Are you a company that has a low advertising budget? If so, there are a
variety of fairly new low-cost advertising and promotional tools that you can
use. If you have a business and you want to expand your territory but cannot
afford to plant stores all around, you can take advantage of the Internet's
many free or low-cost tools. Nearly everyone in business is on the Internet
now, and they enjoy the convenience and ease of buying from or learning more
about your business online. Give your customers what they want by having a
sound presence online.
Steps:
1. Set up your own website. You can either set up
your own website or you can pay someone to set it up for you. You can usually
have a nice website designed by yourself for as little as $5.00 per month plus
yearly registration of your domain name, the website address. If you are a Indian national check out BIGROCK. Domain registration is as low as $2 per year or check the GoDaddy .Most importantly,
your website needs to have easily navigated layouts, be filled with useful and
interesting information, and be free of junk or unhelpful things. Avoid using
anything that will discourage a customer from lingering; this is one time when
some upfront paid advice from a web designer can be well worth it and will pay
itself back in no time.- Besides just information about your business and your sales basket, what else can you offer? Think of adding articles, individual stories about staff and company events, how-to information using your products or services, lessons learned anecdotes, freebies such as downloadable craft tutorials or a free eBook, etc. Be generous and your customers will be impressed, checking back regularly for more. Submit your website name to many website directories. You can search the Internet for free website directories and you will find quite a few links to places where you can advertise.
2. Use pay per click advertising. Advertising
online has a large reach and is the way many sites thrive or even survive
online. You can set a price that you would be willing to pay every time someone
clicks on an ad that you write. You only have to pay this when someone clicks
on your ad. If no one clicks on your ad, you do not have to pay. These ad
formats allow you to set up a daily advertising budget and you have the freedom
to cancel and restart your ads any time you want.- Use 'sidebar ads'. These display ads while people are playing games. Consider also expanding into ads on apps for smart phones and electronic tablets.
- Use Google ads on the side of your Google bar. If you type in something, then it will come up on the right side of your search results as small ads.
- Be considerate about placement of ads on your website and be careful about the types of ads you're willing to have shown on your website. Do you really want your competitor's ads showing up?
3.Use YouTube to promote your business. Perhaps one of the most popular and creative way to show more
information about your business is to use videos. Some examples of how to do
this include:- Upload a video of your company, and put on as many links as you can from all sorts of topics so as many people as possible see it.
- Videotape launches and other public events promoted by your business so that clients who couldn't make these events are still able to catch up on what happened.
- Video how-to information related to your business, so that when someone is looking how to solve a problem your business has knowledge of, they find your video answer and learn more about you. Self-help videos on common, basic problems can be a great way to show your business's sharing side and to garner interest from potential new customers.
- Create an ongoing story line showing customers using and enjoying your products or services. This may require a little more work but stories rope people in and they're far more likely to remember your business if there's a regular mini soap opera to tune into!
4.Participate in forums and blogs. This is
one way to help promote your product or services, showing yourself as an expert
and as someone who genuinely wants to help resolve people's problems. Often you
can do this for free. However, this option has one huge caveat––be sure to post
in forums that are website promotion friendly if you intend on using your URL
or emblazoning the post with your business details. Not all blog sites or
forums allow promotion blog or forum posts and breaching this could see your
business blocked and even badmouthed. In some cases you may have to pay a fee
to advertise on their sites but usually you do not. In many cases, simply
stating that you're the founder/owner/director/community manager, etc. of a
certain site can be sufficient to alert people to the good your company is
doing online. Let them do the rest of the adding up and finding of
you––consumers are intelligent.
Make use of user pages on
sites that allow this. It can be a great way to promote your business,
especially if you contribute information to the website that in turn leads
readers back to your user page for more details.
5.Use email marketing. You can
create lists of customers, or potential customers that you can keep in touch
with on a regular basis. However, be aware that many recipients regard this as
spamming and may complain. Always seek to get the agreement of customers to be
emailed first, and always take into account spamming laws, which detail that
you're not allowed to send people information they do not want. It makes good
business sense to only send information to people who want to hear about your
products or services and not to those who do not. These e-mailings can all be
sent out in bulk, as if you were sending them through postal mail.
Spend a lot of time making
emailed information worth the recipient's time. Prepare a newsletter filled
with useful information about living life in general, or with humorous
anecdotes, etc.; don't just email updates about your business and marketing
pitches. Be subtle!
6.Get on Facebook. if
you're not already there. Even if your business does have a Facebook account,
make sure it is optimized to get the most from it. Use Facebook ads, updates
and Fan pages to keep fans posted on your business happenings.
- As a business, just be careful to get your business a Facebook Page and not a Profile; profiles are for individual people only and they are limited in what you can do as a business. Moreover, if Facebook discovers you using a profile as a business, you stand to lose the whole profile and all the friends your business has accrued.
- Keep updates relevant and interesting. Don't just talk about your business though; share anecdotes, news items, comments about things seen on fan's pages, images, etc.
- Hold little competitions for customers to win small prizes. For example, if your business makes Eco-friendly items, have fans answer a quiz or send in photos of themselves doing something sustainable in order to win one of your Eco-products. Follow up with a photo of the winner holding your product; make use of every opportunity to interact with fans online. Do not involve Facebook buttons such as "Like", "Share", and "Tag" as part of any contest though; this is against Facebook terms of service.
7.Take your business to Twitter. Get a
good Twitter handle for your business and start tweeting updates. However,
remember that Twitter is a conversation, not just a place to push your products
or services. Be sure to instruct employees to interact with online fans.
- For a small business, the best policy is to cover what's expected of online interaction, then ask your employees to use their best judgment when using an aggregated Twitter account. This builds trust and self-monitoring and will help to keep the flow of conversation going well for your business. The only exception to an aggregate Twitter account is for an employee you don't trust. In which case, why don't you trust this person? Does this person really belong on your team or is it simply a case that they've a lot to learn yet? Be honest with yourself.
- Seek insight from those following you. Ask them questions to find out what they want from your business, whether it's more, something different or for your business to stop doing something. These insights are invaluable information and are part of the conversation flow.
- Encourage sharing of your Twitter information by making it interesting and worth people's while. As well as business information, share a few random fun things too, like photos, inspirational messages and charity efforts your business is involved in.
- Add tweets to your website so that customers can see real time what is getting tweeted about your business.
- You don't need to be sitting around tweeting all day. Use a tweet schedule service like TweetLater or Hootsuite to schedule your tweets to appear when you'd like them to, all while you're doing other things. This lets you take advantage of different time zones around the world too. If you ask for email digests, you can check these in good time and respond to someone who has tweeted, sooner rather than later, if needed. Moreover, email digests allow you to track trends and topics on Twitter that are of importance to your business.
8.Become a part of Pinterest.
Pinterest has created an platform for visual social media input and your
company can make the most of this by feeding in well taken photos of your
business products and other relevant images. Make them interesting, compelling
and shareable though; some creative effort will need to be put into the photos
to make Pinterest users want to share the photos around. As with any
advertising, focus on what makes your products interesting and desirable and
try to capture that in photographs.- Crowdsource using Pinterest. A creative way to get the crowd to promote your products for you is to ask your Pinterest followers to pin pictures of themselves holding, using or standing near a product of yours. Repin these onto your "beloved customers" (or some such) board. This gives your customers the chance to feel that they've been noticed and cared about and it also tells future customers that people use your products––and love them!
- Encourage your employees to pin pictures from your website or of official events to spread among their friends. Ask that they include a socially relevant comment to help engage others looking at the pinned photo or image but don't direct them; they're more likely to know what to do innately than any directives could ever establish!
9.Go on Google+ Business Pages. A more
recent stream of consciousness in the world of social media, your business
really should be here as well as on Twitter and Facebook. It's still unfolding
and this is a niche time to establish your business' presence. Join groups,
share photos and information and link up with your customers in Google
Hangouts.
10.Use surveymonkey to get
much needed insights for your business. You can link to surveymonkey surveys
using your website, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ accounts. And get
this––almost every person loves a survey. Ask people directly what they want
and you'll find out in no time.
Ask for feedback on
products, services and promotions. Be prepared for honesty!Keep the survey short and
interesting.
11.Keep social media interactions
meaningful and considerate. Social media is a great tool for businesses but it
can also be misused and create follower fatigue, unlikes and unfollows and
general annoyance if misused. As part of this:
- See your fans and followers as people first, customers second. Make that vital connection as human-to-human because this is what online social media acolytes expect and they're far from impressed from a business that assumes superiority. Befriend people, follow them and take an interest in them as much as you expect the same back. Interact and talk the talk with them; don't simply assume that because you're selling something that they want that that is all you need to do online.
- Provide meaningful content that matters. What you share, say and produce online must have resonance for your followers and not be a slavish reproduction of "buy our product". Link with people and organizations that your brand should be linked with and share their content around too, and converse with them openly online.
- Be knowledgeable rather than jumping on bandwagons. Hashtags on Twitter and Facebook campaigns can be compelling. But do they match what your brand is trying to say? Often it's better to wait until all the facts are out before throwing your weight behind a cause that simply springs up online overnight.
- While it is important to trust those of your employees who are representing you on social media, be sure that they "get" what it means to connect and interact with others online. Don't force employees to do it if they're uncomfortable or show any signs of irritability or cynicism. Your business cannot afford rudeness or faux pas caused by lack of motivation.
- Learn from errors made using social media and online resources. Mistakes will happen and your business will recover from them. Learn the lessons these incidents teach you and don't repeat them.
Tips
- Usually in order to set up your
own website for your business you need to purchase both a web hosting
program, which, as mentioned above, can be purchased for as cheap as
USD$5.00 a month. Usually a great package deal for a website can be
purchased for about USD$10.00-15.00 a month. Also, you can purchase online
store sites, also called e-commerce sites, which usually average in price
of about USD$60.00 a month.
- Even though advertising on the
Internet can still cost money, the beauty of advertising and have your
store stationed on the Internet is that you do not have to spend large
amounts of money on paper advertising. Furthermore, you do not waste as
much natural resources such as trees and plastic when you promote over the
Internet. And you can advertise more in-house than having to use more
expensive advertising agencies to do the work for you.
- You can also keep business cards
in local stores, mail out flyers to residents when you're having a sale,
get listed in a business directory if your town has one, pin up posters,
and more. In each case of print advertising, add your website, Twitter and
Facebook addresses so that people can find out more online.
- Be creative with your marketing,
and you will save time and money.
- Another way to advertise to visit
workshops associated with your business. There you can network with others
in your business and get ideas on what works and what doesn’t. Studying
your competition is a great way to see what you are up against, and even
learn from their mistakes! Create an email account, wiki or Facebook group
to stay in touch with the people you've met on these occasions.
- Remember your business basics. The
best form of advertising is free––that's word of mouth. If you're an
excellent business with superior customer service, your customers will
tell everyone they know about their experience. That makes their friends
and family remember your business name when they are in need of your
products and/or services.
- To keep an eye on your tweets if
you're using Firefox, use the TwitterFox extension to save you having to
open Twitter all of the time.
- Do not neglect the webinar as a
valuable way to promote your company. People love webinars; they feel a
part of something bigger and they're learning something for nothing. There
are some great webinar programs online that don't take long to learn; all
you need to do is decide some decent topics to hold a webinar on.
Warnings
- Online consumers are savvy, smart
and wise to socially unintelligent business interaction. Treat customers
as you would strangers you want to make a good impression on. Don't try to
fool them, be open and honest and don't expect every person who interacts
with your business to buy but at least leave them with a good impression
of your ethos and intentions. Some people will find their way back to your
company when you least expect it if you've treated them well and given
them an experience that was fun, interesting and acknowledged them as an
individual of importance regardless of their consumer status.
- Be mindful that not everyone can access online content. For example, the visually impaired have a much harder time engaging with online content and social media. And then there are people who simply don't want to go online or be there for long––this represents a reasonable amount of the community still! Don't leave these people out of your promotion strategies.
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