Advertising your business online is a cost effective and powerful marketing tool. I compare it to having a sales person that will work for your company 24/7 allowing consumers to learn more about your product or service when it’s convenient for them. No business should be without that. But online marketing is sometimes confused with the act of having a website. This thinking will result in disappointment unless your website is followed up with an online and offline marketing campaign.
You can get one up on your competition by incorporating an online promotion into your marketing campaign, and in this article I will share some helpful tips that will help spread the word of mouth about your business.
Join a Group
Work discussion forums and chat rooms where your target consumers congregate. Sharing your expertise and participating in interactive discussions will bring visitors to your site.
Request a Link
Link popularity should be a vital part of your search engine optimization strategies.
Find prospective websites to link to then email the webmaster telling them that you’ve linked to them and respectfully ask them to link back to you in return. Make it as easy as possible for the webmaster to link to you by including the link code in the email or providing a page on your site with instructions and the code that can just be copied and pasted into their site makes linking to you extremely easy.
Add Your Link
List your site with online classifieds. Some suggestions are:
BizHwy.com
BizHwy is an online business directory developed to be easily indexed by the search engines to promote business listings for a specific city and state. Businesses can add their listing to their business directory for free.
StartUpBiz.com
First listing is free. You are even given the option to add one photo or image with your ad. Several categories to choose from.
SuperPages.com
Verizon offers free online ads to U.S. businesses. Other online yellow page websites will obtain new listings from Superpages and will link back to your website also.
With a little research you can find sites that advertise links in specific fields.
Email Marketing
Establish your presence as an expert in your industry by offering a free newsletter or start an email list of customers and periodically email them special offers and preferred customer discounts.
Use a Web Counter
This is useful in tracking the number of visitors to your website, and finding out which referrer sends you the most sales. Many will also track other statistics such as the number of visits each hour and each day, track keyword phrases that are being used in search engines and collect data about the operating systems and browsers of your visitors. The cost for web counters can range anywhere from free on up. Check with your ISP to see if they offer this service. Other options include software or online services.