Cost effective marketing ideas to beat the credit crunch

[in2town]

Times are hard with the credit crunch so I would like for everyone to come together and share 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.

[Maxine]

I was recently introduced to www.zubedsales.com and love it The lists have been good quality, free instead of buying specialist lists or having to spend time sorting/filtering them and think the tool is really easy to use.

As for other cost effective methods of marketing I have to say telemarketing - cost of calls are cheap if not free to landlines and lots of inclusive minute deals to mobiles so it's only your labour if you have the time. If it is done well then you should see some very successful results

[projectword]

I think concentrating on e-marketing would help save cost if it would work in your paticular field. e-marketing can cost next to nothing if you do it correctly. Look into SEO and things like that. If you can generate more of you customer through the internet I imagine you will save through cutting back on physical marketing

Our project offers business advertising for $1, maybe this could help you out.

[wecando.biz]

We hear lots of great things from our members on the new contacts they are making on our lead and referral networking site. It costs nothing other than as much time as you are prepared to give it, which need be no more than 5 minutes to get your account set up.

IH

[Dotwhack]

skill exchanges are extremely cost effective - are you able to swap skills with another company for example I sometimes exchange my online marketing services for printing, web design or other goods/services.

All it costs me then is my time!

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

skill exchanges are extremely cost effective - are you able to swap skills with another company for example I sometimes exchange my online marketing services for printing, web design or other goods/services.

All it costs me then is my time!

I second that. I often exchange a few hours of my marketing consultancy time in exchange for other services. Works a treat.

[Fuzzy]

Have moved this to Marketing section

[Poppy Design]

Yes I would agree with the e-marketing. You can sign up to a program like Constant Contact or iConstant (they usually start from about £5 per month) and create a sign up box for your website allowing you to capture customer data.

You can then email them with your latest offers and interesting news.

Also you can join forces with other complimentary companies and share some space on your newsletter to make things more interesting.

These programs come with easy to use templates and have the proper unsubscribe option - they also have really good reports to allow you to monitor click throughs etc.

Leaflets - very effective + you can get 1000 A6 double sided cards for about £80/£90 - the more you buy the better the price!

Joanne

[Sam (Mr. Mu)]

For me the most effective marketing involves showing what I can do rather than telling - I look for ways to do that / opportunities. Those would depend on what your business is, but I'd recommend it always. Talks, demonstrations, seizing opportunities...

BTW - got a couple of free podcasts about marketing in a recession that might be if interest.

[Hollow]

I think review-based marketing can help.