| p>Here are over 50 ways to advertise and market | | | | referral fee (You decide on the appropriate amount) |
| your home business. Ideally, these methods should be | | | | for each person they refer to you. |
| used as a way of sparking the curiosity of potential | | | | 38. Gift baskets (Put Business Cards & Pamphlets |
| prospects and directing them to some form of | | | | in the basket along with other non-company gift items. |
| automated or Rejection-Free Marketing system* that | | | | The idea is to make it fun, and you just happen to |
| will do the sifting and sorting for you. That way, when | | | | include your business info) for family, friends, neighbors, |
| you do speak with your prospects, you know that you | | | | etc., for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, baby |
| will only be dealing with serious candidates. This will | | | | showers, bridal showers, etc. |
| save you a lot of time and headache by not having to | | | | 39. Gift basket raffles at church bazaars, fish fries, etc. |
| hear "NO" and not having to waste your time pushing | | | | at local community halls or any small town event |
| your business on uninterested people. | | | | (People love raffles!). |
| *(Your website and/or Pre-recorded message that | | | | 40. Places an Ad Card or Business Card in the |
| does the presenting and then asks them for their | | | | Home-Business Magazines at bookstores and |
| contact information if interested in more details) | | | | magazine stands. |
| 1. Business Cards | | | | 41. Collect Business Cards from fairs, shopping malls, |
| 2. Flyers | | | | bulletin boards, or anywhere business cards are on |
| 3. Message boards | | | | display. Call these people and ask them how they are |
| 4. Bumper Stickers | | | | doing in their business. Are they looking for something |
| 5. Display your website using Vehicle Window Stickers | | | | different? Are they looking for a website to promote |
| 6. Clothing & Apparel with name of your company | | | | their existing business? Would they like to hear about |
| on them (Great conversation starter) | | | | an international business that can be managed without |
| 7. Postcards | | | | employees? If they say they are not interested right |
| 8. Tradeshows | | | | now, ask if you can at least send them an email that |
| 9. Ezines | | | | will give them a chance to do their own due diligence |
| 10. Bookmarks to place in libraries (Get permission | | | | for future reference. Ask them if you can keep them |
| before doing this) | | | | on a list and check back with them in 3 to 6 months (If |
| 11. Purchased Leads | | | | they say yes, keep track of their info and be sure to |
| 12. Chat Rooms | | | | follow up in 3 months. They might just be a serious |
| 13. Newsgroups | | | | prospect, but the timing might not be right for them, but |
| 14. Ask friends and family for referrals | | | | could be in a few months. This happened to me. I was |
| 15. Ask strangers for referrals | | | | approached with a business opportunity, but work was |
| 16. Co-op Ad Campaigns | | | | going very well at the time. I turned down the offer |
| 17. Forward emails with funny content or videos (Add | | | | without even giving them a chance to explain or email |
| your signature tag with your website & a brief 1 | | | | anything. I just wasn't interested at all! A few months |
| sentence sales pitch) | | | | later, we had some serious layoffs at work, and my |
| 18. Hand out Pens with your website and other info | | | | base salary was taken away. I suddenly became |
| 19. Inexpensive Lapel Buttons | | | | desperate. I was then hungrily looking for supplemental |
| 20. Company brochures and/or reprints of published | | | | income and was open to looking at several business |
| material on your company (with your contact info | | | | opportunities. Please keep in this in mind. Follow up |
| added) | | | | every 3 to 6 months with all of your prospects that |
| 21. Local throw-away newspapers | | | | weren't ready or interested before.). |
| 22. Fairs & Expos (Rent a booth or just hand out | | | | 42. Leave pamphlets at garage sales. |
| your cards, flyers, etc. amongst the crowd) | | | | 43. Reverse Marketing- Go through classified ads or |
| 23. Car Magnets with your website | | | | the Yellow Pages or anywhere that you see another |
| 24. Welcome baskets of samples & business | | | | business owner advertising their business. They are |
| cards to newcomers in area (Ask Chamber of | | | | soliciting business so you can give them a call or send |
| Commerce for listings) | | | | them an email asking questions about their ad and their |
| 25. Colleges & Universities (Post flyers on | | | | business. Try to find out if there is an angle that you |
| message boards & other places) | | | | can use to offer your business proposition. |
| 26. Insert Business cards in ALL outgoing mail | | | | 44. Pay some children (that you know) to distribute |
| (ESPECIALLY Pre-paid envelopes from credit card | | | | flyers on all of the front doors in a neighborhood (They |
| offers and other junk mail). | | | | can either tape the flyer to the door, or staple a rubber |
| 27. Insert Business cards at gas station pumps, in video | | | | band to the flyer and leave it around the doorknob). |
| cases when you return rented videos/netflix, etc. | | | | 45. Register your website FREE of charge to all of the |
| 28. Buy a Pre-inked, personalized stamp and put your | | | | major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, etc. |
| website and/or ad on it. Stamp the back of every | | | | 46. Direct Mail with Postcards with the purpose of |
| envelope that you mail out. Several different people will | | | | getting them to see your website (This will cost money |
| see your ad in the handling and delivering of your mail | | | | for postage and leads but can be very effective.). |
| before it reaches its destination. | | | | 47. Place Classified Ads. |
| 29. Leave Business Cards in the side pockets of | | | | 48. Place Ads (Like the political ads you see |
| diaper bags and similar items while shopping. | | | | everywhere fastened to fences, poles, or stapled to |
| 30. Distribute or drop off Business Cards, Flyers, & | | | | sticks and shoved in the ground) in high traffic areas |
| Pamphlets wherever people gather. | | | | similar to a miniature billboard with your website and/or |
| 31. Visit local professional offices and get permission to | | | | 800 number for a pre-recorded message. |
| leave promotional material in their waiting room. | | | | 49. Mail out product samples, brochures, business |
| 32. Leave Business Cards, Postcards, Flyers, etc in | | | | cards, and other promotional material to the most |
| restrooms at restaurants or on corkboards around | | | | successful people with whom you have a mutual |
| grocery stores. | | | | relationship (You both know each other), and ask them |
| 33. Under Windshield Wipers of Cars anywhere and | | | | in writing if they would review your information and |
| everywhere (in parking lots, parked along streets, etc. | | | | give you their professional opinion. |
| Be careful not to trespass or cause damage) | | | | 50. Utilize other forms of FREE advertisement on the |
| 34. Hand out company produced DVD's (Be sure to | | | | internet through different blog spots, article postings, |
| schedule a time to pick it up. This saves you money | | | | MySpace.com, Craigslist.org, BackPage.com, |
| by "recycling" the DVD's, plus, even more importantly, it | | | | AdLandPro.com, Facebook.com, YouTube.com, etc. |
| provides a non-invasive/no-pressure reason for a | | | | 51. Utilize paid advertising online such as Google |
| FOLLOW UP). | | | | AdWords, etc. |
| 35. Reply to SPAM (Junk email) with your own | | | | 52. Use your imagination |
| business offer. | | | | I encourage you to use prudence when using the ideas |
| 36. Give your Business Cards to friends and family, | | | | mentioned above, and follow your local, national, and |
| neighbors, etc. and ask them to give them to people | | | | international laws as they pertain to SPAM, |
| they know who might be interested. | | | | trespassing, liability, solicitations, etc. |
| 37. Do the same as above, but offer an incentive | | | | Good luck with your prospecting! |