I have a small business in suburban Chicago and found that it is pretty easy to promote the business online with little to no advertising budget. There are several sources available, but Yelp has been the one I find most successful. Yelp offers an online profile that has great search engine optimization (SEO). When I do a Google search for my business in my town, my Yelp profile shows up before anything else. It also has a deal system, similar to Groupon or Living Social that allows you to promote a discount coupon for your business.
You can learn more about other tried and true promotional stories in my blog here: http://voices.yahoo.com/how-promote-busi... As a small business owner myself, I tried all of these before writing about them. Hope this helps!
I'd advice you to spend your advertising budget on the following 4 segments:
1. Affiliate Marketing (Success of affiliate marketing depends on the nature of your business)
2. Google PPC
3. Banner Ad Campaign
4. Sponsored Articles
If you let us know the nature of your business, we can re-arrange the list on priority basis and could guide you with where should you spend your budget most.
It depends which sort of business.
I used trade magazines and local newspapers.
My business was mainly of female interest so I sent mail shots to local womens groups and clubs.
Can I ask if you are a bricks and mortar business or primarily online?
Please only answer the question if you have experience / know of small businesses. I already did research online but I want to get insights from small business directly if possible.
Which channels do you use to advertise? Do you contract anyone to do your marketing?
Have you ever used those big local online advertising companies such as SuperMedia? If so, what do you think of them?
Thanks.
