There’s more to online advertising than just placing banner ads on as many websites as possible. Back in the earliest days of the Internet, the banner ad seemed to be the be-all, end-all of advertising a business online. Fortunately, that has changed; there are now more cheap – or even completely free – ways to market your business online than ever. Not only is Internet marketing cost effective, but it can be incredibly productive as well. By taking a little bit of time to learn about the various methods of advertising online, then implement a handful of these online advertising tips. You can kick off a cheap, wonderfully effective online advertising campaign for your business by following these tried and true online advertising tips.
Ten of the best cost effective online advertising tips are outlined for your convenience below:
1. Write A Blog – You don’t have to be a great writer to create and maintain a blog. Using a free hosting service like Blogger or WordPress, create your own blog. Try to update it a couple of times a week, write articles that are related to your products and/or services. Sprinkle links to your main website throughout your blog posts wherever it makes sense to do so. In short order, you should start appearing in the search engine results and more traffic will start streaming over to your primary business website.
2. Try Some Email Marketing – While it’s true that nobody likes spam, if you’ve managed to collect the email addresses of existing and prospective customers, put them to good use by engaging in a bit of email marketing. Draft a quick, to-the-point monthly newsletter that highlights new products and services that your company offers, or alert people to big sales and other promotions that you are going to hold. The point of email advertising is getting your business name out there; the fact that it’s cheap makes it that much better.
3. Place Listings In Online Directories – Business listing websites are great places to market your company online. Many of them are completely free to use; keep in mind, though, that free listing sites aren’t always all that popular. Those that do charge – think big names, like the online Yellow Pages – usually don’t ask for very large fees. Either way, listing with them is a worthwhile investment since it will highlight the name of your business and will help you stand out from the crowd in a positive way.
4. Use Search Engine Marketing – Advertising on the major search engines is a no-brainer when it comes to increasing the exposure of your business online. Goodle AdWords is the big kahuna of such services; for a reasonable fee, your ads can appear next to relevant search results. Yahoo! Advertising is another immensely popular option. Don’t forget about Bing, too, which offers its own search engine marketing package for small businesses. No online advertising tips article would be complete without PPC marketing!
5. Take Advantage Of Free Classifieds – There are several free classified ad sites online that you can use to market your business. The most popular one, by far, is Craigslist. If your company relies on regional customers, you can place ads in those specific regions, alerting people about what you have to offer. Whether you get results or not, it’s completely free to use this service.
6. Advertise On Social Media Sites – If you own a business and want to spread the word about it online, you have to participate in various social media sites. On top of that, paying to have ads appear on popular sites like Facebook can be a very cost effective way to market your products and services to a highly targeted audience. With its millions of users, Facebook offers a huge audience to expose your company to in a quick and effective way.
7. Participate In Forums – Track down forums that are related to your industry, products and services. Make a habit of checking in with them regularly and try to provide relevant, informative input. Along with your comments, include a link back to your business website. This is a free, easy way to advertise your company online among a group of people who will actually be interested in what you have to sell…it’s also one of the easiest online advertising tips to implement.
8. Use Article Directories – Compose a handful of well-written articles on industry-related topics. Be sure to make them useful to potential customers. Although you can’t explicitly advertise your business in such articles, you can include information about your company within your “About Me” section. Submit the articles you write to online article directories to stir up some marketing-related action.
9. Become An Expert – Several websites, including www.mylot.com, allow you to share your expertise with others. While doing so, you can discreetly promote your business along with its products and services. By answering people’s questions thoughtfully and thoroughly, you can build up a great reputation that can serve to help you market your company that much more effectively online. This is one of my favorite online advertising tips!
10. Learn A Bit About SEO – SEO – or search engine optimization – refers to building your website in a way that makes it attractive to the search engines. There are many resources and online advertising tips available all over the web for learning about SEO. This technique can work as a built-in online advertising tool and can becoming more effective over time.
Online Advertising Tips Summary:
As you can see, there are many simple ways to advertise and market your business online. Online advertising does not have to mean spending an exorbitant amount of money – and effective online marketing does not have to be expensive. Familiarize yourself with the preceding tips and try as many of them out as possible. Chances are, you will arrive at a solution that involves quite a few of them. Utilize some or all of these online advertising tips and your marketing strategy will benefit enormously, and your advertising budget won’t be pushed to the max.
