Thread: Inexpensive Marketing Idea

For those who are on a tight budget, here is a good marketing method, I just read about, to use for your business. First, get some postcards. You can purchase these postcards from a business store and there are also printing companies that offer free custom printed postcards where you pay for shipping only. Have your web site and/or phone number printed on these postcards. Before you mail them out, put on the postcards, something like "check it out - mention this card for a discount" You can get mailing addresses from the local online property tax office. Then mail out your postcards and see how your businesses blooms. Try it out and see what happens.

I've been experimenting alot with local, creative and cheap advertising methods lately. I find it interesting to see which ones are more effective then others. Nice idea.

That's great Kim. It just goes to show that just because you pay a lot for advertising does not mean that it will be more effective. If it is working Kim, keep on doing what you are doing.

Thanks for the idea. It's always nice to have new and additional ideas to add to ones toolbox.

nice idea ...worth spending a little too, if you can't get your hands on free cards

Has anyone tried it and gotten good results? I'm quite interested in this technique..

Originally Posted by mudkipz

Has anyone tried it and gotten good results? I'm quite interested in this technique..

Hi,

We have been using postcards for 3years in the shop. Return is good for little expense. Great way to run coupons and when they return you have address back for tracking

Butterflies Forever:flower:
Sami

Yes, I have heard from a number of people that postcards do work. You just have to be careful where you are purchasing you leads from, that is if this is what you choose to do. I think I am going to use the phone book as a source for my leads. I just have not had the best experience with purchasing leads from a company. Plus, it can be very expensive and if you are on a tight budget, I would not recommend buying leads.

I recently met a guy online who was buying leads and discovered that the same leads he had purchased had and were being sold to others by the same company. He was spending as much as $500.00 a month or more. This got him to thinking about other ways in which to get leads and that is when he came up with using the phone book. He has been quite successful with this. This is what I am attempting to do. The problem is finding the time. I am so busy most days that sitting down and writing out postcards can be time consuming for me, but I do intend to try my best to get it done.

I'm gonna stick flyers at bus stops soon. :B

It's like going offline.

This seems to be a good and effective marketing method, depending on what type of business you have. Of course, if you were to buy mailing lists and leads, you cannot guarantee that the leads are valid, but your phone book idea got me thinking a little bit. That seems like a very unique idea, I haven't thought of that before. Thanks.

Can you legaly just mail to people out of the phone book?

Public record, so yes you can.
But that has to be the worst way to mail out anything.
Way back when, we called it the shotgun approach.

seems like it would be the same as spam and maybe bring your business a worse name. I dont know

To each his own. This guy has been doing well with it and was spending a lot of money for leads that lead nowhere. It is up to you.

I started doing it but my time is very short as of late due to doing a major release this week, so I have been putting in a lot of time at the job. Once things slow down, I intend to pick it up.

I know fliers are not much appreciated either. Georgia has instituted laws about putting out fliers because so many people were joining businesses and putting out fliers, they became a problem. People started complaining.

I, on the other hand, still put out business card fliers while running errands and on bulletin boards. Complaints don't scare me. If someone doesn't like what I put out, they are free to toss it away. I don't take it personally. You shouldn't either.

I think it's pretty good for offline businesses, but does it work for online bussiness??

I did post things around town for my local site, response was minimal. I ha found better results with word of mouth, and wearing your shirt with logo/webname in races. We have a lot of local marathons etc. I also like the idea of i you have those people that always want a sponsorship/donation for one of there events, ask them to wear your logo for you. Exposure is always good. We also have our local school raffles off gift baskets every month, put in some free services you offer or even a simple shirt/hat or something with your logo. I'm all about getting word out there cheapest way possible. Not as cheap, make a banner with your site info, hang it at sporting events, little league games, etc. but those signs can be pricey, but go for the quality and re-use it

It must be working too, my local site is a news site and I now have people sending me their press releases and contact me to run a story on them. Just a couple of my ideas I've used locally

Originally Posted by iowadawg

Public record, so yes you can.
But that has to be the worst way to mail out anything.
Way back when, we called it the shotgun approach.

What makes it different from sending unsolicited spam? Nobody has agreed to be phoned to...

Originally Posted by Kaos

I've been experimenting alot with local, creative and cheap advertising methods lately. I find it interesting to see which ones are more effective then others. Nice idea.

What are some of the ways you've been doing local advertising? I'm sure many folks here would be interested in hearing about it.

A while back some people started putting the website url on their rear car windows not sure whether it got results but i suppose it can be as effective as a builder having his van signwritten although it would help if your niche was broad enough to appeal to a wide range of people.

Thanks for the tips.

I haven't try this before.

There are many inexpensive methods of marketing that are just as effective as the expensive methods. The only difference between the inexpensive and more expensive methods is that you have to be more consistent and persistent with the inexpensive methods which means that you will have to do more work. If you don't mind the work, you can do very well using the inexpensive methods of marketing.

that will be a good article and a nice techniques.

I think this idea is good but I think you should be more imaginative than postcards. I run a website called "Poker Is Rigged" and a while ago I thought about mailing the big poker bloggers a rigged deck of cards or an ace of spades puppet dangling from some strings. Of course they'd have to have something to write about, so I would have a competition running that they can talk about.

Car signs also work. I used to have car signs and I got a lot of responses from people. It is a good conversation piece. Many people would ask me about the signs and it allowed me to explain my business to them as well as the products.

I don't currently have signs, but I do plan on getting some. I did not like my last car signs so I am currently shopping for some car signs.

That's a great idea. I've had cards designed but I don't have the time to generate a mailing list. The cost of a post card is a lot less than ppc.

I use cards too, but like you, I don't have the time to mail them off. I have the cards sitting on my shelf. I printed out a bunch of them, but just have not had time to put the addresses on them.

I am in the process of getting some car signs for my car for one of my streams of income. I am going to let kinkos this time create the signs. I let a company called Signs create my last car signs and the signs were too big. They have done signs for me before and they lasted about 3 years, but I am no longer with that company.

The car signs are great but they are untargeted.

Good tip. This can work for a variety of businesses including online and offline just depends what your specialty is. Just make sure your list from which you work is relevant to your business and then measure the results.

What's a good program to print mailing labels form a database file?

I've made some databases with 20,000 plus people but wasn't involved in printing the cards and labels.

I am not sure Bogart, what you mean by untargeted. If I have a weight loss sign on my car, is that considered untargeted? I am just trying to understand what your comment.

If I am looking for green tea drinkers, wouldn't I create an ad that is specific to green tea drinkers. If I created such an ad, wouldn't this be targeting a market place? Targeting implies finding your niche marketplace doesn't it?

Originally Posted by work2bfree

I am not sure Bogart, what you mean by untargeted. If I have a weight loss sign on my car, is that considered untargeted? I am just trying to understand what your comment.

If I am looking for green tea drinkers, wouldn't I create an ad that is specific to green tea drinkers. If I created such an ad, wouldn't this be targeting a market place? Targeting implies finding your niche marketplace doesn't it?

A car sign is great mass marketing tool. It would work fine for weight loss or green tea drinkers.

You are also correct that targeting implies finding your niche marketplace.

With a b2b service you may want to restrict your ads to places like trade magazines, trade shows, online ads targeting specific keywords and direct mail or email.

For instance a commercial printing company wouldn't want hundreds of phone calls from clients having staples/kinko type jobs. It would tie-up the inside sales staff answering calls from people outside of the b2b target segment.

I get the guys and girls who are over in Iraq/Afghanie to put up flyers for me, thats a great way to get free publicity for military sites.

Originally Posted by Rhiannon

I get the guys and girls who are over in Iraq/Afghanie to put up flyers for me, thats a great way to get free publicity for military sites.

Good way to get traffic from people that have a steady check.

Originally Posted by Bogart

Good way to get traffic from people that have a steady check.

My military site is a free one, supporting should be free.

There's nothing wrong with supplying reputable goods and services to members of the military. Get some affliates or ebay.