Best Small Business Advertising
The best advertising, whether it's for a small business or a large business, is advertising that works. The price a small business owner pays for advertising would not be a problem if the result of the advertisement were known.
If a small business owner had the option of paying $ 1000 a month for advertising that guaranteed him at least $ 2000 in monthly profit, or paying $ 500 a month for advertising that generated $ 750 in profit per month, they would not there would be doubt. That savvy small business owner would gladly shell out $ 1,000 each month for advertising.
However, small business advertising has no such guarantees. It's not like buying a refrigerator that's guaranteed to keep your milk and eggs cold. $ 1000 of advertising could generate $ 8000 of profit or could generate zero. So what can a small business owner do, especially if they are on a budget?
The best answer is to use small business advertising that only charges the owner when and if it works. There are several ways to do this.
The main method is called pay per click. This Internet option is available from numerous online merchant sites, as well as hundreds of newspapers across the country and the world. Simply put, a small business agrees to pay a specific amount to the publisher, or the merchant site, for each ad that attracts a consumer to visit the small business site. The price paid is generally an amount that the small business owner has bid. More and more newspapers are offering this option as they struggle to stay competitive online with eBay, Craigslist, and other marketplace and classified sites.
Another inexpensive pay-per-click and advertising option for a small business that wants to focus on local customers is with regional publications or some of the larger metropolitan newspapers and groups that are introducing citizen media sites. These zoned products offer a much less expensive purchase because the small business advertiser is purchasing the local neighborhood rather than the total metropolitan circulation of the metropolitan newspaper.
Companies like YourHub, a product of the Denver Post, and Rocky Mountain News, are licensing these citizen media sites to other newspapers in other areas, and those are receiving advertising from small businesses and discounting the price. They also promote citizen journalism. The small business owner can contribute local articles, photos and stories, although the newspaper will no doubt edit something too blatantly interested. This is still a great way for a local businessman to introduce himself to neighbors in a friendly, informal, and soft-sell way.
