We are going to cover a range of different marketing ideas for small businesses that each cost less than $500 to implement and get publicity:

College Newspapers

Advertise in a local college newspaper or better yet, contact a journalist from your local college paper about a story in which they might be interested. College papers generally have cheaper advertising rates than regular newspapers, and they are easier to work with because they have editors whose email boxes are less bogged down. They also cater to a very specific audience; therefore, if your business plays well to college students, it is definitely worthwhile looking into college papers as a marketing avenue.

Host an Event

Host an event for your target market. It doesn’t have to be extravagant and you don’t even have to pick up the bill. One business consultant, for example, organized dinners between twenty influential investors and high-impact entrepreneurs. People who would never otherwise agree to dinner with him agreed to attend because they knew they would meet other high-caliber individuals. As a result, he built a powerful reputation and a client base with a list that drives his business forward.

Yelp, Meetup, Craigslist, Google Places

These are a few low-cost online services that you can use to market your business.

Yelp is an online review website where people review small businesses. They give it a rating from 1 to 5 and can write comments about the business. It is currently in several major cities in the U.S., including San Francisco and New York.

If you’re reviewed on Yelp, do everything you can to get as high a rating as you can. Yelp alone can drive a lot of traffic to your business.

Meetup is a website where people come together to find interest groups for various topics. It could include everything from salsa to yoga, to business, to rock climbing. If your business fits into a market that could benefit from Meetup, then you should definitely be on the website.

Craigslist is a free classifieds website where you can post ads for your business in the services section, as well as advertise events in the events section. It’s one of the most highly trafficked websites on the Internet.

Google Places is Google’s way of giving local businesses a leg up. If you get your small business listed on Google Places, your business will show up ahead of other websites targeting your search term that aren’t local. In other words, if you own a noodle shop in Boston and someone in Boston enters “Noodle Shop,” yours will come up first.

These are a few low-cost marketing ideas for small business owners. Each of these ideas can be implemented for less than $500. They are easy, affordable and efficient tactics that you can apply right now to see a boost in your business.

When it comes to making your business known, there are a lot of ways to establish yourself online and off.  Businesses are becoming successful using social networking and blogging, but Yelp is a somewhat less known, but powerful way to make yourself known online and expand your business.

Yelp is a newer website, but the concept behind it has been around as long as businesses have.

Yelp has several different webpages, all for different cities.  It’s a listing of businesses, but it also includes the ability to rate and review the businesses.

When it comes down to it, word-of-mouth advertising is generally better than an everyday, average advertising campaign.  The reason?  Anyone can make a claim about their business.  But no matter how good that claim is, there’s no real guarantee that itís true because the business owner is making it themselves.  With word-of-mouth advertising, someone else is telling the consumer that the claim is true.

Whether it’s someone they trust, or simply someone who doesnít profit from what they’re saying (or even if they do), this is taken as a much more trustworthy source.  This way, you’re not only getting your name out there, you’re also getting your reputation out there.

So how can you use Yelp to your advantage?  First, make sure your business is in there.  That way, even if there are no reviews, at least youíve got your name out.  You can then use your Yelp page to add details, pictures, and even updates, and special offers about your business.

That way, new customers know what to expect, and have some extra incentive to come in along with previous customers’ experiences that assure them theyíre getting what you advertise.

Once you’re listed, make sure you’ve got quality reviews.  While some people may get family and friends to plant positive reviews, these are often easy to spot to the trained eye.  Why not just encourage customers to go online and write a review?

Yelp is not only good for finding new customers, you can also use it to communicate with current customers to keep them coming back.  You can talk to them privately, or communicate with them publicly so other customers can not only get answers, but also see that you take care of your customers even after you’re done providing services.

Another advantage of Yelp is that it allows you to recommend other businesses and more importantly, allows them to recommend you.  You can offer reciprocal links to local businesses, or provide them some other incentive for promoting you.  The more successful the other businesses, the better the links you’ll get from them.

The best part about Yelp is that once you set up your listing, it’s fairly easy to maintain.  Youíll need to update when you make business changes and keep up communication, but it only takes a few minutes and is well worth the benefit.