Customers just aren’t biting like they were this time last year. This means businesses need to stretch their precious marketing dollars further than ever.

Here are five affordable ways to reach new customers and convert new sales…even if your marketing budget is a little smaller than it used to be.

#1: Refer a friend programs

Why not let your existing customers handle your marketing for you? Create a refer-a-friend program to leverage the people who know and love your business the most. Referral programs are easy - simply send out an email or postcard to your existing customer base and let them know about the promotion. Offer these existing customers a reward for telling other people about your new business. And make sure that these new customers get a nice carrot-and-stick as well. Special discounts or promotional items are both proven-successful methods for generating excitement around a referral program.

And don’t forget to make the process as easy as possible. If you are kick-starting the program via email, include copy or an image that can be easily forwarded on to other people. Most importantly, don’t forget to track the campaign using an offer code in order to see how well it performed.

#2: A viral campaign

Many companies, large and small, are getting tremendous mileage out of their viral marketing campaigns. There are several approaches to take here, but most involve creating a humorous video and submitting it to YouTube or a compelling article or site page and getting it up in the rankings at Digg or other social networking sites. These types of viral marketing will establish your brand as hip, funny and web-savvy, all while spreading the word about your products and services in a highly inexpensive manner.

#3: An email newsletter campaign

You’ve got your customers’ email addresses…now use them! Create a rich email marketing campaign filled with relevant content and compelling offers, then send it out monthly. Always keep the content fresh and remember to develop solid subject lines for the emails so that open rates will be high. Make the newsletters interactive – ask for users to submit their questions, comments or stories for upcoming issues, and offer exclusive prizes and goodies to those who submit the best user-generated content.

#4: Public relations

In today’s buzz-driven society, public relations is king (or queen). Investing a few thousand dollars in a PR agency can pay huge dividends down the road. No matter what you are selling, PR firms know exactly how to create excitement around your business. If, for example, you are selling designer T-shirts, a PR firm can get your products in the spotlight at a celebrity charity auction. If you sell widgets, they can find a magazine that is looking for a cover story about the world’s hottest widget-makers. There’s no limit to what great public relations can do for your business.

#5: Organic search

Search engine optimization is currently one of the most cost-effective ways to reach your target audience online. By hiring SEO professionals to restructure your site and develop keyword –friendly content, you can boost your rankings on Google, Yahoo! and other major search engines. Imagine coming up at the top of page ONE is your chosen area of focus! For an affordable cost, SEO professionals can help your business reach out to the people who are searching for your products and services right now.

This Ain’t No Field of Dreams

Your website design is killer; you FINALLY have it up and running. You have all your content, maybe some cool bells and whistles, and you are ready for business. As the movie says, you “build it and they will come” – soon thousands of people will visit and learn all about your great products or services. Right? Well, not really. According to a Netcraft report from May of this year, there are over 168 million web sites and counting. The word is out and businesses large and small know that having a web site is no longer optional it is mandatory.

So, how do you get people to visit your site? Unless you are a large company with plenty of brand recognition it may take a little time to build up your traffic, but there a variety of ways to begin doing so that are free or relative inexpensive. Here are few simple ways to start.

1. Include your site address on everything you use as collateral. This seems obvious, but it is surprising how many people forget to include their web site in their advertising or their email communication.

2. Make sure to register your site with all the free search engines such as www.dmoz.org, www.scrubtheweb.com, and www.ineedhits.com. There are a lot of these search engines and it can be time consuming, but it is worth it. There are also companies that you can pay to submit your site to a variety of paid and free search engines. Note: It can take up to 60 days for your site to show up when searched.

3. Affiliations and linking are a great way to build traffic to your site. You can offer to include links of other businesses that compliment your own, in exchange for them to do the same. Another way to increase your links is by social networking through sites such as LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook. Link popularity has direct benefits, but can also increase your rankings with popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. Check out www.linkpopularity.com to check your sites links.

4. Send regular email announcements that link back to your site, with specials and news just for your customers. Not only does this drive traffic back to your site, but also reminds them you are still around. There is an added bonus in that it makes them feel special, like they have the inside track. Always remember to capture email contact information when ever possible so you can build up your email database. I always recommend my clients get an account with Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com). It is easiest way to build a database, organize it and create communications for your customers. Plus they allow your visitors to opt-in and opt-out as they prefer.

5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – There are many ways to optimize your site, but the simplest way to start is by making sure you have good content on every page and that the content is reflected in your META tags and keywords. Make sure to use words that your target market will use to search for products and services your offer. Be warned – SEO is not something you do once, just when you launch your site. It is an ongoing process. Many companies now have an SEO as a line item in the marketing budgets.

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After they have gone through the process of putting up a Web site, many business owners seem to think that visitors will just magically find their site and start to buy stuff. Sadly, that notion couldn’t be further from the truth. A Web site is useless as a marketing tool if nobody ever sees it. However, you can do a number of things to increase the number of people who find your Web site.

1. Get incoming links. If you don’t have any links from other Web sites pointing to your site, search engines and people are unlikely to find it. Most businesses work with other vendors or members of industry associations or organizations. Ask those people to link to your Web site. The best incoming links are those that are related to your industry.

2. Optimize your site for search engines. The way your site is created and the text it contains are important when it comes to being found. If your site is about purple widgets, you need to make sure that the term “purple widget” is used in the text on your pages. Note that having the words in a graphic does not count. If you have a website design that uses a lot of graphics, make sure text that people may use to search for your Web site is actually in the Web site text and not embedded in a graphic or animation.

3. Send out press releases. An easy way to get incoming links is to get them from news organizations. Many newspapers and magazines put their articles on line. If you send out a press release and your story is written up, the article should include a link to your Web site. Be sure to include your URL in every press release you send out.

4. Write articles for your site. Another way to entice other sites to link to you is to write informative articles. If you know a lot about purple widgets, write articles about how they can be used. Other people who are interested in purple widgets then link to your article. You also can post articles on some of the many free article sites online. In this case, other people post your article on their site. You include a “resource box” that includes a link to your Web site.

5. Offer freebies to visitors. People love free stuff and they often tell their friends. Many sites offer free newsletters, downloads, coupons or software as a promotional tool.

6. Network online. Participate in discussion groups that are related to your industry. Include a “signature” line in your emails that has a link to your Web site. If you answer questions and help others, people are likely to click the link in your signature to find out more about you.

7. Don’t forget about “off-line” promotion. It should be obvious, but put your URL on every piece of print material you generate. Include it on your business cards, letterhead, advertisements, and freebies like pens and tote bags. Whenever you print your company name, print your Web site URL as well.

It takes time to effectively promote a Web site, so be patient. Search engines take a while to clue into a new site, but by incorporating these online marketing techniques, you will be rewarded with more visitors to your site.