If you’re just starting out with a new business venture, your business is in a slump, or you’re looking to expand your business, whether it’s a bricks and mortar establishment, a home-based service or you’re in network marketing/direct sales, you need to get the word out to your target market. As any business owner knows, if you don’t promote your offering in a variety of different ways, regularly and continuously, you won’t be in business for long.

Five percent of revenue is generally considered the approximate investment to allocate on marketing to maintain a business, but it should be closer to 10% if you’re looking to expand and may be a lot higher if you are just starting out (since you don’t have any revenue yet), but of course this amount varies by company and business type.

As with any marketing, the number of methods used to communicate your message and number of times your business is exposed to your target audience is key to a successful marketing campaign but may be limited by your actual budget. Determining which marketing tools to use will depend on cost, business type, who your target market is, where they are located and your marketing message (among other criteria).

Most small businesses at some point invest in a website and print materials such as business cards, brochures or flyers to communicate their marketing message, and almost everyone these days is using social media or some kind to promote their business. But there are a number of other marketing tools that can be used to generate exposure for a new or expanding business, drive traffic to your website or business location, and ultimately help you get more customers. Below are five marketing tools available to generate exposure for your new or expanding business.

Note: for the purpose of this blog post, I will not be including online marketing, such as search engine marketing, social media marketing, email marketing or online advertising.

Read moreFive marketing tools to generate exposure for your new or expanding business