Deciding how to advertise your business is a delicate matter. When it comes to having success in business, the biggest hurdle, despite how good your product or service is, is finding clients. For most small business owners, finding capital to launch successful advertising campaigns, is usually impossible. What many small business owners tend to do is rely on word-of-mouth advertising to grow their business and clientele. While word-of-mouth advertising can be a very effective form of marketing it usually won’t get you very far. If you really want to have a thriving business you need to advertise.
The question is, “What does a small business owner do for advertising if he or she doesn’t have any money?” If this is you, and you are wondering how to advertise your business for free, then I think you’ll find this post most helpful.
First of all, the best free forms of advertising exist on the internet. In fact, I would go so far to say that you should spend 100% of your advertising time on internet marketing. Even if people hear about a product or service on the television or radio, research shows that they end up online to gather more information in order to make a purchase decision.
When approaching how to advertise your business on the internet for free, the first question you need to ask yourself is, “Is anyone looking for my product or service online?” To determine this you’ll want to use a free tool by Google. This tool will allow you to type in search terms and see how much monthly traffic they get. When you find that people are indeed searching for your type of business, then the internet will more than likely be a great match for your business. Now, there are several great ways to advertise your business online for free.
Google Places is a fabulous free way to advertise your business on Google. With Google Places, you create a free account, simply tell Google a bit about your business, and they send you a postcard to validate your business location. Once you receive the postcard, you take the code from the postcard, log in to your Google Places account, and enter it. That’s it. Your website can now appear at the top of Google for related searches. Ever see the Google listings with little red flags next to them? Those are Google Places listings, and they are absolutely free.
Craigslist is another excellent free place to promote your business online. You simply find your location and category, and you can post an ad about your company.
If you’re willing to invest the time, you can actually get your website ranked high on Google for particular key phrases. While it takes time, once you’re ranked, all the traffic you get is free. Read my SEO post on getting your site ranked on Google. This is really, in my opinion, the best way how to advertise your business on the internet.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }