Have you advertised your business?

[Helen]

I recently shared this article about advertising and marketing and I've been surprised by the number of comments from business owners about just how powerful word of mouth can be. Have you tried advertising your business or are you lucky enough to have customers who spread the word about your products/classes for you? 

[bonny]

I dabbled with some ads on Facebook for specific products.  I set the area for the ad to be displayed in and a generous age range.  The rest I left up to FB.  Zero sales. I increased the product range and didn't specify an age range.  Zero sales. I pretty much decided, not only is word of mouth more effective, it's cheaper.  

[scaryann]

I've tried a couple of different advertising ideas with no results from most of them. I sponsor a local go cart racetrack (while I've gotten no sales from this, it gives the kids something positive to do. So totally worth it), I have advertised in the local newspaper (At $60+ per day, this does not happen very often $32 at Christmas time), I have business card size advertisements on the tables at the restaurant across the street from my store offering a 10% discount if they mention eating there (this is one of two that has brought me any additional sales), I've done a few Facebook adds (this didn't even get me any additional views, let alone sales), and lastly I post to other social media sites at least once a week. Bastyon has gotten me a really good repeat customer that has purchased several of my handwoven chains in 14kt gold-fill. 

So I'd have to say free has been the best for me.