How to Advertise Your Business
You may not have the bundle of cash to spend on marketing and advertising your start-up, but that doesn't mean there aren't effective ways to get your brand popular.
Starting a business on a shoestring is one thing but making your business popular through advertising requires lots of patience and strategy too. You need to look for ways to stretch your small business marketing budget. There are low-cost and high-impact methods to advertise and promote your business.
You may not have a bundle of cash to spend on marketing and advertising your start-up, but that doesn't mean there aren't effective ways to get your brand popular. Just before the Internet revolution, small businesses only had a few ways to advertise their products cheaply, through methods like printing out fliers or sponsoring local events. Now there are all kinds of opportunities on the Web, you just need to know where to look and how to make the impact.
It is very important to understand business advertising before you start you ask yourself questions like :
- What's the best way to promote my business?
- How can I advertise business and get my name in front of potential prospects when money is tight?
- How can I get the word out about my business in the most affordable way?
Promoting a business is an ongoing challenge for medium and small businesses. You may be just starting out or have been in business for years, there are proven advertising and marketing strategies which will help your business find new customers without spending a huge money.
Here are the easy ways to promote your business on-line without spending a single penny.
Take the advantage of the local listing services
Register your business with Google Places allows it to be found more easily on Google searches and it shows up on Google Maps. All you have to do is fill out the form and register, then get your business verified through their confirmation process, which can be done either with a phone call or snail mail. Google also has a big database of businesses and you can use it to your advantage. As most of the places on Google portal are free and is certainly worth the few minutes it takes to set up. Social media is easy to use and you can start with easy to sign up menu.
Choose Social Media
Social media isn't just a tool to gain exposure—it has now become a necessary time investment for every business to make. You can tie in ads and offers on your Face book page and have a direct channel with your customers on Twitter. Networking on LinkedIn—both at the personal and company level—can be another way to help your start-up.
Start a Blog
A blog not only helps your company get its name out through followers but is a way to connect with your consumers more directly. But remember that one of the major keys to blogging is to keep your stream updated as frequently as you can. A dormant, abandoned blog is worth nothing.
Upload Videos on YouTube and Facebook
YouTube provides a free way to distribute creative promotional videos, but in order to succeed you must put up content that people want to view and are relevant to your business—a simple ad will not work. Even the Face book Video upload can also help you reach your target audience and create the buzz regarding your business and services. With YouTube and Face book, you can create a link directly to your website.
SEO your Company Website
Search engine optimization is an effective tool to reach the mass audience across the world, as millions of people are constantly Googling, you can make to online traffic twist your way.Grab a book or head over to an online how-to-guide on SEO and make sure your site is ready for performance on search engines.
Press releases
Every time your business does something newsworthy, don't hesitate to shoot off a press release—as the print is still the effective media. Press media is a powerful tool to use to help generate publicity, and having a free distribution of them is a bonus. There are dozens of websites out there that you can use for your press releases. Choose the newspaper with the largest circulation to ask the PR Executive to provide you with the data related to location and reading habits of the target audience. Once you have the complete info, prepare an artwork that will catch the reader’s eyes and appeal their inner conscious. People are looking for product and services with discount offers, make a strategy and a customer based scheme and put it in your press release advertisement. It is sure to give you best results. Though the electronic media has taken over and as the e-media is more cost effective, you can choose the mix and match of multiple media to generate the desired results.
Connect with Online Community and Contribute
There are hundreds and thousands of communities online that you can get involved in. But just signing up for a forum and posting every once in a while about your business isn't beneficial for anyone, and will likely just annoy people. Actively contribute and build a rapport with the community, while keeping your business out of it. Passively promote your business by putting a link in your signature or mentioning it only when the context is appropriate. Connecting with these communities will make your brand popular as it will make a mark on the blog readers mind.
The online media is a boon to all those looking for an easy and cost-effective advertising services.
The online media is the strongest tool and if used effectively, it can make your product reach your target audience.
Advertising is not new to the world but, the new age online advertising has made things easier and more powerful than ever.
If you’re advertising strategy is not right then you'll waste precious time and money. Start by identifying who your best prospects are, and then determine the best way to reach them. Be as specific as possible. Before you start, understanding your customer is very important. Know your customers, know their habits and know what they are searching on Google. Do they look for coupons in newspapers or quality and reliability? Be it online or print or any other mode of advertising, strategy and thorough study of the market is very important.