So you want to start a business, or perhaps have a business already, and want to get your companies name or website out in the “wild.” Well fear not here are a couple of ideas I have throw together to help you “jump Start” your business, marketing technique /skill. So without further or due…
1 1. T-shirt Printing
Although there are many ways to promote your business, we have found that tee shirt advertizing may very well be one of the best ways to promote your Business or web site! Nothing beats a good looking Girl (or guy), Sporting your logo or design on their chest or back. If your more edgy an example would be to throw a wet tee shirt contest depending if your Niche allows it (e.g. clubs, bars, Go-go bars adult clubs etc). Here are some ideas that might help with your shirt Distribution
Give them away for free at related events or places (e.g. at a rock and roll concert for a music site)
Start a contest, and give shirts away as a prize. This works well if you have a unique and catchy shirt.
Use your shirts as leverage for building relationships with others in your industry. Everyone loves a free gift and this is a great conversation starter.
Sell them for money. Make sure your tshirts are high quality if you go this route.
A great t-shirt printing service we used was usatees.com
Here you can upload your tee shirt printing design
2 2. Print Marketing
Ok if you don’t know it already another great way to promote your site is print media. If you have some cash to spare many businesses will agree that getting some business or rack cards printed and distributing them all over the place,(ex. Car wind shields, handing them to people in the street, tossing them in the air as if you ate 20 pounds of sugar)will drive business in your direction. Keep in mind that although print marketing is a great idea, you want to check with your local laws to make sure your not littering or loitering. Or the next place you could be marketing in will have iron bars.
You can have most of your media printing done at 48hour print.com they have great prices and fast turnaround time.
3 3. Giving Free Stuff away
You can have your site or business name printed on stationary like, pens, usbs, flash lights and things of that nature, then give them away to customers or at promotional event. People love getting stuff for free no matter what it is, if is a free item people will take. It’s in Human nature.
So use that to market your business have Promotional items made up and I have just the place check out newdimentioninc.com
4. Blogs Who has the Blogs.
Make a blog Either from Blogger, Wordpress or another blog site of your preference And market the crap out of it you can ping your rrs from you blog to have it put on many different rss feed distro sites. This is a great way to give your site feed
Blogger and Wordpress are the tip of the ice berg here are 20 more you can sign up to
5. The Elusive Iphone at the end of the tunnel
Ok I haven’t seen this one around much, it was an idea that I had a long time ago, I’m sure it’s been thought of already, but it’s worth a shot never the less.
The Iphone is Steve Jobs and co greatest invention today, it may not be the greatest phone or even the greatest mp3 player but you can’t deny that it’s a excellent multifunctional device, with an amazing music/app distribution center. You also can’t ignore the Iphone popularity, and the popularity of its app store, I mean come on there’s an app for that. So use apples devices and App store to your advantage. Find something in your business that you can make an app for that people may want, and then give it away for free… The down fall is due to apples “neck strangling” approval process your app may have to be revised a few times To pass Apples App laws. But if your successful you can easily make the app store a powerful marketing tool.
You can use the Iphone S.D.K. to try and make an app yourself or otherwise you’re going to have to burn some cash and hire a developer.
6. Win a million dollars contest
Ok so you don’t have to give away a million dollars, but you can give away something just as good. Other than getting free stuff (Read #3) Have a contest give away giving away a service or item, and make sure that its enticing enough to make the person want to enter the contest. Another words don’t hold a contest and then give away a pack of bazooka Joe gum, make sure it’s something cool like an iPod or blue ray player. Remember the bigger the prize the more entrees, The more entrees = the more positional customers = more money in your pocket! The M&M and McDonalds monopoly piece contest as an example, we have all played that, no?
7. Live Entertainment Event.
Hold an event and have some live entertainment there. Make sure you have people handing out your cards/ print media (see #2 print marketing), make sure you let people attending the event know your sponsoring the event, and have some dancers(not stripers)at the event if its geared towards adults Remember SEX SELLS! If you own a business that involves kids or just want to have entertainment that is good for everyone get a clown, walk around magician or stilt walker. Make sure you get entertainment that is exciting (an example of something you shouldn’t get is a man playing a kazoo, that’s no exciting entertainment unless he’s your inmate in jail)!!!!
Here is a link to an Entertainment company I have used before, there great.
8. Cerebral Bore of Marketing
Take a hint from the big boys like Microsoft and Apple; bury yourself in your targets mind. What I mean is make sure that your product it everywhere. If your products something you can give a sample of and not lose much money then do it. If your product is good, and you know your products unique it will succeed, if you think your products not that great, or have any doubts about your product, maybe you should go back to the drawing board.
9. The floods coming and there’s no way errrrr in?
Shouldn’t that be “The floods coming and there’s no way out?” Not in this case…
remember that colleges flood the market with new people looking for work, a way to get into their field of choice, chances are most of these people want to start a business so they don’t have to deal with an employer (come on who does).Now keep in mind if the market is flooded there’s going to be too much competition for marketing an example of this would be the 1 million people trying to be graphic artists but there’s only 1000 jobs so then they all decide want to start a graphic art studio(or sit at home and read Photoshop tutorials) well that’s great if you’re not trying to compete with a graphic art studio(or don’t pay bills).What am I saying? make sure that whatever it is your doing that you have an edge on your market. Don’t be the sheep in the flock, be the wolf. Find a niche that isn’t there yet and work with it, otherwise your just wasting time.
10. And the Number ten idea of marketing out of the top ten is!!!
The Internet Use it (it’s good for other things than porn and illegal downloading); it’s very powerful and a great resource. Go to forums that shadow your business and post links to your site. Submit your site to all the search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo, (here’s the top 50 search engines). Make blogs and articles and submit them to social bookmarking sites like (Digg, delicious, Redit, etc.)
