How To Cut Advertising Costs

How to cut advertising costs

1. Get a website
2. Spread the word

The value of having a quality website is priceless.  The keyword in the previous statement is "quality".  There's no good reason for a business not to have a website.  You can start a website for as little as $5.99 a month.  Some web hosts will provide you with free templates, free content, and free graphics.  They make it so easy; all you need to do is change the contact information and company name in the template.  Of course this is solution will not be as effective as having a custom website designed, but it's enough to get you online.  Remember I said the keyword is "quality".  So you should at least modify some of the content.  Check with friends and let them help you tweak the content. 

If you already have a website, you should be tracking the effectiveness of your website.  The first thing you need to know is how many visitors you get on your website.  Knowing how many visitors your website has is an essential first step in measuring the effectiveness.  The second thing you need to know is how many of those visitors actually buy something, use your service, or request more information.

Most web hosts offer free statistics that you can use to monitor how many people visit your website.  Google Analytics is another free tool that can be added to any website.  It gives you statistics, let's you create custom reports, and much more.  To begin you just need to become aware of how much traffic you're getting.  Once you know how much you're getting, then you can decide what you need to do to get more. 

How many visitors your site gets will directly reflect your advertising efforts.  If your site is not generating any traffic, then we can assume two things.  People don't know about it, and people can't find it.  If I want to buy a computer, I know a few computer manufacturers' websites that I can check for further information.  If I need to find a plumber, I'll search the internet for local plumbers.  So even if I don't "know" of a plumber, I can find one.  You want to make sure people "know" you.  If they don't "know" you, you want to make it easy for them to "find" you.         

Let's face it, you could be the best basketball player in the world, but you'll never make it to the NBA unless the right people know about your talent.  Just because you launch a website does not mean people will automatically know it's there.  You could have a professional website with quality content, impressive graphics, etc, but you must advertise so people will know about it.  The good thing is that advertising on the internet is relatively inexpensive.

Google, MSN, and Yahoo all have advertising programs that are easy to setup.  There are many other ways to advertise, but those are the Big 3 of search engines.  One of the easiest methods is "cost per click" or CPC advertising.  That will allow you to post an ad, and only pay a fee if someone actually clicks on your ad and visits your website.  The idea is people will only click your ad if they're interested in what the ad says.  Once they click the ad, your website will have to deliver the quality content.

There was a time when the World Wide Web literally would give any one in the world access to you.  Well, it still does but it also allows you to focus your advertising on certain cities, states, regions, countries, etc.  You don't want to advertise to everyone in the world.  You want to advertise to the "right" people.  The "right" people are the people who are most likely to buy your product, or use your service.  It's a waste of time and money advertising to people in Colorado if you only provide services in Virginia. 

A quality website and an efficient online marketing campaign will help dramatically cut advertising costs.  First tweak the content of your website so it's informative and interesting.  Then focus on the attracting the "right" visitors who will buy your products, or use your services.