Sometimes business owners and marketing professionals get so caught up in launching websites, developing marketing collateral, running ads, creating direct mail campaigns, and managing the various expenses of a business that we can forget that there are common sense and fool proof methods to marketing your company that are completely free.

With a looming recession, rocky stock market and budget cut backs, there are always completely free marketing tactics we can take to promote our business, so I thought I’d list them out to remind everybody, especially with turbulent economy:

• Hand out your business cards. Keep them not only in your office, but your home, your car, in your purse, in your wallet. Such a simple tactic that we sometimes forget.
• Always keep brochures handy.  You never know where and when you will run into someone interested in your products or services, again, keep your brochures everywhere you are.
• Talk to people you meet everyday.  Not a hard-sell sorta person here myself, however, hard-sell or not, talking to people and simply asking them what they do for a living, where they live, etc. can open the door for other people to ask the same questions about you.
• Network at parties. You have friends (I hope), you go to parties, dinners with friends (I hope) and this is an excellent opportunity to remind your good friends what you do.  I always make a casual mention that if they know of anyone who is in need of a marketing consultant, a website or graphic design services, that my company handles all of that and more (see www.perkolate.com)
• Volunteer for pro bono work within your community (my hood is Summerlin/Las Vegas).  It’s always nice to give back to the community and help a worthy cause by donating some of your time to a charitable cause once in awhile.  Makes you feel good (it does me) and you can meet some great people in your community that will keep your company’s products and services in mind down the line.
• Utilize social networking websites.  Websites like linkedin.com, facebook.com and myspace.com are powerful networking and community building websites.  You can find friends, add them to your contacts and remind them of what your company does.  You can also add photos, blog feeds and links to your company’s website.