Friday Favourites: Low Cost Advertising for Small Business

Friday Favourites are back and this week the focus is on building your business.

Whether you are a nutritionist with a home-practice or a chiropractor with your own clinic,
you need to do some form of advertising to attract clients.

Many advertising strategies don't come cheap, but does costly always equal more effective? Sometimes, but many small business just don't have a large advertising budget.

So, here are a few ideas on how to advertise on a shoestring:

A flyer that I used last year to advertise my bootcamp

Do all the printed material yourself.
I have talked this before, but places like Vista Print and DCP Print have made it incredibly easy and cost effective to create your own professional looking business cards, flyers and brochures. They even have pre-made graphics and logos you can use.  Note: If you have the time and resources, I do recommend creating your own logo design.  It will often be more unique and you are guaranteed to be able to use it elsewhere.

Create a low-cost website.
By using Wordpress,  Blogger and even Tumblr, you can create a functional and effective website for your business.  They are fairly easy to use and very customizable.  Registering your domain name is only about $10/year and monthly web hosting is as low as $5/month.

Try pay-per-click ads.
Facebook Ads, Google Adwords and Twitter Ads can be great low cost ways to advertise your business.  You can set the price and can stop any time if you find you are not getting generating enough leads.


Donate your time, talent, product etc.
There are tons of ways to get your name out there that require very little money, here are just a few ideas:

• Write an article for a local magazine or paper.  
• Sponsor a charity event or donate a prize.  
• Offer to do a lunch and learn at a business or organization who meets your target audiences

What has been your most successful advertising method?

Stay Healthy,
Tracy