There are many ways to make the most your existing marketing strategies, and one of them is to place advertisements for your products and services in some new and unexpected places. Be creative think of all the daily communication your company has with the outside world. Are there any places where you could place a small text ad? How about adding an attention-grabbing graphic or a coupon? The ideas can be as unique as your company, but to get you started, here are a few suggestions:

Order Forms, Confirmation Emails, and Thank You Pages

If your web site sells something, or if your visitors can sign up for something on your site (a newsletter, whitepaper, etc.), chances are that you already have an online order form and thank you page. These are great spots for small ads that promote related or additional products or services that your company offers. Also consider including an ad on the automatic confirmation email that is typically sent after a visitor places an order or subscribes to your newsletter.

Site Maps

Most web sites have a site map, which is simply a page that provides visitors and search engines with links to all the other pages in the web site. Since there are typically few headlines and very little text on site map pages, advertisements can be great attention-grabbers. By adding some accompanying text to the ad, you can also provide the search engines with additional text and keywords that could help boost your rankings in the search results, too.

E-Newsletter Ads

Sending a company E-Newsletter each month is a well-known, effective marketing strategy that many small businesses already take advantage of. If you send out an E-Newsletter, have you considered placing ads for your own products and services in your E-Newsletter? Weve all seen E-Newsletters that carry affiliate or outside advertising, but often companies dont think to include internal ads promoting their products and services, or a special offer or sale.

Email Signatures

At the end of an email message, you can sometimes find an email signature containing the senders name, contact information, web site address, etc. Creating a standard email signature for everyone in your company gives recipients an easy way to contact you, but it can also serve as an advertisement for your company. Be sure to add your logo, links to your web site, and any other compelling information about your company. Having a consistent email signature can also help reinforce your branding and name recognition as well.

Lauren Hobson is the Editor of Biz Talk Newsletter, a free monthly publication designed to provide small businesses and non-profits with tips and techniques to help them make the most of their web sites and marketing efforts without spending a lot of money. Biz Talk is published by Five Sparrows, LLC.