Difficulty in obtaining the best locations. Legal restrictions for use. Bartering and cooperative advertising are effective methods of stretching an advertising budget. For example, a small business may be able to trade some of its goods or services to a radio station in exchange for an equal amount of air time. All media will not barter, but if your goods are useful to them, it is worth a try.
Cooperative advertising refers to sharing expenses.
Two or more businesses may share the cost of advertising or one of your company's vendors may supply ad dollars as well as camera ready copy to which you only need to add your company logo. This not only increases the advertising placement budget, but decreases or even eliminates production cost. As advertising costs grow, it is important that small business owners be creative with cooperative and bartering techniques. Some businesses have discovered that setting up an in-house ad agency will save 15 percent of media cost. This is a simple procedure and can save substantial amounts, but the small business person needs to consider the extra time spent in dealing with advertising salespeople and additional paperwork.