We all know how any business can make money. You need to find more customers and sell more of your products to them at a profit.

It does not make much difference whether your product/service is something great or special, you will not make money unless your customers are ready to buy them. If you have no customers, then you have no business. It is as simple as that.

However, most of the small businesses often experience hard time not just because customers are not willing to buy all their products, but mainly because many are not even aware about the existence of such products/services.

Marketing and advertising for many of the small businesses, can always be a huge problem. Therefore, here in this article we shall discuss about few cheap and very highly effective ways to market and advertise various products and services.

In case it is a challenge for you to sell your Nomos watches, then by reading this, you will surely get a lot of useful inputs.

Many small businesses find huge problems to advertise or market

For majority of small businesses, cost will be a major block while considering about marketing and advertising. All the popular methods of advertising in various media like TV, newspapers and magazines involves huge amount of money.

As far as bigger companies are concerned, money is not a concern and they can easily use these media for promoting their business whereas small business just die as they cannot find enough customers for their products/services.

Despite all these difficulties, you can find that there are few small businesses that manage to attract sufficient customers to their business.

By doing little research, we could find that these smart entrepreneurs use number of taken-for-granted methods which many of us usually tend to overlook.

Few of these methods are remarkably simple and does not cost you anything while few of them may cost you some money that you can easily bear with.

Following are few ways that you too can use if you are having small business:

1. Word-of-mouth will always work

Just think, if you need to buy any new product then usually you will prefer to ask friends and colleagues whom you trust than any advertisement seen on TV or magazine.

If a person is really satisfied with certain product then he will willingly share it. Though word-of-mouth can be little slower but it can be very powerful and effective.

2. ‘FREE’ word can create magic!

For any customer, nothing is sweeter than the word FREE! All of us like to get some free stuff. Nobody will question your product and will try it. In this way, people will know about your product/service.

If he is happy with your service then he will come again and also bring few of his friends too. However, your free offer must be only for limited period.

3. Discount offers and deals

As a matter of fact, the offer of discounts and various deals only motivate people to buy any product. People always look for some opportunity to save some money and wait patiently for discount offer.

You too can announce discounts for your product during certain special occasions like Christmas, or any other days when people are in happy mood to buy something.

4. Start a contest

Whenever you announce the word contest then people get into winning spirit and always make an attempt to win. You can use your own creativity to organize certain activities and games and announce a prize where you can offer your product.

This will not only create an awareness about your product but people who may not have won the contest will also take interest in your product.

5. Create your website

Now we are living in the age of internet and most of us have smartphones, laptop or computers at home. Having your website is very unambiguous way to explain all about your products/services including about your company too.

So, if you have not yet created your website then you can create it now. It is nowadays quite simple to get various tools to create website of your own or you can take help from a professional to create your website.

6. Get Listed on few popular local directories

During good old days, people used to put their name in yellow pages or telephone directories as only few people had telephone. However, in today’s scenario perhaps your name will be lost somewhere.

It is better to use free directory on Yahoo Local, Google Places and Bing Places which are run by various internet search engines. So, try to get onboard immediately and claim your place.

7. Try to use social media

Though nowadays you can find number of social media sites on the internet and among them Facebook is the most popular one where there are about 1.1 billion people who have registered themselves.

The number is continuously increasing. You can freely display your products/services and create awareness about your company.

Twitter is also another social media site like Facebook where you can directly communicate with your customers.

8. Online advertising

People nowadays try to find various information on the internet and therefore your online presence can make a lot of difference. People these days watch YouTube than TV and also big companies have realized the potential of this medium.

There are many different forms of advertising online but one very popular one is Google’s Adwords Program.

With very small daily budget per day, any small business may attract thousands of prospects to buy their products/services. However, it is more important to have your website first.

9. Print and distribute your flyers

Use of flyers is prevalent from many years and still remains a very simple but yet an effective way to publicize and advertise your business.

This method is usually very effective for small businesses where the target customers are located within certain particular area e.g. university campuses, industrial areas or residential estates etc.

10. Involved in certain volunteer work

Often most of us overlook the opportunity to get free publicity that we can easily get by doing volunteer work.

You must get involved in such volunteer work within your community, like church or mosque.

All that is needed here is your time, little effort and encouragement. In case, you are planning to use this kind of advertising method then make sure to donate and sponsor in your business name.