My favorite means of marketing is word of mouth. It should be everyone's, because it means that your company/product/service is so damn good that your customers are talking about it and spreading the word. Or, they are complaining and messing up your brand. Obviously, this is a bit harder to control, since you can't please everyone all the time. But, if you do run your organization/service well, and are good to people (not just your partners, but your employees, your customers and your potential customers) and treat them as you would like to be treated (with honor and respect), you can go far with word-of-mouth. The nicest thing, it's free. It might require a lot of training to implement, but it is well worth it. But don't stop with the personable staff, your website needs to be just as friendly and personable, helpful, even.
That said, that's really a give. Once branded anything less than a good business to deal with, most will fail.
So, my favorite method of marketing is the two pronged approach. The first is where you build name recognition with trust by offering insight without selling anything. An example is a car dealer giving out a free book about leadership with every test drive. Even when someone doesn't take advantage, they are impressed with the offer and it builds trust the next time they are looking for a car. The second prong is where you are creating a call to action, offering the best product, price and/or service and calling on the public to come in (or click here) and take advantage of it. Used together, you build presence of mind and gain trust while creating opportunities and this allows your call to action to be more relevant and trusted.
My very most favorite marketing avenue is PR. Press Releases do require a rather newsworthy story, update, offer, introduction or slant. But this is a free avenue (though some do charge for PR packages) that is available to anyone and is carried throughout the relevant news (local, national or international would depend on the significance of the story to that community).
PR is a hard one to keep on top of. We are so often so pleased with getting something done we just put it out there, but we can announce, even create suspense, as long as we are sure we can meet a deadline. And even if we don't time it, once we have accomplished something, we need to get it out there, not just announce it on the website or in an ad. PR can have a wide reach, and as news, be picked-up elsewhere.