To Pay Or Not To Pay For Advertising

Every business owner it doesn't matter if it is a new business or a business already running has to advertise his business.

Advertising Methods

When you are looking for the best way to market or advertise your home business there are tons of possibilities. Some may end up costing you more than others. Whether you want to market yourself through the internet or through the mailbox there are always some methods of marketing that will be more cost-effective than others.

How and Where to Advertise

If you have just started your home business it probably isn't too effective advertising yourself on a local billboard. However, it is much more reasonable to post an advertisement in a local newspaper or church bulletin. Or you could print fliers or postcards at home and distribute them in your home town. In case you have an online business you could also post links to your website on certain forums online. You also can place a signature in every email you send. This will give you some links back to your website and business.

The best advertising is through word-of-mouth advertising because the people recommend you as a serious business owner or with excellent products. There are a lot of free advertising sites all over the net. All the free advertising on the net consumes a lot of your valued time. But if you have a low budget for your advertising campaign this might be the only way in the beginning.

If your time is very limited because you run your business as a part time business than it is better to pay some money for your advertising campaigns.

Budget

In case you print fliers you must purchase the paper and printer cartridges. To send postcards you must purchase the cards first and then pay for shipping. To post an ad in a newspaper or bulletin you must pay for the ad space. There are some good free advertising on the net like 'Craig list', 'USFreeAds', and many others. The best way is to look up in search engines and try them out. Some ad sites might work better than others. By the way when you place an ad on USFreeAd site and offer a product for sale you have to be a paid member.

How do you know if your Ad is effective?

Depending on how much you are willing to pay for advertising, your sources for marketing may be limited. However, it is important to try multiple methods of advertising before deciding on the first one that shows a return. Most importantly is to remember that if the ad doesn't give you some cash back within a reasonable time, than reconsider your ad campaign. Try to change your ad text or post parallel another ad and compare it with the first one. Depending on which ad gives you the best conversion rate this ad is worthwhile to run for a certain time.

One good way to determine whether or not one of your methods of marketing is profitable is to survey your customers. When they buy your product, simply ask how they heard about you.
The best way to track your ads is with track-links. This way you know for sure from where your customers are coming from. You know for certain if it is your ad or if they come from other sites or links.

But when you take a survey of your customers it will give you an idea which marketing solution or campaign gives you the highest cash back or conversion rate. This will save you some money by cutting down on your advertisement cost. You can change the ads that are not showing a good conversion rate or cash back. This saved money you can re-invert in the campaigns they work best.

Under what circumstances you decide for a Professional Copywriter?

But this will not happen overnight. You have to spend some time to find out which advertising method works best for you. But the best way is to combine different advertising methods and not just limiting on a single avenue for advertisement. Sometimes the ad with the lowest cost works out better than the higher cost ad. Advertisement is a game of words. This has to be learned thoroughly. In case you have a higher budget for your advertising campaign I recommend getting involved with a professional copywriter. You can get copywriter at freelance or idea marketer. They really know what word combination works best for your product or service or your ad campaign in general. This way you might have faster response to your ad and also a better conversion rate. And of course cash comes in faster and sooner.

Sometimes professional copywriters are cheaper at the end because of the higher conversion rate. You will get faster your investment back. So, it is entirely up to you what you are going to decide. But decide your ad campaigns according the resources you have available.

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Author's Name: Anton Winkler S.

Authors Resource Box

Anton Winkler is owner of antonw.myhomebizniz.com and writes on different subjects to help people to get started with their business. He writes about different topics you can visit also his elert gadget http://www.elertgadget.com/pxml.php?gid=1599
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