What's the best bang for your buck when you're a small business? I would venture to say that it is things that cost you little to nothing. I know a little something about that, especially having myself spent much money on radio and print.

Here are some cost-effective small business marketing items I can help you do.

• Business Identity: Logo, business cards, letterheads.


• Research: Online or print surveys, focus groups, competitive research, market research.


• Website: Do you need a one-page site up, something with multiple pages, or an e-commerce site that will allow you to sell products online? View some website samples here.


• Online Marketing: Many different things you can do online. Probably the easiest and most effective is SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO in a nutshell is optimizing your website for certain keywords, such as "Vancouver plumber" so that when someone searches for a Vancouver plumber in google, your website appears in the top of the listings. Other things, but definitely not everything, are paid search campaigns (little text link ads) and social media (facebook, youtube, blogs, digg, etc...).


• E-newsletter: Building a customer list and sending them updates via emails, tracking who opens them, and what links they click on.


• Public Relations: It's free and brings your business instant credibility. You need a press release, news worthy story, and people to send the story to.


• Print: Ads for local newspapers, hand out flyers, direct mail postcards.


• Analytics: If you're not tracking what works and what doesn't, than how do you know what works?