You don’t need LeBron James, Michael Phelps, effective placement in prime-time programming, spiffy graphic displays or a huge marketing budget to successfully place your product. Yes, product placement can be done much easier and cheaper than that.
You don’t need to squander your life savings to promote effectively. Having the right amount of savvy to seal the deal is more important. Some of the world’s finest marketing specialists have some ideas on helping you maximize a small budget.
Work On Your Press Releases

Most marketers think of reporters as people they need, when it could be the other way around. Keep it short and sweet and your press release can attract the news people much easier. Connect your press release to events that have actually happened, like a fundraising telethon or a new service of yours. Your idea must have a means to the end, so don’t focus on trying to make people laugh. Ask other people, like family or friends, what they think would be newsworthy about your product or service. Your customers could be a valuable tool in helping you research for a good press release. You can have your customers fill out a questionnaire to answer questions or see if they are amenable to an unconventional idea. Find out what makes them stick to your service or product.

Do Not Be Afraid To Be Different

Attract media interest by cooking up an event. A good idea would be to try breaking a record, say, creating the world’s largest sushi roll, then advertising it with creative and playful language.

Associate Your Face To Your Business

It doesn’t matter if you aren’t exactly Prince Charming – if your face is on your business card, you can develop a better relationship with your potential customers. This will give people an idea about who’s the person behind the name on the card.

Publish Positive Testimonials

Be aggressive – don’t just thank your customer after he or she praises your product or service – have him or her write a testimonial letter! Your promotional package would benefit from such a testimonial.

Connect Through Quoted Messages

You should be aware of things that your customers like, and if you see a nice article they can relate to, forward it to them with a special note. Add a special note that says something like “This might interest you”, and you’re on your way to making a more personal connection with your business’ clients.

Out Of The Box Thinking

Out of the box thinking is best applied when dealing with the financial and promotional side of things. You can try something like buying a billboard ad once every other month for a year. Since the billboard won’t likely be replaced the month after, you can get extra exposure for free. Since out of the box thinking is best as a business model rather than anything else, try other strategies like giving customers something they can’t find with the competition.

Rely On Time-Tested Strategies

There are many old-fashioned business strategies that still work to this present day, like holding a charity event or sponsoring a little league team’s uniforms. Remember that said event will still bear your name in the end.

About the author: Howard Martin is a prolific writer and currently publishes Webmaster Forum and IM Talk sites.

Tags: budget, Business, Marketing