Marketing Basics: A Quick-Start Guide for Beginners

Quick Summary
If your small business is like millions of others, you may wonder if you can market and advertise effectively on a limited budget. After all, you don’t have the marketing budget of a large corporation, so you can probably rule out a Super Bowl television ad (where a 30-second spot will set you back a cool $4 million) or a ubiquitous national campaign.
 
That said, even very small businesses can engage in successful marketing quite affordably. You just need to know which cost-effective tactics to focus on, and you can successfully market your business without big bucks. For example:

PR Basics for the Beginners

PR is very popular among small businesses, because when it’s efficiently executed, it can be much more affordable than marketing tactics such as advertising.

Email Marketing for Beginners

Write email, send email. Simple, right? Few marketing tactics are as low-cost or as effective with small business owners—as long as you follow a few simple rules.

Local Advertising for Emerging Businesses

Sure, you’ll reach a much smaller audience than with an expensive ad campaign. But that audience will be more targeted and geographically appropriate.

Word of Mouth Marketing Can Work

One of the most historically powerful and credible forms of advertising is also one of the most cost-efficient: personal referrals and recommendations.

SEO Basics for Beginners

Why do certain companies appear at the top of a Google listing while others are buried on page 4? It doesn’t happen by chance; it’s the science of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
 
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