You don't need a million dollar ad budget to make a profit. You just need a solid strategy and a little creativity to turn potential customers into repeat buyers.
Identify Your Target Audience
If you're selling coffeemakers, you can rule out teenagers from your audience. A first-person shooter can be geared toward young males as your primary target audience but research shows older men are also playing these types of video games.
Make a list to determine who your target audience is. Be very specific in finding your audience.
If you're opening a clothing store for women, you have a good idea of who you're going to be trying to reach. But what kind of clothing does your store sell?
If it's petite sizes only, your target audience is made up of petite sized women. If your store sells petite sizes for teens, your target audience is now petite young ladies in high school.
Know Where to Advertise
Are you a small company who caters to your town's citizens or are you exclusively an online company that sells products over the Internet? Knowing where to advertise and targeting your audience go hand in hand.
Using the clothing store example above, if you're looking to advertise to young women in high school, the local newspaper isn't going to cut it. However, if the high school has a newspaper, that's where you can wisely spend your ad dollars.
A TV commercial airing during the local news may get a few parents interested in the store but a commercial airing in a local commercial break on MTV is the better choice.
Coupon or Special Offer
Get customers in the door quickly with a coupon or special offer. It doesn't have to be a four-color fancy coupon. A simple black and white coupon will do or a bold line that says, "Mention this ad and receive 10% off."
Cross promotions are another way to make excellent use of coupons and special offers. Page 2 of this article has full details.
