What Makes a Good Free Marketing Tactic?
Free marketing tactics have to measure up to the same standards
that paid ones do. In other words, they have to accomplish
the same end goal, which is, to make you more money.
Marketing accomplishes that goal in a wide variety of ways,
and on many different time tables. But the end result has
to be one that adds up in dollars and cents.
With free ads, you don't measure cost against return in the
same way you do with paid ones, but you still have a cost
in time. Therefore, any tactic that WORKS, and gives you a
measurable result, may be worth your time. Later on, perhaps
only those that give a higher return will be worth it, as
your time becomes more valuable.
Nothing is truly free. There is always a cost. So you really
need to insure that your marketing methods DO bring in a return
that justifies the time.
Since many free marketing tactics are slow though, you may
not be able to tell right away whether it IS going to justify
itself. If I spend half an hour getting three or four backlinks
for my site, I may not see a result for a few weeks. And then
I'll see just a little bit. It won't affect my pagerank for
another 3-5 months.
But if I get a few hits a month from it, that I can SEE,
right away, then I can assume it will go on getting me those
few hits a month. It won't be worth the half hour during the
first month of returns, or perhaps even the second. But by
the fifth or sixth month, I'm firmly in the black with it,
and will stay there from then on, because good links are permanent.
And that is precisely what makes a good free marketing tactic.
One that works hard for you, long after you quit working on
IT.
Anything that only lasts an hour or two, or that quits as
soon as you quit, is not going to be worth your time. You'll
have to keep doing it to keep even a tiny return. Methods
that go on working after a one time effort are the best ones
because otherwise you won't be able to find enough hours in
the day to generate enough business to be worth all the time
you are spending promoting.
There are some people who say you cannot market effectively
with no money invested. I completely disagree with them, and
feel that you CAN market effectively, as long as you are willing
to give TIME, until you can give money. And I typically never
pay for ADS, I pay for supplies like paper, ink, and software
instead.
Even a good free tactic takes a lot of work though. Don't
expect it to be easy. You'll have to keep up the work even
when you aren't getting anything yet but promises. You'll
have to fit in more marketing when it is the last thing you
feel like doing. You'll have to make calls when you'd rather
be playing. You'll have to take a deep breath and face just
one more person who probably isn't interested, but you have
to face them anyway because there is a tiny chance that they
might just be the one exception that you need to find.
I can promise you from experience though, that when you use
the best tactics for your target market, and when you learn
to do them well, the results may be slow, but they are immensely
powerful. I tried to quit one line of business, but I have
customers that won't let me, and I still get referrals because
I did such a good job of building loyalty and trust in my
clients.
There's Power in them Thar Ads!
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