Low-Cost Marketing Trends for 2007

Blogs

There are 100 times more blogs than there were three years ago, according Sifry's Alerts' August post on the State of the Blogosphere. At first, only the most tech-savvy businesses had blogs. Now blogging is on the increase with all types of businesses because it's a cost-effective way to create marketing buzz and communities of support.

Blogging is like having a conversation with your target market. It also provides an interactive forum for your target market to talk back to you. And a blog done in conjunction with your Web site gives you one more way to reach your prospects.

The best part is, many blog programs allow you to set everything up yourself with little or no technical know-how. If you're not sure you'll be able to support a blog on your own, contribute to someone else's. This'll help you gain exposure and position you as an expert in your field.

Online Advertising

Ad dollars are continuing to shift to the Internet and will continue to do so as new opportunities such as video open up. Online ad spending increases have been driven by the growing ability to measure campaigns effectively and by a relatively high ROI. As a result, for many businesses, the question isn't whether to advertise online or even where or when but rather how to stretch every dollar spent.

For the everyday entrepreneur and guerrilla marketer, this translates into a focused pay-per-click campaign on Yahoo! or Google AdWords. You can focus on a particular target market searching particular keywords and test your campaign instantly, all for fewer dollars than the old mass-market banner ads and certainly for a lot less than the cost of print ads.

Expanding to Global Markets

Borders are being removed in the business world because international labor rates and talent levels make location irrelevant on the Internet. No longer is going global just for large corporations; Sally's e-commerce bead shop that's operating from a home office can now do business in as many countries as have Internet access.