BellaOnline Forums Career Business Owners What worked best for you & why?

This is to any & all types of business owners out there.
I would like to know first what type of business are you running or have run & what forms of advertising have you tried to help promote your business? Please elaborate on what forms of advertising has worked best for you & why do you think it did work best? Also, tell me what form of advertising didn't work best for you and why you didn't think it worked?
Just so we don't leave anything out, the many forms of advertising include: TV, Radio, Newspaper, Yellow Pages, Internet Yellow Pages, Online Search Engines Pay per click like Google adwords.

I have a local accounting and business consulting service that I've had for several years. I built that by contacting several CPAs that I had worked with through various projects. I get all my referrals from word-of-mouth which is the best and cheapest way to advertise.

But I also have a candle business that I work locally and online. I have used many different types of ads for that. I work within a fixed budget so things like TV or radio are out of my budget.

I use online ads, free ads, link exchanges and search engines. But each business is different. It depends on your product or service and your niche.

Article writing is a HUGE free source of advertising for me. I write articles on prosperity consciousness, using Law of Attraction, business related subjects and personal areas like my journey through cancer.

With articles you have your bio box at the end of each article and it can link back to your website. This is not an instant source of traffic and customers, but if you write on topics that you know AND that can help others in some way, it's been a huge resource for me.

Tell us more about your business and I'm sure members of the board can help more.

What worked for me in my business was one factor-
I focussed only on what my customers wanted.

I started and ran a pond building business for 20 years until I recently sold it and retired. Yellow Pages were my best advertising for new customers, but existing customers were the best for referrals. I could never afford TV. I did some radio and some print. I also did some TV interviews when I sponsored local charity events like an annual pond tour.

Your business sounds fun.

I suppose my first priority is always getting my website looking nice, easy to navigate, and adding new products.

The best marketing experience I have had so far has been Link Exchanging. I have spent money adverstising and I haven't found it has done much good. I think perhaps the places I need to be are the bigger magazines but I am not financially ready for that step.

I think Link Exchanging is very important but you have to really check out the people you are linking to. Quality websites with related content to your own. Keeping up with the links and keeping dead links out is just as important.

This may not work for everyone but it has allowed me to rank well in every major keyword in my field. I have plenty of information I can pass along to anyone interested.

Well, what has worked best for me is speaking. It shortens the buying span.

I also write a lot of articles, have an ezine and offline newsletter.

Marketing really depends on who your ideal client is. Mine used to be online, but I find that busy small business owners - those who have been in business two years or more -- as a whole are too busy to get online much <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I have now and in the past a ceramic business. In the past I spent most of my advertising money on local Catholic church bulletins. From there I would get my customers whether an adult for classes, an adult representing a group - say Girl Scouts for a one time project or from the church itself for a specific annual project for child and parents - a challis cup for 1st Communion.

Now the times have changed since then and now I run ads in local papers, onlist advertising in Yahoo groups, various craft forums, etc. Same goes for my candle business since with this company I can sell, recruit and do fundraising.

Seeing how I am sort of new to this area (NC) - I am still feeling my way around.

Advertising has always been the biggest chunk of my budget.

It's funny you (Pondlady) mentioned Yellow Pages. I've worked in many types of businesses, both on a corporate national level and local small businesses as well.
If there's any advice I can give to you guys so you don't make the same mistakes I did in the past. That is, I have had the best results from yellow pages that were NOT independent publishers, but the yellow page companies that are affliated with the local telephone company in the markets that I was targeting.
This took a few years of trial and error, but eventually paid off.
Independent publishers are less expensive, but they seldom give you any return on your investment. You'll be extremely lucky if you get $1-3 for every $1 you spend.
The phone books that are affliated with local telephone companies, well I have seen anywhere from a $5 to $1 all the way up to a $17 to $1 return on investment. So in actuality, independent publisher phone books are NOT less expensive...just a much much worse investment.
More business owners need to realize that a phone book is not just a phone book, and invest their money wisely.

Good comments from everyone. I really like the comment on the difference between the small independent phone books vs. the established books related to a phone service. Marketing takes skill and understanding of the audience that you would like to reach. Thanks to everyone for your comments.