Advertising is an essential part of your business no matter what you are offering your customers.  It doesn’t matter if you sell merchant cash advances or specialty toilet paper; you need to make sure people know what you are offering them.  Even during an economic slump you should always make sure that you have your advertising intact.  Never cut your advertising budget.  You need it to sell your product.  Instead, look for ways of attracting new customers that cost you absolutely nothing.  Here are a few suggestions to help you keep your advertising intact without killing your entire businesses budget. 

Become the expert in your business.
This is actually easier that you think.  You can write and submit articles about your business to local newspapers, professional organization newsletters and even trade journals.  Pick a subject that shows your expertise on the subject that is related to your business and mention your company in the article.  You can host columns on the internet on related websites.  If you get your article published, make copies and give them to your customers and potential customers. 

Learn how to be a good public speaker.
Meeting planners are looking for people to speak at workshops and conferences all the time.  Contact your local Chamber of Commerce or Rotary Club for the names of planners or research them in your local yellow pages.  Call around to a few planners and offer your services to them.  If you are tapped to give a speech, collect business cards to increase your network and offer a prize drawing of something related to your business. 

Teach others.
Consider teaching an adult education class about your business, especially if you are a service related business.  Many schools and community colleges teach adult education classes and they may be interested in hiring your services to teach a class.  You can also teach free classes at your library, senior citizens center, or other places where you can arrange a medium to large gathering. 

Offer rewards for any referrals you get.
Your customers are the biggest source of advertising you have and they will talk about your business to their friends and associates.  Offer them a reward for referring a friend, such as a free item from your product line or a free service.  If you use a catalog, add a referral card to it.  Whenever you get a new customer from a referral, send the source a thank you note with the reward they earned. 

Write you own e-zine.
You want to keep in touch with your customers at all times so consider sending out a newsletter or e-zine.  Get permission from your customers to send them this information and ask them about what they would like to see in it.  Keep the newsletter simple with a few photos and graphics and make it engaging. 

Look for free public relation opportunities.
If there is going to be a major event in your business niche, send out a press release about your company to the organizer and contact your local newspapers and television stations about it.  These organizations will want to hear about it and they may be interested in talking to you about how these events affect your business. 

Give back to the community.
You can donate or sponsor an event in your community, such as a local softball team or fundraiser.  Let the media know about your participation so that you are mentioned as an event participant. 

Start your own blog or join an industry forum.
If you have a website that you want traffic to come to, start your own blog or join a forum where you can engage your customers in a one on one conversation.  Post news about your company, promotional messages or interesting information about the products and services you offer.  You want to do this without seeming like you are actually advertising.  This is discouraged.  If you want to advertise, there are forums for this so look for those as well. 

Partner with a local organization.
Do you sell or offer services that families in your community can use?  Consider contacting your local PTA and offer special shopping nights or services that they may be interested in.  Any proceeds you receive you can then take a percentage of and donate back to the school