Sure, when it comes to small business marketing these days it seems like all you hear about is Twitter this and Facebook that. While those Web 2.0 gizmos have their place in your business plan (if you know what you’re doing), so to do the old tried-and-true marketing methods that often get overlooked. Take this example, from the Pittsburgh Business Journal: “Who’s on first? Softball leagues prove to be big marketing hit.”

“Softball teams can help a company market itself to the outside world in a couple ways. Wearing the company name and logo on shirts and caps turns every player into a walking – or in the case of catchers, crouching – billboard. Anyone watching from the stands or passing the ballpark gets an eyeful. If the opposition is another company, it creates the potential for connections that could lead to new business.”

Stop laughing. We’ll admit that sponsoring a local sports team or emblazoning your logo on a kid’s soccer jersey might seem a little silly as far as being a worthwhile marketing outlet. But it’s a tactic that’s stuck around for as long as it has because, well, it works. And not only does slapping your business name on some else’s hat serve a good marketing tool, but so too does getting out there and hitting around the ball yourself:

“Service firms get 80 percent to 90 percent of new clients through referrals. If a law firm’s team competed against, say, banks or accounting firms, those are gold mines in terms of referrals,” says Rick winter, former dean of the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business, who’s currently a marketing prof with a focus on sports.

The best part about strategies like these is that no specialized knowledge is required like it is, say, with Twitter or even search engine optimization. For regular Joe entrepreneurs who just want to start a local burger joint or car wash, it’s a simple and cheap form of marketing that gets the job done. And when you think about it, you really can’t ask for more when it comes to advertising your small business.