Regardless of what business you're in all businesses have one thing in common - the need for customers. This even applies if you're a charity as you need both donors and people to help. We all know about the various types of advertising like newspaper and TV, but we also know that these can be extremely expensive, cost prohibitive and in many cases not worth the investment. So what should one do to help get their business off the ground?

1) identify your business. Every every business needs a brand. For instance, look at businesses like Domino's pizza, Pizza Hut, and Papa John's and other national chains. No one confuses Domino's with Pizza Hut and this is due to the extensive emphasis on branding both have used over the years. The brand isn't limited to just the brand name. Just take a look at a pizza box from Papa John's. On it you will see a brief history of Papa John's, what they stand for and what they believe in (better ingredients and better pizza).

To further distance themselves from the competition during this recession Papa John's even shows a picture of the founders favorite car and the story of how he had to give it up or sell it to start his pizza business. For one that exemplifies his passion for the pizza business and two it shows just how important branding really is - the only devoted half or more of the box cover to this. It's important to note that neither Pizza Hut nor Domino's pizza have any such branding on their pizza box covers (maybe they should?)

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Anyway, you need to identify your business, yourself and what both you and your business stand for. Unlike Papa John's, any opportunity you have to put this branding in front of the customer should definitely be used for that purpose. Look at Pizza Hut's boxes. They just switched to an all red box that just says the Hut in the middle of it. In my opinion someone needs to fire whoever's behind that stupidity at Pizza Hut. That's similar to the bizarre gaffe made by Howard Johnson's motel chain when they switched the name on their motels to the Ho Jo inn.

2) The business logo. Along with branding, your logo is vitally important. Be sure and pick a customer and environmentally friendly (green is good) logo for your business. If you do not have one now you need to get one. Logos do not have to be extremely expensive and you can easily get one design online for a few hundred dollars at various websites like Elance and Rentacoder. You can also use your local community college, art school or four year university students as they can produce great work and be very cost-effective.

Once you've decided on your logo you need to use your logo as an effective piece of your branding. Place everywhere that you can from a big colorful sign at the location of your business to your website to business cards , pens, note pads, etc. Depending upon your business some giveaways like hats and shirts with your logo on them might be appropriate and may be very profitable marketing ideas or tools. Be sure in stick to the same colors and look so you can quickly and readily be identified as the source rather than a competitor. The last thing you want is to be confused with a competing business and actually end up sending your customers there instead of to your business.

3) Promote, promote, promote. In real estate the key term is location, location, location. Well in marketing is much different except that it is promotion, promotion, promotion. You don't need to use high dollar advertising to get the best results, but you do, however, have to do something to get your name out there. Advertising for any business is a process of trial and error. You will find some things will work and some things will not. But you won't know until you try it.

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Here's where the famous 80/20 rule comes in to hand. Remember that rule your professors or teachers told you about where 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts? Well, it's very true and depending upon the niche of your business, each business is a little bit different, a well-written press release might work wonders, or maybe some freebie giveaways, mailers, etc. might be the ticket. What I have found in my experience to work best is some press releases like maybe one a month or so, followed by some radio ads, and maybe a newspaper ad or two to to get the initial traffic started.

Then your emphasis should be placed on your customers and word-of-mouth. That is the best advertising any business can ever get. You can't buy this kind of advertising. If you impress your customers and exceed their expectations not only will they come back but they'll bring their friends, their relatives, and many more because your business stand out in their mind. Referrals are King in any business and if you have customers that are great referers then you should go above and beyond to take care of and even reward them. But be careful here and make sure that you don't alienate any customers as disgruntled customers will do the opposite and cost you customers and cost you sales.

There are many little techniques that I've seen and learned over the years like placing a smiley face sticker on an envelope to differentiate from other mailers, to sending personal notes and cards for birthdays and holidays. Customers and potential customers will remember you if you remember them - so if you're going to send him a birthday card be sure and put one note or one line of something that was important to them in there - this is one of the biggest selling tips out there and believe me it works. Regardless of what business you're in it can only help you to keep a file of your customersand to take one second next time you're with that customer to write down on the back of a business card or something similar a note of something important that customer.

For example he loves bass fishing, she loves Latin dancing, etc. Another reason this tip works so well is that it basically forces you to pay more attention to the person's name and their interests and helps you better remember their name their interests so next time you see them you'll remember their name. Some people use the back of business cards to place coupons for attractions maps to their place of business and that is also a great idea.

You can also go to your local Wal-Mart supercenter and place flyers or colorful cards on peoples windshields under their wipers. Plan on placing a lot of flyers but you will get some contacts out of it. Basically marketing like this is a numbers game the more people you get your name across to, the more people you bring yourself to, the more successful you will be - period.

Some businesses will go and have a few other employees dressed in various outfits from puppy dog to Statue of Liberty and stand by the roadside of a popular street and hold up a sign for their business. I have never particularly done this marketing ploy but apparently it must work pretty well because some places now have upwards of four or more employees out front at a time doing this like the local sub shop in various pizza and lunch related businesses.

A sale may work well, albeit in this current recession you would be hidden amongst all the other sales out there. Many businesses would benefit greatly from an added web presence. As 99% of consumers nowadays are on the Internet it would behoove any business owner to make sure they have a quality website that best displays your intended branding which we talked about earlier, your logo and anything else you would like to get across to your customers. A blog can also be used to drive traffic and gain interest in your product or business.

If you do not have computer experience is easier now than ever to hire someone to take care of this or some aspect of this for you. From SEO (search engine optimization) to pay per click marketing to even press releases and more can easily be found through outsourcing websites like those listed above. But be careful here and don't hire just anyone based on a low price. If they mess up or do something bad it can affect your branding and your reputation. So as I will always say, " inspect what you expect." And on that note good luck with your business enterprise and venture.