Advertising Made Easy!

Ok, so you’ve started a new home business or maybe you have an established business. One very important thing to do is advertise your business.

First, let’s talk about what the difference is between marketing and advertising. The definition of marketing is to make a communication about a product or service a purpose of which is to encourage recipients of the communication to purchase or use the product or service. The definition of advertising is a public promotion of some product or service.

So now that we have that cleared up, let’s look at some different ways to advertise your business.

First thing you should do is get business cards. You can get inexpensive business cards at Vistaprint. Business cards are very important to any business. Make sure to put your website, if you have one, on the card as well as your name and phone number.

Now that you have business cards, you need to utilize them. You can leave your card everywhere you go. Some ideas are bathrooms, table at a restaurant, leave one on the shelf in the baby section at the store, put them in your bills when you send them in for payment, give them to people that you are networking with, and give them to your children to give to there friends. I have also used my card to tell the teller what change I need at the drive thru. I have also left them in books at the library, on the tables or computer desks at the library, on the counter at the doctor’s office, and in magazines in waiting rooms. Let your imagination run wild with this.

Second thing you should do is to make up some flyers. You can leave your flyers on any public bulletin board. Some examples of this would be a bulletin board at the laundry mat, apartment complex, grocery store, work out center, and the mall. Flyers are also good for Mom Packs and to send out for direct mailings. Let your imagination run wild with this one as well.

The third thing you should do is on-line marketing. Of course, you should do on-line marketing if you have a website. But, you can do on-line marketing if you don’t have a website. It’s better if you have one, but that’s alright if you don’t. If you don’t have a website, you should at least have an e-mail address and you should leave a phone number. If you have a website, then you don’t need to leave an e-mail or phone number. Course, all of this depends on how you want people to contact you.

To do the advertising on-line, you can do a Google search for advertising. You can do free advertising or paid advertising. It’s up to you. I have found the paid advertising works better than free advertising, but it’s up to you. If your advertising budget doesn’t allow paid advertising right now, then you really should do the free advertising. No matter how much money you have to spend, you need to advertise. If you don’t advertise you don’t have people coming in. If you don’t have people coming in, you don’t make money. Some places that you can advertise are Ryze and message boards. Do the Google search and you will find many more places.

The last thing you need to do is networking. Networking is very important for any business. The definition of networking is using contacts made in business for purposes beyond the reason for the initial contact. For example, a sales representative may ask a customer for names of others who may be interested in his product. You can network through Ryze, the Chamber of Commerce mixers, and many other places. You should always network, wherever you go.

There are many more ideas for advertising your business. Use Google and people that you know. Success is as far as you make it out to be. Good luck and keep up the hard work! You can do it.

Corrie Petersen runs a successful VA and Advertising business. Check out her website at http://www.virtualfreedom4you.com. You can also sign up for her free advertising tips newsletter at http://getyoursoload.com/advertisingtips.aspx.