Many people who start up a new home based business really don’t have the knowledge they need to market and promote their businesses successfully. However, without a strong marketing plan your business has little chance of achieving the success you are hoping for. Continue reading and I’ll share five great cheap marketing ideas you can use to start marketing your products or services.

Internet Marketing Tactics

The web provides us with so many powerful and inexpensive marketing tools it’s easy to find what you’ll need to grow your business. Be sure to build time into your schedule for implementing and expanding on each of these promotional and marketing strategies.

5 Cheap Marketing Ideas

Facebook - Start by creating a Facebook fan page for your business. You can promote your page to all your clients, friends and family. Consider purchasing some of Facebook’s reasonably prices advertising packages for your page. They provide some powerful and highly targeted marketing options.

Article Marketing – Article marketing is a free method of promoting your site by creating keyword rich, informative content and uploading the articles to your site, blog and article directories. Many business owners choose to outsource this task as it can be relatively time consuming.

Twitter - Marketing your brand through Twitter is the hottest thing going right now and it’s also free. Set up a Twitter account for your business and grow your friend’s list by searching for other users in your business niche. You can then tweet your newest articles, posts and business offers all while building great contacts.

Email Marketing – Perhaps one of the oldest methods of internet marketing, sending out regular email newsletters remains one of the most effective tools for reminding your clients of your presence, sending out special offers and updating everyone of changes as your business continues to grow.

LinkedIn - LinkedIn is a social networking site tailored for professionals and small business owners. Setting up a free account can be a great way to get your name out there and begin to build working relationships and networking with others in your field.

Cheap Doesn’t Mean Free

While you may not have to invest any money to build on these cheap marketing ideas, you will need to invest a good deal of your time and effort. Dedicate time each day to building on one or more of these strategies and you’ll soon start to see the rewards.

1) Blogging-Blogging is a great way to get customers to your web site. You are the industry expert and your readers will be coming to your blog to read about the latest and greatest way to get into shape. You have an opportunity to share your knowledge with them and make an impression. You will also have the opportunity to write about yourself and the business. This will allow the prospective members to get to know you a little better and they are more likely to come to your club.

2) Articles-Writing articles about your industry will set you apart from your competition. You will be able to discuss issues and problems that your readers are asking questions about. A good article will bring them to your web site for more information. There they will have an opportunity to see more about your club and maybe join.

3) Videos-Videos are a great way to talk about your industry in a powerful way. You involve several of the senses with video. You also have an opportunity to demonstrate the latest techniques and machines. Using videos to offer information to your future members is a win-win for all concerned.

These marketing ideas for a health club are just a few that we would use to advertise a health club. There are many more options. You will need to get an education in marketing to find out which method of marketing works best for you and your club.

Look Within

A good place to start is to look within. What are you already interested in or already have a great knowledge of? Is there an ebook or audio book that you could create for this niche?

Put some basic keywords into Google and check out the ads on the right hand side. Do any of these products interest you? Remember, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel and you can simply produce a similar product.

If there are hardly any ads on Google then your market is probably too tiny and not worth pursuing because you will struggle to get enough sales to make it worthwhile.

Natural Health

Nobody is suggesting that you should become a doctor but many people are willing to pay money to find out natural ways of curing diseases and conditions.

If you do all the research for them and then create an information product then they are happy to pay for it. Tons of people hate taking drugs and are looking for better, more natural solutions to their problems.

Developmental Niches

Other great niches are those where people are constantly looking to develop themselves. If you sell them a product then it will fill a gap that they had in their knowledge but they will want more and more and you can give that to them!

I’m talking here about niches like personal development, seduction, forex trading and making money.

Before you start to examine the advantages and disadvantages of innovative Internet marketing, it may be a good idea to examine exactly what it is. As a business owner or a soon to be business owner, you likely already know what Internet marketing is. Marketing is getting your business out into the general public; it is done by targeting your intended audience, your customers. That targeting is done by way of the internet; thus the title, internet marketing. It is also important to understand how to be innovative and how that ties into internet marketing. Innovation is another word that is often used to describe something new; therefore, innovative Internet marketing ideas are relatively new ideas, particularly ideas that have just recently been developed.

When it comes to innovative internet marketing ideas and your business, you will find that there are a number of benefits. One of those benefits is the ease of use. Even if you do not have a large amount of computer experience, you will often find the internet easy to use. Whether you are interested in making your business an online website, starting a business newsletter, or conducting a demographic analysis online, you should easily be able to do so. Even if you do not know how to start up your own newsletter, do an online poll, or make your own website, you should be able to learn, often in no time at all. The internet offers information on starting all kinds of businesses.

Once you have chosen your niche, or specific area or product that you would like to promote or sell, try searching the internet for similar products or services. In this way, you can determine any potential competition. If competition exists, you can decide if you want to compete, or find a complimentary product or service to promote. If competition doesn’t exist, and there is a market looking for answers to a question, this would be a perfect niche market to begin a business in.

In addition to using the Internet to put your innovative marketing ideas to into motion, you can also use the Internet to find those ideas. Using the Internet to find innovative Internet marketing ideas is a relatively quick and easy process. By staying up-to-date on the latest business and marketing news or by performing a standard Internet search, you can easily be kept in the loop, when it comes to Internet marketing ideas, particularly new ones. If you have a niche that you are interested in, often signing up for related newsletters or chat rooms can lead to the discovery of a new business idea or marketing technique. If you put those ideas into motion, as soon as you hear about them, your business may be given an edge above the rest of its competition. In fact, a new innovative Internet marketing idea may be just what you need to get your business up and running.

What is also nice about innovative Internet marketing is that, although it is relatively easy to develop your own marketing ideas and execute them, you don’t necessarily have to. For example, there are a large number of individuals who specialize in Internet marketing. Those individuals, who are often referred to as internet marketing specialists, can be found online. An internet marketing specialist is a trained professional who can not only come up with new ways to market your internet business online, but they can also execute those ideas for you, for a reasonable fee. Whether you don’t have the time to develop an effective marketing plan or if you want to avoid the hassle of doing so, an internet marketing specialist may be able to offer you assistance.

Although there are a large number of advantages to using innovative marketing ideas to promote your business, there are also a few disadvantages to doing so as well. One of those disadvantages is the fact that innovative marketing ideas are new. With new marketing ideas, they have sometimes yet to be tested or proven; therefore, you are really given no guarantees that a new, innovative Internet marketing idea really will work. Of course, it is important to remember that with business, there are always risks. Trying a new innovative internet marketing idea may not work out to your advantage, but it may also be the best thing that has ever happened to your business.

1- Join your local Chamber of Commerce and other small business groups, networks and meet-ups in your area. You should also attend the networking events your ideal client may frequent.

2- Freely hand out business card to persons you feel may benefit from what you do. Even though they may not have an immediate need for your service, they may just pass it on to a friend or colleague that just may.

3- Network online using niche specific sites or general ones like LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. These are great places to connect, share and find potential clients.

4- Once in a while write a press release sharing on the unique features of your business or some new product of service you are offering.

5- Volunteering your services to non-profit groups and organizations are a great way to connect with potential clients. People are always keen to support others who give freely of their time and skills.

6- Distribute brochures, information kits and other material that will highlight your product or service at conferences and networking events.

7- Take advantage of the power of referrals. Tap into your past clients. Ask for testimonials and offer them discounts for referring new clients. Let them know about new products of services that you may be offering. A glowing recommendation from someone who has worked with you goes a long way in convincing a prospect of your skills and abilities.

What inexpensive and free ideas have you used to successfully to market your business? I’d love to hear them so do share!

For people with no or little marketing budget

1. Free online advertisement/directories

There are a lot of free advertisement websites on the internet. If you go to Google and search for “free online advertisement”, you will find many of these sites. Some are better than others. Do not be too picky at this stage. Find as many online advertising sites as possible and post your advertisement there.

2. Forum advertising

Again, use Google to search for “network marketing forum”, “MLM forum”, “business forum” etc. Register, create a profile and include your Gem Lifestyle website address in your profile. You can also include your website address in your signature which will appear at the bottom of you post. PLEASE DO NOT HARD SELL. Try to be helpful and answer other people’s questions. Build up a good reputation in the forums and people will automatically go to your profile to find out more about you.

3. Web 2.0 or Social Networking

If you are not using web 2.0 marketing, you are missing out on a lot of free traffic. I divide web 2.0 marketing into a few sections below.

3a. Social Network

Have you heard of Facebook and MySpace? These are online social networks where people can create a profile and interact with other people in the network. There most popular ones are Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Linkedin and Twitter. Once you have created free accounts on these websites, write a couple of paragraphs about yourself and your business and then include a link to your website. People love to view other people’s profiles and find out what they do. DO NOT hard sell.

Once setup, do a search on subjects like “Entrepreneurs” “Network Marketing” “Property Investors” etc. (I’m sure you will think of many) and start inviting people to be your friends and start connecting with people.

Some of these sites like Facebook let you create groups with specific interests and other people can join your group. This is also a great way to drive traffic.

3b. Blogs

A blog is a personal journal. It is a system where anyone can create their own online presence for free. Simply sign up for a free account and start posting! Popular blog hosts are Blogspot and WordPress.

Blogs have the advantage of being very search engine friendly (means your blog can be found be Google and Yahoo easily) and bloggers like to look at other people’s blogs, hence creating free traffic.

3c. Other web 2.0 site.

There are other websites where you can network with other people and create your online presence. These are neither blogs nor social network site but have similar function and advantages. These include Squidoo and Oneview.

4. Ezine Marketing

There are many Ezine websites where you can contribute and submit your articles. You should create articles which are of value to other readers and submit to these sites. You are usually allowed to put your website address at the bottom of the page. A popular Ezine is the one you are reading now. You can find more similar one using Google.

5. Video Advertising.

Videos you put on Video Sharing Sites like YouTube are very search engine friendly and can attract a lot of viewers or visitors. You can put up any videos you like but make sure it is business related. You can then put your website address on the video screen (if you know how to do that) or in the video description. Other video sites are Google Video, Yahoo Video and TruVeo. Again, you can find more of these sites using Google.

For people with some marketing budget

If you have some money to spend, you will be looking at paid advertising online. There are basically two types of paid advertising, Pay-Per-Click/Pay-Per-View and fixed time advertising.

1. Pay per Click/View

This basically means you put an advertisement online and you only pay when someone click on the advertisement and visit your website. The amount you pay per click is decided by you. The more you pay per click, the higher your advertisement will be in the rank.

The largest and most popular pay per click advertisement company is Google. If you go to Google, type in “network marketing” in the search box and click search, the left hand column (main area) is your usual search result, and the right hand column (the smaller one) shows pay per click advertisements.

Google’s advertising site is called Google AdWords. You can either read through the Help section to learn how to set it up or visit their learning center where you can go through some video tutorials. You can also get free support from Google to help you set up your campaign.

Other popular pay per click companies are Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft AdCenter. At the time of writing, Microsoft offers £50 worth of FREE click for new customers. It is worth making use of that because you will get reasonable amount of traffic to your site with £50.

One pay per click advertisement not many people know of is Facebook Ad. It is not a bad way to get targeted traffic.

2. Fixed Time Advertisement

This means you pay a fixed amount of money for your advertisement to be displayed for a fixed amount of time. The amount you pay does not depend on the number of visits/clicks. This could be better or worse depending on how popular is the advertising site and how effective is your ad.

I think that is all I have to say about online marketing. If you have any question, please feel free to contact me.

My passion is to share ideas with others that I think might help their marketing.

Try to capitalize on the holidays by walking through neighborhoods and leaving promos on the door. Below I will list some of the marketing ideas for different holidays.

1. Buy boxed Christmas cards at the dollar store and sign the cards with my business name. I include a business card along with a couple of hard peppermint candies individually wrapped that I purchase in a bag.

2. January is a fun month because it is a new beginning with New Year cards. I don’t work the same neighborhood month after month and I am able to use the same ideas over and over.

3. I got real creative for Valentine’s Day. I purchased a box of white business envelopes and sealed each one. Used my design scissors and cut the envelopes in half. I punched holes just below the top and threaded a ribbon through to make a handle. I purchased sheets of small Valentine stickers and put a sticker on the front of the envelope. Inside the envelope I put a business flier and some hard wrapped candy. These were hung on the door handles.

4. For Easter marketing I purchased bags of the plastic eggs along with individual Easter wrapped candies. In the egg I put a folded up small business flyer along with the candy. I dropped the egg into a plastic door hanger bag and left it on the door handle.

5. There are a lot of ideas for Mother’s Day. The one I like is to find teabag holders that are free on the net, which you can edit, print, and cutout putting a teabag in. Be sure to include a business card or flyer.

6. Spring is an awesome season to market locally using creative ideas. Buy flower or vegetable seed packets at the dollar store (usually 10 cents) and make a tag with your business information including your website. These can be passed out at community events or left on the door handles through the neighborhood.

7. Make up a summer campaign by going to the parks and handing out lollipops to the visitors that are picnicking, etc. Punch a hole in a business card and tie it to the candy with a ribbon.

8. Take advantage of all the fall festivals. Check on getting a table space at a reasonable price for handing out informational flyers and brochures. Put together a gift basket with holiday goodies along with your business info. Included.

Let your creativity work for you in the local market area! Remember to have an attitude of service toward others and business will come to you.

In this economy you have to squeeze the market for all the clients you can get. Some of these ideas are dirt cheap and others will be a big investment.

Business Cards

Let’s start with a cheap way to get an extra 2 to 10 new clients per year. When you get business cards done always have them printed on both sides. The front should have a “big face” design, this is a close-up of your face. The reason you want it to be big is to get attention. The more unique the card the more calls you’ll get.

On the back print the benefits of using you for their real estate needs. The very best thing you can do is have 4 to 6 mini-testimonials from a few of your past clients.

“Jane Doe saved me over $40,000 on my new home.”

“Don Brown is the most honest Realtor in town.”

“Thanks Jim Smith for the going the extra mile.”

Do you get the idea? You can even write up your own testimonials and have your past clients OK them.

Local Internet Exposure

Think about local press releases you can send out. You can even send in press releases about anything of interest (just make sure your name is in there). There are dozens of local networking sites that allow you to write short articles and opinions, this helps to get your name and service out there.

Target Marketing

Every Realtor has a specialty, something you love doing. Your customer database will tell you what it is. Just look at your customer list and check for any patterns, jobs, location or even the kind of transaction you had.

Then target those kinds of people, with direct mail. The great thing about direct mail is the ability to get a list of exactly the kinds of people you want. You may want to find all the teachers who work in a certain zip code.

When you find that special target market list, create a direct mail letter to get them to call you (or at least refer you to a friend).

I usually create a 4 page letter when marketing Realtors. Because choosing a Realtor is a very emotional decision. The client has to like and trust you, and the only way to get them to do that is with a long letter. This letter should make them feel comfortable with you. It should also give them reasons for trusting you with finding or selling their home.

Car Advertising

You should have at least one vehicle you own wrapped with your information on it.

Even it’s just a magnetic sign on each side of the car, that gives basic information about your service and a key benefit for calling. For example, “Ask me about the best area to buy your next home.” Or “Call me if you are thinking about buying a home is this area.”

Logo and Tagline

Get a logo, it should be designed around your name. And come up with a benefit centered tagline. The tagline should be short (no more than nine words), and have the main benefit you provide to your clients. For example “Over 20 years experience”, “I save my clients money”, “When it’s time to move is time to call Bob”.

These ideas will increase your overall business, only if you use them. So, pick one per month and get to work getting more work.

Before someone buys something they need to buy someone. What do I mean?

Simple, ‘people buy people first’. So there are two questions. How can I meet more people and what am I going to say, do and be, when I meet them?

There are many ways of meet business people, such as networking, attending seminars etc. But the one I am going to concern myself with today is ‘walk-ins’.

A ‘walk-in’ is the practice of simply waking in to a business and introducing yourself. Whilst this marketing strategy is not for every industry there are many industries which use it and also many who don’t, but could.

So the question is, how should it be done? Like all things there is a right and a wrong way of doing something and like most marketing approaches it is easy to get wrong.

All too often I hear things like “advertising does not work” or “the internet is a waste of money” or “I have tried walk-ins but they don’t work”.

Einstein once said “madness was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”. Anthony Robbins describes the formula of success as being. First, decide specifically what you want, then take massive action towards its achievement, then take notice to see if what you are doing is successful and if not change your approach until you find what works. He also says “there is a way of speeding up this process towards success and that it to model those already successful”. In other words, find someone who is already successful and copy them, or ask their advice!

However, most of the businesses people I have started to work with tell me, I have tried X and it does not work. My comment is “always how can we do this differently to produce a better result for you?”

Here are my thoughts regarding the marketing approach of walk-ins.

1. This is a professional marketing approach, so make sure you regard it this way

2. Know what your objective is. Is it to leave your business card, or leaflet, arrange a meeting, or make a sale?

3. Do you have anything you can do for someone, or give to someone free of charge in order to introduce the law of reciprocation. In other words, if you can give someone something, there is a significantly increased chance that they will give you something back, even if it is only five minutes of their time

4. Make sure you look your best and appropriate for what you do, what you hope to achieve and who you are going to see

5. Get yourself into the right frame of mind. If you think you are going to fail, you are correct you are. They same is often true on the other side of the coin as well

6. Build rapport as quickly as possible. Rapport is ‘the feeling of commonality’. In other words find something in common with the person you are in front of

7. Tell them who you are and what you want to do

8. Tell them you only need X minutes of their time

9. Make them laugh and have fun

10. Create and outstanding first impression, you only have one chance

11. Smile, its rule no one and break it at your peril

12. Make sure you are working in on the right people and only use this technique if you run the right type of business

13. Make sure that you have your business card, leaflets and brochure available

14. Know exactly and specifically what you are going to say and how you are going to say it and this if it is not working change your approach

15. Think carefully about your body language. This counts for over 55% of the effectiveness in the way we communicate with others when wishing to influence them

16. Make sure you tell them the benefits of speaking to you early on in the conversation.

You need to make sure you don’t get yourself too wrapped up in any one real estate marketing idea though. Should that happen you may find that you are having a hard time moving the property. You may blame it on the location, the economy, or the price but it may all come down to the marketing for it not being effective. With the right marketing you can get that home or building sold in no time at all.

Things That Don’t Work

One of the main reasons why individuals and business owners decide to list their property with a real estate agency has to due with marketing. The owner of the property may be intimidated about such issues so they turn to those with experience. They know that some of the best real estate marketing ideas that a real estate agency have include posting the property online as well as listings in a newspaper and in their office.

All of those make sense as people will be turning to them for resources. However, the marketing ideas being used right now are not working at all. 98% of realtors would list their properties the following way:

o List the property on MLS or a local newspaper

o Put up a sign on the lawn of the home for sale with your picture and info

o Host an open house and wait for potential buyers and other agents to show up to see it

o Hope for an offer to be submitted when an offer comes in seal the deal

o Collect your commission once the paper work and title work has been finalized.

The problem is this strategy is just a small drop in the bucket on getting your listing sold in this real estate crisis. You have to think outside the box and you have to use proven marketing ideas that will turn this market to your advantage.

Real Estate Marketing Ideas That Work

The key to using successful real estate marketing ideas is to really think about what you want to accomplish. You will go about it differently for long term real estate business versus a one time effort. For example if you plan to have a healthy career in real estate you will wish to use the real estate marketing idea of using the internet to your advantage to gain expert status in your area. You want to become to the go to expert to buy or sell a home.

The days of personalized interactions aren’t a thing of the past. For on going marketing you can even set up a booth at various events. Have pictures of current listings and ask people to fill out information to contact them. You can even offer a drawing for a nice prize to entice them to sign up.

But the key is using the internet to your advantage and here’s how you do that. Offer potential clients something of value that they can use immediately to attract more listings and buyers. You can provide clients with a report on the current stages of your area, what’s working on getting a home sold, what’s working on getting the best price of a home etc.

If you want to explode your commissions and attract hundreds of buyers and listings with ease I implore you to read the following below to take your real estate business to the next level.