Promoting for Pennies

11. Employees: Empower employees to solve customers' problems and motivate them to bring customers back. Ratner says, "I make each employee sign a piece of paper stating, 'I understand that my number-one job, no matter what I was hired for, is to make the customer come back.' This lets my employees know that we're serious about customer service."

12. Business cards: Schloeder advocates printing information on both sides of your business card. "Why should it have just your name, address and phone number, when you can include a description of your company, hours of operation, mission statement or other important information?"
Cost: a few cents per card.

13. Signage: Look for other ways to use signage-at events or even on your vehicle. A local ice cream shop owner tools around my town with the name of his sweet shop on a magnetic sign affixed to the side of his car. Everywhere he goes, he's promoting his business.
Cost: about $40 to $75 for a magnetic panel.

14. In-store venues: Your windows, countertops, reception area, walls and other on-site features of your business are great advertising vehicles. Frame advertising campaigns, and put them on your walls. Create minisigns for your countertops. Adorn visible windows with appropriate displays or graphics.
Cost: inexpensive frames for ads, $10 to $30 each; minisigns from your computer printer, pennies; a window artist, about $25 to $50 per hour.

15. News releases: Get to know your local media, and learn how to make yourself part of the headlines. A news release announcing the involvement of Schloeder's company in developing a regional Web site ended up netting a small write-up in a local newspaper. Over the course of two days, she received more than a dozen phone calls from prospective clients.
Cost: 37 cents.

16. Your expertise: Tax Mama Rosenberg routinely self-syndicates articles about tax planning and other areas of expertise to local newspapers across the country. These vehicles often have thousands of readers and are hungry for well-written, informative content. Get a list of newspapers at www.newslink.org.
Cost: $0.

17. Networking: Head to your local chamber of commerce or other networking groups with a pocketful of business cards. If your business is more national in scope, attend appropriate trade shows and conferences. By networking with her competition, Rosenberg landed referrals from others in her field when they've had too much business or a conflict of interest.
Cost: $0.

18. Referral bonuses: Inspire customers to act as your sales force by giving them an incentive to bring you new customers. This may include a discount off their next service or a small gift or credit on their account. Be sure to ask new customers where they heard about your business so you know when a customer has made a referral.
Cost: a few dollars.

19. Speaking: Rosenberg markets her business through seminars, teaching prospective clients about the tax issues about which she's so savvy. If you have a way with words, seek out opportunities to speak in front of appropriate groups. This positions you as an expert in your field. Look for groups in your newspaper's event calendar, or check with your local library, which may keep a list of social, civic and business groups.
Cost: $0-and sometimes, you may receive payment for speaking.

20. Charities: Teaming up for a good cause-whether by donating products or services or volunteering your time on a nonprofit board of trustees-fosters goodwill within your community. Most of the time, these activities are also rewarded by publicity or promotion through the charity. You can get even more mileage out of the event by posting photos in your place of business or sending out your own news release. It's a great way to do well by doing good deeds.
Cost: the wholesale cost of your time or product.

A Penny Saved...

Shel Horowitz may be the king of penny-pinching promoters. The Hadley, Massachusetts, marketing consultant and author of Marketing Without Megabucks: How to Sell Anything on a Shoestring (AWM Books), among other titles, generally spends nothing on his own promotions. Through a combination of paid speaking engagements, barter and information-sharing, he's been able to bring in lucrative marketing and copywriting assignments that pay about $125 per hour for clients as far away as Cyprus, Europe and Japan. Here are some of the tactics he's used:

• Bartering: In exchange for writing copy for a local Yellow Pages, he received free advertising in the book.
• Recruiting free help: For his first Web site, he hired an intern who created the site in exchange for the experience.
• Creating a presence on the Net: Horowitz is active in Internet discussion groups and works on generating publicity to get his name-and business-in print.
• Information-sharing: In some cases, Horowitz, 47, is paid to speak to groups or write articles to share his expertise. In these cases, his marketing becomes a revenue stream.

Horowitz shares more of his frugality on his Web site, www.frugalmarketing.com.

Gwen Moran is a writer and consultant specializing in marketing.

This article was originally published in the February 2004 print edition of Entrepreneur's StartUps with the headline: Promoting for Pennies.