There are many ways to promote your business on the internet without having to spend tons of cash on advertising. You may not have wads of cash when you are starting out your business venture, but with a little bit of creativity you can still effectively advertise your products and services online. Before the advent of internet, small businesses had only a few ways to market their products cheaply, using methods like printing out and distributing fliers or by sponsoring local events. Now there is a big world of opportunities open for you on the world wide web – you just need to know where to look.
Let us discuss below a few ways to promote your business online without needing to spend lot of money.
1. Register with Google, Bing & Yahoo – The first step which you shouldn’t skip is to register your business with ‘Google Places’. This will allow your business to show up on Google Maps as well as be found easily on Google searches. The process is very easy – all you have to do is fill up a simple form and then verify yourself through either phone or email. Also register your business with ‘Yahoo Local’ and Bing as these 3 are the leading search engines and they have huge databases of businesses from around the world.
2. Press releases – Whenever your business does something which is newsworthy, do not hesitate to make a public announcement of it through a press release. Press releases can be very effective in generating publicity for your business. There are many news websites which allow businesses to submit free press releases. Try out sites like ‘PRLog’ or ’24/7 Press Release’. If you want added exposure you can go with paid press release distribution.
3. Participate in online communities – You can find online communities in almost every possible niche where people gather to discuss problems and other things related to that niche. Register an account at a few of these online community sites. They are usually free to join. You can get awesome amount of exposure through active participation on these community sites. You can passively promote your business through a link in the signature or by mentioning about your website whenever the context is appropriate.
4. Photo-Sharing and video sites – Sites like YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and Flickr are not just for photographers or teenagers alone. Any business can make use of these sites to generate traffic and get free exposure. You can post images or videos of your office, staff, events, products or any other newsworthy content related to your business.