In my last article we talked briefly about "free" marketing resources through social media and on-line classified ads. These platforms will give you a good start by letting potential clients know who, what, when, where and why your company exist. Now that you have your social media and on-line advertising in place, you need to begin work on other aspects of marketing your business. Here are a few tips that you can use to advertise your company on a small budget.
Creating a website is a great way to advertise. An on-line presence is so important in this age of computer literate consumers. It gives you a larger presence over a greater spectrum of perspective customers. Many consumers will search for a company through yellowpages.com or a simple Google search on the web. Having a website will allow you to register your website URL "free" through search engine submissions. This is another way for your business to get exposure to potential clients as well as adding more credibility to your business.
Here is a great tip for a very low-cost website "Office Live". For under $20 per year you can obtain a domain name and hosting. They offer basic templates to work with that are somewhat easy to use if you are not afraid to work on it yourself. If you choose to register a website through Office Live, be aware that some changes will take place after July of 2011. Office Live will be replaced with Office 365 which is Microsoft products in a web enabled environment for businesses. This will be discussed in detail in the upcoming articles.
Another great method of promoting your business is through your business card. You can hand them out everywhere you go. In the grocery store, at the gas station, at the mall, in the park… you get the point. And the best thing about business cards is that they are relatively inexpensive to purchase. Vista Print is an on-line shop for business that offers business cards and other marketing materials. Many times, Vista Print offers "free" business cards and you pay for shipping. (Note: Vista Print “free” business cards will have the words “Vista Print” printed on the back of the business card). The service is quick and reliable. They have a large enough selection of business card templates to choose from. You can design your business card right from their website and have them delivered within 10 business days. If you are planning to create a website for your business, make sure you add your website URL to you business cards.
These are just some very basic methods to promote your business on a budget. In the next article, we will discuss what to do after you have your website completed. We will touch on search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine registration; there purpose and how it can help market your business.
