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. 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 Mouth
· Business Cards
· Press Releases
· Non-Primetime Ads on Radio and Television
Here is more information about each type of
low-cost advertising:
WORD OF MOUTH
This 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 CARDS
You 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. 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:
http://www.PRrainmaker.com/
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.
About the
Author
About the author:
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Stone Evans owns the Home Business Resource
Directory where
you can find everything you'll ever need to
start, run and grow a
home based business at:
http://www.Home-Business.com
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