It’s no secret that traditional advertising is expensive and ineffective. It can cost thousands of dollars to create a campaign that goes nowhere, and you may not even know it. But there are alternatives!
In this blog post, we’ll go over the top 7 alternative advertising ideas for business owners who want to get their company out in front of more people without breaking the bank. If one of these sounds like it could work for your company, keep reading to find out how!
What is Alternative Advertising?
Just as the name suggests, alternative advertising is an advertising strategy that does not fall into the category of more traditional forms of advertising, such as newspaper ads and radio spots.
With traditional advertising, a business will pay a certain amount to have their company advertised in the form of an advertisement in a newspaper. With alternative advertising, businesses will use other means that do not require payment to advertise their company.
Here’s How:
1.Create a page on your blog for advertising, such as “Advertise with Us”
You can use your own blog to advertise your business! You can update the page as often as you want, and it will give your brand exposure to people who may not know about you yet.
You can set up this page on your company blog, where it is likely to get a lot of traffic (especially if you already have a popular blog). Once the ad has been read by many people, they will begin to associate your business with the product or service that you are advertising.
2.Create an advertisement for your business on Google maps.
Add your Company Name & Information to one of Google Maps’ local business listings you have more visibility online and offline. This is a great way to increase your visibility if you’re already an established business — the more visibility you can provide, the better. It will also give you a free form online.
3.Send out a coupon in the mail or email that expires within a week and has some sort of catch, like having to spend $100 before it can be used.
Take the contact information from people who use your coupon. Then send them a follow-up via email to let them know about your business. (You can use the above-mentioned blog to let your customers know about promotions.) Making the most of social media is something that will help grow your business and create a strong base for it.
4.Give away a free product or service with purchase.
A popular strategy is to give away a free item with an over-priced product. For example, you could offer a GPS system for only $60 if the customer purchases a $200 smartphone as well. This would increase the average spend while providing an incentive for customers to buy both items. Having a reward that’s free increases the chance that people will buy it. Another way to do this is with a product or service, rather than an item. For example, you could offer one session of free coaching to everyone who signs up for a monthly coaching package.
5.Offer discounts on popular items at the time of year when people are most inclined to make purchases.
Christmas sales are a great time to sell products and earn free advertising. People tend to spend more at this time of year, so the perfect way to get them in your store is to give them a good reason to make purchases. Giving out discounts on popular items will do the trick!
6.Host contests that require people to visit your website or store location.
Some businesses that do this include restaurants, clothing stores, and more. You can hold a contest to see who has the best Halloween costume, or do a selfie contest where customers have to post their selfies on your Facebook page in order to enter. Asking people to visit your business location is one of the most effective ways of getting free advertising!
7.Use QR codes and other technologies that get the word out about what you do without requiring much effort from the customer – just scan the code!
You can use a range of technologies to get the word out about your business. One example is QR codes, which are dual-purpose codes that can be scanned by a device or camera on one end and read by a program on another. When customers scan these images with their smartphones, they will see a link (URL) for your website or store location. This technology is relatively inexpensive and can attract people who wouldn’t otherwise see your ad! You can find cheap QR code printers on eBay.
Alternative advertising is a term that covers many types of marketing and promotion strategies, not just those we’ve discussed today. We hope you find this article informative and have even more ideas to try in the future! If you want help with your own strategy or need guidance from an expert, let us know. Our team can work closely with you to create a plan tailored to your business needs.
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