Any thoughts about marketing a small tour business? I have good word of mouth, but it is in a single community and I need to expand beyond that circle to grow the business. Face to face presentations are best from my experience, but difficult to be in many places at once. How about direct mailings and web advertising (Google ad words?) Any insight is appreciated!
How to best advertise small business – word of mouth is best, right?
Any thoughts about marketing a small tour business? I have good word of mouth, but it is in a single community and I need to expand beyond that circle to grow the business. Face to face presentations are best from my experience, but difficult to be in many places at once. How about direct mailings and web advertising (Google ad words?) Any insight is appreciated!
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October 30th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
buy some google adspace
relatively cheap
and good returns
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Google AdWords is very effective, if done and used correctly. Direct mailing has died out, but still is powerful for some businesses. If you already have a web site start a mailing list, send out a weekly newsletter with it, you can build the list of people reading it by buying leads, there are a number of companies that will sale them, this is by far one of the most effective Internet marketing tools around.
November 4th, 2009 at 4:08 am
you should check out
It’s a new site whose sole purpose is to help a small business grow.
It’s free so you have nothing to loose.
I think anything that is trying to help the “little guy” is worth a shot.
November 5th, 2009 at 10:46 am
If you’re a little bigger than small, but smaller than midsize. You might also try cable television advertising. In a suburban area, a 30-second spot might cost only $15-$25. In a small town it might cost as little as $2-$3. Making your commercial might cost you anywhere from $1500 to $2500.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
good answers here
November 11th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
The best way to move into new markets to find markets that are adjacent to the market you are already in. Don’t try to stretch to completely new markets – it is too expensive.
Find customers within your existing business who fit in both your current and adjacent markets and ask them how they learn about new products/services in their other market (what they read, what sites to they visit, what keywords to they use on Google, etc). All this will help you find sources of media that best target these buyers.
Then I would try to get PR before advertising. It is often less expensive and more effective. If you have never used PR (Public relations) before, I have a suggestion. My friend opened up a business in a new market. To get local newspaper coverage, he went to the newspaper and asked which local PR specialists the newspaper liked to work with. Then he hired their recommendation to get him ink in the local paper. It worked like a charm.