How to Find Cheap Advertising

If you're just starting your business ' or tight on advertising funds ' there are plenty of ways to get your message to the public without spending a bundle.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Direct Mail Pieces
• Newspaper Ads
• Promotional Items

1. Form your own in-house advertising agency. Traditional outlets like newspapers and magazines offer discounts to agencies that place advertising with them. Using this tactic, you're also more likely to receive early notices of special rates and the first shot at remnant space ' ad space still available at press time that is offered at a significantly lower rate.

2. Place ads in lower-priced publications like weekly shoppers, charity and trade newsletters, and college and community newspapers.

3. Use the classified section of your local newspaper for both classified and display ads. Often, small display ads can be run in the classified section of newspapers and magazines for less money than it would cost you to run the same ad in another part of the publication.

4. Offer to put your suppliers' logos in your display ads in return for a small contribution toward the price of the ad.

5. Ask your existing customers to help you spread the word. Satisfied customers are your best and cheapest way to advertise.

6. Take matters into your own hands. Distribute handbills and fliers on the street, under car windshield wipers, and to local businesses. Leave hanging ads on doorknobs in residential neighborhoods and throughout apartment complexes.

7. Participate in a coupon mailing. There are usually a number of companies that participate in each mailing, which reduces the cost considerably.

8. Purchase a magnetic sign to place on your vehicle. You can remove the sign when you need to, and you'll have your own mini-billboard on wheels.

Tips & Warnings

• If you decide to start an advertising division of your company to take advantage of the discounts, make sure you present that division as a separate entity with its own professional business cards and letterhead. And just in case a publication questions the legitimacy of your agency, make sure that you have obtained all of the necessary documentation and licensing to back you up. Just remember that as long as your legal ducks are in a row, a publication can't discriminate against your agency because it has only one client ' you.

• When running a classified ad, keep in mind that your rate depends on how much space your ad uses, so keep your message as concise as possible and use all the abbreviations you can. For example, instead of "Post Office Box," use "PO Box."

• Other discounts for print ads include those for multiple ads and a publisher's discount if you are selling self-published material directly from the ad.