Best Marketing Vehicles for Home Business

Today there are so many different ways to market your business, especially online. With things like social & professional networks, blogs, forums (like this one), and so much more - there is a lot of opportunity.

One of the first things i like to suggest is Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising like Google AdWords. It's one of my favorites for new clients because:

1. Highly Targeted - people see your Ads based on keywords.

2. Localized - choose the exact towns, cities or countries you want Ads to display in.

3. Budget Sensitive & Cost Effective - not only do you only pay when some clicks-through to your website, but you can set daily budgets to ensure you only pay what you want.

4. Exposure - it is hard and can sometimes be costly to get those top rankings on Google, even though less people click on the Ads, then the results, you get your name up there.

5. Trackable! - this is my favorite part, you can see exact statistics and information on everything, especially when combined with Google Analytics

Biggest thing about AdWords is to make sure you track, measure and adapt on a regular basis. If certain words are causing a high bounce rate on your site, get rid of them. Try Ad variations and use the ones that get the most clicks.

But remember to look at your site for it's conversion abilities as well - if you are getting a lot of clicks, but people aren't reaching your goals, it's time for some conversion analysis.

If your business has a local focus, using locally targeted ads within the search engines is a cost effective method for advertising. The search engines allow you to define your geographic reach for your advertisement online, thus controlling your budget and better defining your audience. You might consider the following local outlets:

* http://local.yahoo.com/
* http://infousa.com
* http://www.google.com/local/add
* http://www.superpages.com

If my marketing budget is tight, what is a reasonable daily budget for PPC that I could expect to pay if I am trying to just reach the local market?

That is different for each business and very closely tied to the keywords. If you have a very general business and the keywords are in high demand, you may go through your budget quickly. If your business is unique or specialized, your keywords may be more cost effective.

I also thing your second question goes back to what i mentioned at the end of my post - tracking and adaption. If you are optimizing your campaign or having someone else do it for you, you can get a bigger bang for your buck.

Let's say Keyword 1, gets 10 clicks a day at $1.00 each; while Keyword 2 gets 20 clicks a day at $1.25 each. But 50% of the people who click Keyword 1, end up going to your contact page while only 10% of people for Keyword 2 get to the contact page. You can either look at removing Keyword 2 to put more money into Keyword 1 and better results or look at ways such as specific landing pages for Keyword 2 to try and increase it's conversion rate.

The big thing is, whether you spend $10, $50 or $200 a day, you want to get the highest results from the amount you spend. Once you are getting better results, you can look at increasing that budget.

To add to Anday's comment, you can setup a budget on a daily basis to truly control your costs. For example, you might say that I only want to spend $5 a day. You can then let your ads run for a few days and check the reports. The system will show you if your budget is high enough to reach the availabile traffic or if you need to add more. From there, you can decide on how qualified the traffic seems to be and if it is worth allocating more money to the budget.

Don't overlook the power of networking. It's not new, but it works. Join trade or business organizations where there will be potential customers and really get to know some of the members. They can be an important source of new business, or referrals. COSE's Home Business Network also provides a venue to meet business owners, stay motivated, and find out how others are marketing their businesses. Don't be shy about asking for referrals, but make it a two-way conversation and give them too. Networking is an ongoing activity, not a one-time effort, so plan to attend at least one such event a month.

Good luck.
Jeanne Bluffstone, Bluffstone Public Relations
Chair, COSE Home Business Advisory Council

I agree, Pay-Per-Click would be a great vehicle to help promote your business.

There are several free keyword tools available for you to estimate the amount of traffic you could potentially receive from various keyword phrases.

Here are some free resources you might find useful:

Google Keyword Tool - https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

WordTracker - http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

There are paid keyword research tools too but these are a good place to start.