Marketing and advertising a business can be a lot of work for an individual. If done correctly though, one can save a lot of money and maximize their profits.

I am in the same boat many other are in with a home-based business. At first, gaining clients and business was difficult. One day I decided to buy a book at Borders titled Marketing Kit (Hiam, 1997).” In it, the book suggested one should come up with a marketing plan and abide by it.

I decided to sit down and make a list of all potential targets to market my businesses & businesses I am already targeting. I then made another list with all marketing strategies I am currently using and strategies I should be using.

Here is what I came up with:

1) Hand out at least 5 business cards per day. It doesn’t matter if I hand them out to businesses or private people. The point is to get my business name out there. Essentially the word of mouth will spread.

2) Send out brochures to potential clients with information about my business. I made my own brochures following the format from the book I purchased. This method may take several repeated attempts before a client finally notices.

3) Let every single person I know or come in contact with know about my business.

4) Promote on Facebook. I do giveaways on my Facebook page for fans that interact on my page. I use Groupon to purchase items at an inexpensive price. For example, I recently purchased movie tickets for 2 people, which included 2d or 3d movies, a tub of popcorn and a free refill all for $14. I awarded one of my Facebook fans with the movie pass. Also, use the 80/20 rule on Facebook (Hiam, 1997); 80% of your Facebook posts should be interactions with your fans about anything (Hiam, 1997); 20% of it should be promoting your business and its services, according to Hiam (1997).

5) Leave an internet footprint. By this, I mean post your business information on other websites and obtain a badge from them. For example, place your business on Yelp, partypop (you should consider this one), eventective, etc… They will give you a badge to place on your website. What you are doing here is linking your page to their page and vise a versa. Do this as much as possible in order to leave an electronic footprint.

6) Obviously, you will need a website with information about your business. People like to see pictures. Make information short, sweet and to the point. Make sure you use SEO-Search Engine Optimization-to the best of your ability.

7) Give good deals when you first start out. Everyone is looking for the most inexpensive prices nowadays.

8) NETWORK NETWORK NETWORK through face interactions, Facebook, etc…Remember, you are considered an expert in your field. Use it to your advantage. Educate people about your business and your field.

9) Most importantly, STAY COMMITTED!

Source by Mike Ruiz