Free Marketing Isn’t Always Good
Business owners on a budget often turn to “free marketing” options to get started. While this can be an excellent decision, it isn’t always the ideal solution. Here’s what to look for and how to know when “Free” will cost you.
Free Business Cards – Business cards definitely belong in the marketing mix of any company no matter how large or small. It never fails, standing in line at the grocery or at a baseball game someone will inevitably ask, “What do you do for a living?” Being able to pull out a business card and hand it to them gives you the ability to seize a potentially profitable opportunity.
To do its job a business card needs to have contact information – this is a must. However to really make a business card worth the effort a bit of branding makes it memorable. Branding items include a logo, unique selling proposition and even a call to action. For example, “Visit www.newbabystore.com for a free report on how to prepare for your new arrival.”
The problem with free business cards…they don’t often offer the features necessary to create a memorable business card. Yes, they offer places on their templates for contact information and many allow users to upload a graphic – though the graphics quite often turn out fuzzy and blurred. Free business cards are great in a pinch, however to make an impression it’s worth spending the money. Sometimes a business card is your first and only chance to make an impression.
Free advertising – Sounds like a pretty good concept, right? Who wouldn’t take someone up on the offer of free advertising? Think twice before using this type of service. Free advertising offers several limitations. Most programs do not allow for any level of control. That means your advertisement is placed wherever – it may not help your website traffic at all. Additionally, one of the powers of online advertising is the ability to track data and statistics – the ability to know if your ad is actually working.
Lastly, free advertising programs can actually harm your search engine rankings if the links are coming from disreputable websites, link farms and so on. It’s important to investigate each and every “Free” opportunity to see if there are lasting costs to your business.
Free Email – Free email services are fantastic for businesses just starting out, right? Not always. Free email services, whether it is a database management and autoresponder system or simply free email like Gmail, definitely have some drawbacks. Free email like Gmail, hotmail, yahoo and the like have the benefit of being free and if you have a personal email account with them then the convenience of having a similar business account certainly makes a difference. The drawback is that it doesn’t look professional. Who would you rather do business with…businessnamehere@gmail.com or joansmith@businessnamehere.com? The latter simply looks more professional and impressions make a difference.
Free email and database management systems benefit business owners because they’re an excellent way to automate email marketing campaigns and manage subscriptions. However when taking advantage of a free database management system pay attention to make sure there are features which allow your company to grow. Some providers allow companies to have a free account until their email level or number of subscribers reaches a certain number. That’s fine if they then allow you to bump up to a higher paid level. If they don’t then you have to switch systems and that process is a real headache!
Free can be a good thing, however take extra care when taking advantage of it, no matter what the tool or resource. Free can also end up being very costly in the long run.