Sunday, April 8, 2012
Doing it Yourself
Advertising is not about big corporations or companies on TV, radio, print, social media, etc. Self-employers sometimes can't afford or do not have the resources companies have for advertising. Face-to-face networking, grass-roots advertising, career fairs, anything that can get your name out to the right audience. It takes a lot of effort to advertise your own name and create an image, but when money is short motivation will make up for it. I remember my mother blew up her business card for real estate close to a half a page in a high school musical program. She is a real estate agent and she wanted to target mothers and fathers looking for a new place or looking to sell their own. This is just one channel, but a good example of taking advantage of every opportunity. Also, the housing market is still rebuilding so for someone like my mother she has to go above and beyond the call of duty to make sure she gets as much exposure as possible. It seems like going above and beyond the call of duty is now the standard for self-employees.
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You make a great point and I was honestly just thinking about this the other day. Companies don't always have the funds to advertise on a large scale but there are still ways to get your name out there. You can usually buy a page, half page, or quarter page ad placement in show programs and yearbooks from anywhere from $200-50 and like you said, it can definitely get parents attention.
ReplyDeleteBack in high school i was working for a small carpentry shop and with limited advertising funds we would advertise in simple ways. One way we advertised was with street side signs outside of job sites and surprisingly these worked very well. We also had a simple website and passed out a lot of business cards, but our best advertising was a good reputation and word of mouth.
ReplyDeleteThis is very true. Some of the biggest and most successful businesses started up from nothing. It is the people with creativity and persistence that succeed in the cut throat business world. Tradition advertising always works but doing personal networking is always more effective. Putting a name to the business makes people feel more comfortable and trust the business. Its not just some ad in the newspaper, but a real person with a real life and family that people can relate to.
ReplyDeleteThis is very true and more people should think this way. Many small companies fail simply because they could not find the right marketing techniques but it truly can be the simple form sometimes that just gets the word out. I suppose it all depends what your business is but I believe that 9 times out of 10 no matter what your business is you will succeed if you choose to advertise to the right market the right way even if it is inexpensive.
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