If you are running a small business, chances are, you do not have the employees or the budget that bigger businesses have to embark on a marketing campaign. But fret not because this is not the end of your marketing endeavor. There are plenty of ways to get your name out there, even if it means having to write and submit your own marketing material.

Here are 7 low cost but highly effective marketing tips that can help small businesses find customers and generate sales.

Create your own website

You need to get your company online if only for one reason – the Internet never sleeps. Many small businesses fail to advertise online and this can do more harm than good. The Internet is typically the first place that people go to for information and by putting up a website, you are creating an awareness of your business. Building a website is inexpensive (and sometimes free!) as there are plenty of website building tools and scripts available on the web.

Make email marketing a priority

Sending emails is free so create a list of existing and potential customers and start sending them newsletters or offers. Building a list is one of the easiest ways to recycle your traffic and earn more money from the same amount of traffic.

Get involved in social networking sites

Even if you have a website, you should set up a Facebook or Twitter account, or do both! These sites allow you to connect with regular and potential clients and may even give you a chance to build relationships with potential business partners. The best part is you can create a Facebook page or a Twitter account for free!

Use buddy marketing

Plan business promotions with complementary businesses. For example, if you sell wines, you could work with a restaurant to have a food and wine pairing night. Or if you send out brochures, you could include a leaflet of another business and have them do the same for you by printing stickers, leaflets or name cards and getting the company to include them with their brochures.

Offer a cheaper version or a premium version

Many customers keep an eye out for bargains. A good business strategy is to accommodate for this by having a no frills version of your product that you can sell for a lower price. At the same time, it is important to bear in mind that not all customers are looking for a cheap price. There are plenty of people who are willing to pay a premium for quality products. Thus, be sure to keep quality products in stock. Essentially, you want to have a financial strategy that caters to all budgets.

Don’t advertise like a big business

Because you do not run a big business! It is better to do your research and advertise smartly and not largely. Instead of paying for a television advertisement, look into poster or flyer printing and drop these materials into letterboxes.

Reward the faithful

Did you know that it is easier to get business from someone you have dealt with before than someone you have never had contact with? This is why it is important to retain your customers. Implement a loyalty program and reward these customers with exclusive or special deals. Good service equals happy customers and chances are, these customers will spread the word. Word of mouth is one of the best marketing strategies.

Now that you have these tips, you can develop your marketing strategy. As long as you fine-tune your marketing plan as you progress, you will succeed.

Dark Horse Print & Design has uniquely combined the skills of experienced Graphic design staff, with expert printing machinery and staff. For a free sample pack, please visit Book Printing.

Does your marketing sound most like…

Your last economics teacher…?

A frazzled work-at-home mom with two kids…?

A charming but cheeky young British girl…?

A super-techie computer nerd…?

Ryan Seacrest…?

And even more importantly, how do your prospects respond to that voice?

If you don’t know, or have never even thought about it, you really should. Because whether you realize it or not, every business-even yours-has a voice. And that voice has the power to grab your prospect’s attention and hold it, or make them turn away in frustration.

It can set you far, far apart from your competition, or make your products or services sound like the same old same old. And it can create passionate raving fans or cause people to yawn in boredom.

So if you’ve never given the voice of your business and marketing a second thought, it’s time to reconsider.

You see, anytime someone reads a piece of your marketing or advertising, visits your Website, watches a video you made, or generally comes into contact with your business they are exposed to that voice. It’s in the words you choose and the way you talk…Even on paper (IE: copywriting).

Sadly, most entrepreneurs use the same stale, dry, academic, “professional” voice we all learned writing term papers and scientific reports. BORING!

And as the great ad man David Ogilvy once said, “You can never bore someone into doing business with you.”

That means it’s important for your company to have a voice that at a minimum is warm, friendly and engaging. Ideally, you want it to sound a lot like your customer’s best friend.

Of course, maybe you’re thinking “But I sell B to B.” Or, I’m in a business where I have to be as formal and professional as possible.”

Listen, I’m not saying you have to be unprofessional. I’m saying you need to sound like a human instead of a textbook-no matter what you’re selling or who you’re selling to.

This holds true whether you sell to businesses, or you’re a lawyer, financial planner, mortician, or high-tech company. Because in the end you’re still always speaking-and selling-to a person.

So at the least you should sound like someone they could relate to and like. If you can find a way to be quirky, funny, hip, suave or interesting in a way that’s appealing to your prospect, even better.

How exactly do you go about creating an effective voice for your marketing copywriting?

I’m going to lay it out for you here in 5 simple steps:

Step #1 - Do a little research on your ideal customer. Look at the Websites, online networking forums, magazines and books they read or participate in. Figure out who they are and what they like and sound like.

Step #2 - Decide what type of voice you think will most appeal to your IDEAL client or customer (NOT everyone who might buy from you). Don’t be afraid to be different. You want a voice that appeals specifically to the type of people you most want attract.

Step #3 - Make a list of the common words and phrases you see and hear when doing your research or talking to prospects and customers. Then grab a piece of marketing you’ve already written, or write one the way you normally would, and put your list of words and phrases at the top.

For example, if I was writing for a wedding store, I’d use words like: Elegant, inspired, enchanting, irresistible, magical, memories, unexpected, fanciful, captivating…

On the other hand, if I was writing to sell a high tech gadget to teens, I’d use words like: Sweet, nano, sweatin’, flip, cool, pals, tunes, customize…

Step #4 - Go through your marketing and search for places where you can substitute in the words and phrases from your list. Also try to get rid of as many 50 cent words as possible (IE: words with three or more syllables), even if all you do is substitute one or two shorter words not on your list.

Step #5 - Read what you’ve written out loud, or have someone else read it out loud to you. Now edit it so flows smoothly and sounds like a real person speaking directly to you.

Bottom line, creating a unique voice is all about the vocabulary you choose. So find interesting, specific words that resonate with your customer and use them to make your marketing-and your business-stand out from the crowd.

Stacy Karacostas is on a mission to end entrepreneurial overwhelm and burnout! Discover how to grow a thriving 6-figure business & have a life by downloading your FREE “Success without Shackles Starter Kit” at http://www.TheUnchainedEntrepreneur.com

Regardless of the type of business you operate, or services you offer, a solid marketing strategy is critical to creating a successful business. Here are the seven golden rules to create a stronger brand and to attract more customers to your business:

1. Highlight your uniqueness. Businesses often struggle to find something different to say about their services. They talk about what they do. You offer professional and expert accounting services? So does every accountant. What makes your services unique compared to your competitors? Rather than what you offer, think about how you offer it, and how this benefits your customers. You might have a special way of presenting their accounts or a proprietary system of assessing their accounting needs. Focus on this and you’ll have created your unique selling proposition (USP).
2. Be consistent Once you’ve worked out your USP, apply it to EVERYTHING. Don’t be tempted to leave old messages out there. New prospects can come to you from all kinds of ways – business card, website, phone call, newsletter, blog, print or online ads and so on. If you’re not consistent you run the risk of confusing your audience with mixed messages.
3. Keep it simple. Don’t over-complicate your message. You may understand the intricate workings of your service, but is this entirely relevant, useful or interesting to your customer? Potential customers are more inclined to read your ad or marketing blog if it’s direct and straightforward. Wordy explanations and flowery writing will lose their attention before you can get your point across. What do you want them to know? Give it to them creatively, yet concisely
4. Branding. When branding your business, how can you create a look that is uniquely yours? Look at your competitors’ websites – do they tend to use the same colours as each other? For accountants this is often blue. Choose a colour or two that’s different from the others and which will form the basis of your web design or logo. This will help ensure stand out from the competition
5. Keep it real. Build your brand from a position of truth not hype. Customers can spot hype a mile off – much better to offer them real content, real benefits, real value. Demonstrate your ability to do this through case studies and testimonials. Don’t offer the moon, if you can’t operate a space ship.
6. SEO. Learn the secrets of using keywords to get your business higher on search engine listings. Knowing how to use keywords to generate more hits on your blog or website will bring in the customers who need what you’ve got.
7. Blogging For Dollars. Create a WordPress website and write about your market in a new and engaging way. This can be linked to your business home page blog. Learn how to blog effectively to bring in more hits and to get more business. Advertising on your blog also opens the doors to more cash flow options

With your marketing strategy firmly in place, you’ll be able to create a really successful business. Being real, and consistently presenting your products and services in a simple yet creative and memorable way, will help your business to stand out from your competitors and keep customers knocking at your virtual doors.

Cut Backs

Because of the recent economic difficulties many small business or home based business owners look to their marketing campaigns to make come budgetary cut backs. However, historical data indicate that cut backs in marketing can be difficult to recover from even during the recover period. Keep reading and I’ll share five marketing recession proof strategies that can boost your business.

Recession Marketing

A study published by McGraw-Hill Research followed 600 companies spanning 16 different industries for five years studying their marketing, recession included. The study’s data indicate that the companies who either maintained or increased their marketing budget spending had 256% sales growth as compared to those companies who cut back their marketing spending. Actually, those who did cut back their marketing had only a 19% growth during those same five years.

Step Up Your Game With These 5 Strategies

1. The answer is not to make cut backs but rather to make sure you aren’t wasting any of your marketing budget. You first have to have a measurable marketing method that will allow you to determine cost per lead, cost per sale and lifetime value of a customer. To not have these data is akin to throwing your money out the window.

2. Provide solutions to your leads using your copy to preemptively address their concerns. During tough financial times consumers are more careful about where they spend their money. Address these financial concerns directly and before your lead is able to identify those obstacles.

3. Review your UPS (Unique Selling Proposition). Does it really set you apart from your competition? Does it explain how your business will benefit your leads? Develop a powerful USP and pull your leads into your personal story. Remember, today’s consumers respond much better to a personal touch than a hard sell.

4. Buy low. That is, look for specials, sales and bargains from your marketing campaign providers. Take advantage of price cuts in printing, leads lists, media costs and shipping.

5. Consider new media outlets such as direct mail campaigns, radio ads or even local television commercials. Send your newly strengthened USP out into the world using every marketing avenue you can afford.

Opportunity for Growth

Although consumer spending changes during times of economic recession people will continue to spend money. Take advantage of these spending changes and use a preemptive approach to grab your leads’ attention. Turn your efforts to marketing recession proof campaigns and start boosting your business growth today.

Have you been struggling with finding the best marketing recession proof methods? Click the link and sign up to watch my video which will explain everything you need to know about the recession and the mechanisms behind it. I can help you learn how to start protecting yourself and your financial future from the current economic recession. Don’t wait until it’s too late!

So, you want to increase your business sales? Marketing the right way can cause this to become a reality. One of the biggest problems most small business owners have is not knowing how to market their business the right way. Here’s the thing guys and girls. You don’t have to be a genus to market effectively. Marketing comes down to standing out from the rest of the crowd. Do things that get noticed! That’s effective marketing. Here are 7 ways to increase your businesses sales:

• Create media advertising that catches people’s attention.

You can go and waste a couple thousand dollars right now and buy a yellow page ad or a radio commercial if you want, or you can take a couple minutes (or hours…sorry, sometimes it takes some time) and create something that is going to work. Your media advertising needs to point out your market’s problems. Then, it needs to agitate those problems. Then, it needs to offer a solution to those problems (YOUR BUSINESS).

It’s really that simple. If you create something that doesn’t work, then tweak it a little bit and try again. Keep doing this until you have some compelling sales copy.

• Use your database.

Most business owners I’ve worked with have a database (usually a large database) but never use it. This is a very valuable tool that needs to be taken advantage of. Send out a direct mail campaign to your lists addresses. Start a compelling email campaign for their email addresses. You can even have your sales people cold call the list. Either way, you are going to get a percentage of that database to buy your goods.

• Work with other businesses.

I feel like I’m just a broken record sometimes, but these things need to be said over and over. Working with other businesses that are not competing with you is a gold mine in itself. A business can excel with joint ventures alone.

• Help your community.

Buyers like nothing more then a generous business owner. You want to increase your sales? Market your business by giving free events at your location, or a local park. You could call up your favorite local charity and set up a deal that benefits both of you. This works like magic. People love generous people. They will love you so much, they will give you their money.

• Get yourself on the internet.

I don’t think I need to go deep into this issue. I know all of you realize the potential in the internet. It might be confusing. It might be over your head. That still doesn’t make it impossible to implement in your business. Hire an outside source to do your internet marketing if you don’t have the time or knowledge to do it yourself. It’s worth it.

• Become the authority in your industry.

Every business has to display to prospects why they should buy from you and not your competitors. I haven’t found an easier way to show this then becoming the largest authority in your industry. How you ask? Get published in the newspaper or magazines. Get hosted on a talk radio show. Write a book. Have a seminar for locals. All of these build your credibility and build your customer base as well.

This method alone brought me from making 6 figures a year to 6 figures a month. My business is no different then yours. You can implement the same technique to achieve huge success.

• Perfect the small things in your system.

One of the quickest ways to improve your sales is to improve what you already have going. Check your sales funnel. Is there a step that would be confusing to your customers? Then fix it. Have a friend call your business. Does the receptionist answering the phone sound upset or like she hates her job? Then fix it. There are many areas of everyone’s business that can be improved slightly. Those slight improvements could mean an extra 20-30% in revenue.

All of these methods will improve your sales. Marketing is more then just placing ads in a newspaper. Be creative and stand out from the crowd. Improve each step in your business and you won’t fail. I don’t care what the economy is like.

Do you want to blast your sales to huge growth this next quarter? Then you need to perfect your business. You can do this with my guide on the Five Step Formula For Explosive Growth. Grab your free copy TODAY! Small business help is right around the corner. You just have to ask.