Posted February 20th, 2008
Advertising is essential in making people aware of you, your business, your website, or your story. And being able to make other people aware of you or your brand means success. Unfortunately: advertising is expensive.
Whether you are trying to create awareness for your personal blog or website, or trying to sell a service for your business, advertising can end up costing you a lot of money. But advertising doesn’t have to be expensive. And it doesn’t have to be dull and boring either. You can advertise directly to your audience, creatively and effectively, at your own price.
Cheap does not mean boring.
One question I am constantly asked when I talk about cheap advertising is: “If I don’t spend a lot of money on my advertising, won’t it be boring and not as effective?” The answer is: maybe. Cheap advertising can be equally effective, or even more effective, than expensive advertising. Similarly: expensive advertising can be duller than cheap advertising. It all depends on the amount of creativity you want to invest in your advertising campaign. What really can make - or break - a cheap advertising campaign is how you creatively use what you already have, or how you creatively use what somebody else has. You read that right: the best way to advertise effectively at your own price is to…
Use what you have (or what somebody else has).
So how, exactly, do you conduct an advertising campaign at your own price and still make an impact on people who see the advertisement? You use what you have, and advertise creatively at your own price.
Recently I wanted to advertise Creative Something to amateur artists and designers, but I didn’t have a big budget to work with. I did, however, have a package of stock paper that I had purchased from Staples for about $7.
I quickly designed a simple, straight-forward card advertising CreativeSomething.net and printed it out on a few of the stock sheets I had. I cut up the designs and ended up with 200-300 small, business card type advertisements ready to be used.
Simply handing out the cards would be time consuming, and the chances of a card ending up in the hands of a creative amateur was very slim. So I had to think up a way to use the cards I had created to reach my audience effectively. And I wanted to do it at my own price: for free.
So, putting a few of the small cards I had just printed in my pocket, I went to my local Barnes & Noble bookstore.
When I got to the bookstore I asked a store employee where the art and design books were and then headed in the direction I was pointed to. I then took a few of the small cards out of my pocket and began to place them randomly into design and art books, hidden deep in the pages.
Think about this for a second.
For only $7 I had created an advertising campaign that was not only 100%, positively, without-a-doubt going to be seen by people who would care, but also would be seen by people who are now PAYING to see my ad. They buy the book to learn about art or design, and then - as they read the book - they stumble upon a small advertisement directing them to Creative Something. Not only that, but they can also use the card as a bookmark in the book they are reading.
For $7, and a little bit of creativity, I had created an advertising campaign for my blog that was guaranteed to be seen by people who would be interested in what I was advertising, that could be used by people as a bookmark, and that is interesting enough to capture reader’s attention.
It’s that easy.
The advertising I did cost a minimal amount, and the best part is that it can work for your website or business too. But that’s not all; remember that creative advertising doesn’t end with books.
A few more ideas that cost little to nothing and are targeted for your unique audience are: coffee cups with custom messages written on them and then placed at your local coffee shop, napkins with your name printed on them, pencils or notebooks to be handed out at a local school campus, creative gifts for friends, etc.
If you don’t have a lot of money to spend, but want to advertise, get creative! Think of who your audience is, find something they use often, and print your name or website on that object. It’s that easy to advertise effectively, and creatively, at your own price.
And to everyone who is reading this because they found a card in their recently purchased book: welcome to Creative Something, and thanks for stopping by. This is the creative blog for all of your creative needs. Come back often, or even subscribe.