An inexpensive marketing tactic (and the most effective, some would argue) involves getting your business in the news. It can save your advertising budget thousands of dollars because it’s free attention.

Identify media outlets likely to pay attention to you because they’ve previously covered your industry or business trend, and approach them with your:

• Media release
• Guest column
• Tips article
• Newsworthy event

Work with complementary businesses to cross promote your:

• Products
• Services
• Special offers
• Upcoming events

Approach a business owner with the idea to promote your company in exchange for doing the same. For example, a local print shop and an internet marketing specialist might work together to promote their complementary services to their respective customers.

Print and postage costs money, and yet many mailed newsletters, promotional offers or invoices end up going to the wrong address.

If your business uses the mail to communicate with prospects and customers, take some time to clean up your mailing list to eliminate any duplicate or incorrect addresses.

Many small businesses belong to some sort of association, such as the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).

With the bargaining power of a big membership, these associations often negotiate savings and special offers from suppliers of everyday business services such as:

• Shipping
• Payroll processing
• Insurance

Check with any association you belong to for possible discounts on things you already buy.

A popular alternative to dedicated leasehold space is small business suites. With common reception, boardroom, kitchen, washrooms and photocopying equipment, business suites are ideal for solo entrepreneurs or small firms that don’t want to pay for all of those features on their own.

Instead of hiring, training, housing and paying an employee to perform a certain set of duties, explore the abilities of service providers. For example, some companies prefer to outsource their social media work to agencies specializing in that kind of customer engagement service.

Contact your local high school, college or university to explore bringing aboard an intern or placement student. You’ll save money on payroll while giving a student a chance to beef up their resume with some real-world work experience.

Before you take action on any of the information above, we recommend consulting with a qualified business advisor that understands your unique needs and situation for your specific business and/or personal plans.