Lets share ideas for cost effective marketing...

Times are hard with the credit crunch so I would like for everyone to come together and sahre with people ideas on cost effective marketing.

I will start off with the following:

1. Leaflet distribution. If you would like to gain exposure by doing a leaflet drop, save yourself some money and share the cost with another business in your area. Find someone who would be interested in sharing the cost with you and who would like to gain exposure the cost effective way. Ok leaflets are old hat but they still do work and if you can gain customers and exposure for half the cost then it is a great way to save money and to gain new customers.

If you have any colleges in your area, then speak to them first to see how much the printing will cost you. You will find a lot of these places will do it a lot cheaper than the high street printers, and also some hospitals provide a printing service.

2. Gain radio exposure. Listen to your local radio station, think about your business and think what people may find interesting about your business. Maybe you have decided to go all green, or maybe your are supporting a local school. It can be anything, but when you have thought about a few things that people maybe interested in your business, go and ask some friends to see if they would find it interesting.
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Free advertising for Business owners http://www.in2town.co.uk

Re : Lets share ideas for cost effective marketing

Sometimes the most cost effective marketing can be done closest to home:

1. Look through your existing customer base to check who spends the most, then make sure you are really looking after them.

2. Then look at the ones that dont spend as much and try and figure out why, and what you can do to nudge up their spend or improve their loyalty.

3. Dig out all those old leads and enquiries that have been gathering dust, and get back to them to see if their situation has changed any if they might now be interested in buying from you.

Marketing to people who already know you should be easier than going to completely new people. Just make sure you've got their data all clean and correct before you go mailing or phoning old customers and leads that you havent spoken to in a while.
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http://www.selectabase.co.uk http://www.selectabase.co.uk/startupsplus http://www.selectabase.co.uk/1check

Re : Lets share ideas for cost effective marketing

I went around the internet for this exact reason and I found a company that does press releases for £200 or there abouts. It was a "as and when you need it" thing and didn't have a retainer.

They were actually very nice people it turns out. I will have to hunt out the website for you all.

Re : Lets share ideas for cost effective marketing

Found it!

They were www.lowcostpr.co.uk

Re : Lets share ideas for cost effective marketing

Hi,

I use [u www.cardsmadeeasy.com for my brothers business printing. They do business cards, flyers, leaflets, letterheads etc. Prices are great and I can get a 5% discount using this code: PRINT7467E. It's always useful to promote your business this way - it's cheap and helps to gain exposure. CME do designing and proofing too so its a easy process as you don't need to worry about creating the artwork.

Re : Lets share ideas for cost effective marketing

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Re : Lets share ideas for cost effective marketing

If you are looking at direct mail marketing or telemarketing, lists can be bought. http://www.simplysources.com sell cheap databases by the town/city (£10 - £20 each) which contain names, addresses and telephone numbers. Bear in mind it is raw data and that is why it is so cheap, so they can be used as a starting point to generate more targeted leads (which you could either do yourself or pay someone else to do it).

Re : Lets share ideas for cost effective marketing

Hi I run a succesful leaflet distribution in the east midlands. Leaflet distirbution deffinetly works, but sometimes the prices can be to much for some businesses. I suggest to clients that a shared basis is alot cheaper as you are sharing the cost with other businesses. For example on A Shared basis you could be looking at cxosts of as low as £18 per thousand.

Magazine advertising is also A great way of getting your business advertised to areas you service.

Re : Lets share ideas for cost effective marketing

Use the internet, If you have a website, put your area and surrounding ares in your keywords and on your homepage, otherwise the search is too wide and its a lot harder to get a high ranking.

Re : Lets share ideas for cost effective marketing

Im using online marketing at the moment, so facebook/twitter that sort of thing!
Also a lot of mail shts recenly that seem to have worked a lot better than ever before! I must say though it dnt t me anything for the mailing list because i myself provide them but it can be quite cheap!

Best of Luck
Linzi
http://www.1stdatasolutions.co.uk

Re : Lets share ideas for cost effective marketing

Linzi I think if you own your own data lists then that must make it a lot easier right? You already have all your ready made "targets" in place

Re : Lets share ideas for cost effective marketing

Hello i require business owners who have databases of over 1000 people
reason for that is i have a free shopping app to give away which makes me 1 quid per every installed app minimum

i would like you people to have a share of my fortune

and join my team if you get regular customers all you have 2 do is provide them with the FREE App link via email or face 2 face and ask them 2 download it if they download the app you will make a £1 minimum per install
so if u have a database of 1000 clients and 400 of these people download the app which lets face it they will cuz the app is free you will make 400 quid nice hey

if your interested message me with ur number

these figures r very low in fact they are usually much higher

Re : Lets share ideas for cost effective marketing

Online marketing and PR is the most cost effective way of marketing these days. Outdoor marketing has an impact, sure, but it doesn't compare to online marketing, especially for small budgets with limited budgets.

Thing is, online marketing even reaches local audiences now. Think about it. Where do you go when you want to order a Pizza? - Google. Where do you go when you want to compare the prices of local properties? - Google/property websites.
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Sebastian Dyer Digital - http://www.sebastiandyer.com

Re : Lets share ideas for cost effective marketing

The posts on here about the most effective way of marketing highlights the contradictory information you find on the Web.
There are so many things to consider. Things like over what area do you want to sell your product or services? Are you one man/woman band?
If you are a local veg shop then online marketing is a waste of time.
If you are a tradesman, plumber, electrician, MOT station etc. online marketing is a waste of time.
The most cost effective way, with a very high response rate, is SOLUS leaflet distribution to cover the whole of your catchment area. Initially repeat after 2 weeks then again after a further 2 weeks.
If have spent the time & money researching this & SOLUS leaflet distribution is top of the list by a mile followed by SMS then TV, radio & bottom of the list shared leaflets in a newspaper http://www.leafletshare.com