Advertising: What's the best bang for your buck? Part 2

So last time I blogged about advertising, I talked about my thought process behind paid advertising, but what can one do with little to no advertising budget?  Here are some thoughts... and while I tailored them to my business a bit, they really apply to any business.

- VISTAPRINT - If you haven't checked this site out, you need to... NOW!  Go ahead... I will wait... I will even play the jeopardy music... ok... You back?  Great!  As you just saw or already know Vistaprint is a great way to get inexpensive marketing materials.  And no, they aren't as fancy as hiring a professional printing company, but this is a blog post on advertising on the cheap.  My point is...it gets the job done and doesn't break the bank.

- The Internet - In my opinion, no matter how big or small, new or old your business is, you need a website.  It always floors me to see businesses, especially those that do artistic/custom work, not have a website.  Again, it doesn't need to be fancy, it just needs to be organized, easy to navigate, and contain the important information most customers are looking for.

In addition to having your own website, you can also search for directory-like websites and put your information on them as well.  Most will charge for a "featured" listing, but many will allow you to list your business for free.  You probably won't get much, if any, business directly from this, but you never know how someone will find you.

- Push your product - For a cake designer, this is easy.  Bake some samples and take them to places where the clientele fits the clientele you are after or to locations where you may get referrals.  It's not free, but you can always use "leftovers", especially if you are hitting up a business that has only a few employees such as a florist.  Word of mouth is still the best advertising one can do.

- Social Media - In this day and age, I think you need to do some sort of social media campaign.  Business pages on Facebook are free, Twitter is free, blogging is free... all help you spread the word.

 - Networking Groups - Whether the group is specific to your industry, gender, age, etc., there are a ton of networking groups out there.  My suggestion is find one or two that you like and fit your personality, and stick with them.  Most networking groups allow you to "visit" before you join and some are so casual that you can come and go as you please.  But be warned though, every group is run differently and many charge a fee for you to become a member, so make sure get all that info before you commit yourself and some advertising budget to it.

So there are some ideas on how to stretch your advertising budget... surely it isn't an exhaustive list, but it is a list of things that I have tried, used, done, etc.  I plan on talking more about networking in a future post, but in the meantime... What types of cost-effective advertising has worked for you?

It's good to have a budget...

Sorry for the delay in my blog posts... for once I wasn't just ignoring them.  As you may have seen... I have been busy... and on top of that, the little one has an ear infection.  While he normally resides on my lap 80% of the time he is awake, with the ear infection, we were at a full 100% of the time and he wasn't sleeping much or very well.  Since he appears to be feeling better and is actually playing on his own, I thought I would try to squeeze in a quick blog post.

Budget... I hate to keep talking the cost of cakes, but this is for customers and potential customers out there.  I had a customer call me the other day, asking for a 3-tier cake with a carved cake as the top tier, fondant, the works.  I quoted her a price and her response was "She's not getting married!"  I giggled on the phone with her and asked her what her budget was.  She politely responded and we continued to discuss some options.  Eventually we came up with a few possibilities within her budget and she set off to discuss it with her daughter.  The next day, she ordered the cake!

Every day I get emails from folks requesting a quote on a specific cake or a cake to feed X amount of people.   I send them the best quote I can, based on the information given to me, and many times, I never hear back from them.  Obviously some of these folks can choose other bakers, but I have a feeling many of these inquiries end up not ordering a cake at all because of the price.  Yes, sometimes budgets and desires are so out of line that it is impossible to offer an alternative, but other times, if folks just asked or discussed their budget, something on a smaller scale could work.  Sure you might not get that life-sized teddy bear you saw on Ace of Cakes, but you may still be able to get something cute and unique and not break the bank.