A lot of businesses, especially online businesses and new start-ups, have little to no budget for marketing themselves and so don’t bother.

Yet there are many ways to promote your business at low cost or even free.

Use some or all of the following five tips and ideas and you’ll soon notice an upturn in how well your business is known and, crucially, in your profit margin!

1) Get your business card and business stationery printed NOW

Any business worth its salt has its own stationery and business cards. It tells your prospective customers and suppliers that you are a professional and serious about what you do. You don’t have to spend a fortune on design and printing either. Keep it simple and you can get cheap business cards printed from a lot of places, the same goes for cheap stationery. Just because it doesn’t cost a lot doesn’t mean it will LOOK cheap either – there are lots of cheap printing companies around and you can bet they have their own business cards and stationery!

2) Spread your business cards around

It’s no use your low cost business cards sitting in your desk drawer. Hand them out to friends and relatives, ask your suppliers to distribute them or display them, get them put up in your local area in shops, hairdressers, the Post Office…wherever you think you need to be visible.

3) Get online

Sounds obvious but a little investment in a website detailing who you are and what you do opens up a world of marketing opportunities that are free! Now there is a cost involved here but it doesn’t have to be hundreds or thousands. As long as your site is clean, packed full of useful content (which will come from you so costs only your time) and easy to read that’s all you need to get started.

4) Once online, tell people!

There are so many free ways to promote your business online it’s hard to know where to start but try these:

i) Submit your website to as many free directories as you can, starting with dmoz.org
ii) Write an ‘expert’ article (or several!) on your product or service and submit it to free article sites like isnare.com (you can also send them to non-competing magazines)
iii) Join forums and social networking sites that relate to your business and get involved on them
iv) Add your website to review sites and bookmark it on sites like digg.com and del.ici.ous with relevant tags

There are many more ways you can promote your business online for no cost at all. Look into them.

5) Network, network, network

Join/attend meetings of professional groups like the Chamber of Commerce and any related to your business – and don’t forget to take your cheap business cards with you! Talk to people in your area of work and, of course, those likely to need your services.

These five ideas are just the tip of a very large, low cost marketing iceberg that will help you get your business off the ground and more widely known.

Author Bio: Trevor Richards is writing on behalf of Edge Print, suppliers of cheap business cards.

Category: Business
Keywords: cheap printing, cheap business cards, cheap printers