make sure the site is easy to navigate, conveys your uniqueness and product or service focus, and is easy to read. Your site map, title tags, heading titles, and site description must be correct and complete. Maximize your site with sponsored links, pay per click marketing and Facebook presence. Facebook will also filter for target customers for as little as $1 a day.

That brings us to analytics. What parts of your operation are you wanted to track? What will you do with the information once you get it? Find allies such as Hubspot to help you expand your reach. They or other online professional “one stop” online agencies can help you with Twitter, Instagram, Google tools, Snapchat, mobile applications, and other rapidly evolving ways to reach your target markets.

Electronic Media– radio and television ads –

Radio allows for very little targeting. Businesses that come to the customer benefit most from this medium. It does provide the second most people per dollar medium.

Television – expensive but you can still be featured by sponsoring or being involved in community activities. Broadcast television provides psychologically profiled targets. If you can afford this, do not buy rotating ads. Being associated with a specific show has more impact. Cable television offers geographical targeting.

Sponsoring a community activity will get you featured at no cost on the community cable channel. Networking and professional organizations provide another low or no cost way to get media exposure. Teaching a class can also lead to media coverage, especially if your students develop a newsworthy project.

Print Media– the same goes for print media (newspapers, magazines). If you are part of a community event, try to be close to the sponsors or hosts while photos are being taken for publication.

Rarely but effectively used are magazine articles featuring your business. Freelance writers are often inexpensive and can get your business in front of newspaper and magazine readers. Ad space can be expensive and this is a great low cost alternative. See the chart below for a sample of comparing reach with cost by medium.

So you can see that there are many ways you can reach customers on your budget. Even as you grow, using only the most cost effective media will continue to benefit you.

Media Comparisons