Creative Ways to Promote Your Business Online

When your startup is in its infancy you may not exactly be rolling in money. Spending big bucks on publicity may be a no-no for you. But there?s no need to fret. There are a lot of ways in which you can make your brand more visible. Thanks to the internet there are several ways for you to achieve this without emptying out your bank account. Let us take a look at some of them:

• Use local listing services: register your business with Google Places, and you?ll be amazed how easily it shows up on Google maps and SERPs. All it involves are filling out a form and registering and waiting for them to verify and confirm via telephone or email. And best of all, it won?t cost you a cent. Just a little patience till it is set up. Bing too has something similar; check it out as well.

• Leverage Social Media: It has become a necessity in today?s world to keep up with the competition. Again, creating a business page on FB or tweeting offers and updates to your audience on Twitter is totally free. You can also network with industry peers on LinkedIn.

• Blog: Blogging will help you interact with your customers and gain more publicity for your brand. Do keep in mind however that this has to be a continuous process, and not just a onetime thing.

• Post videos and images: make use of YouTube for uploading promo videos; make it interesting, wacky even so that people feel like viewing it. Flickr is a great place for you to showcase still photos for your company. Make sure the photos and videos are relevant for your business, and that you link back to your ecommerce site from the sites where you upload them. You could upload videos of events you sponsor, product launches, how-to (especially if you have products that have to be assembled), troubleshooting, and more.

• Don?t ignore SEO: make sure your business site is optimized so that Google picks it up and displays it when people search. There are several ways to do this, like using relevant keywords, using descriptors, tags, minimizing use of Flash and JavaScript and so on.

  Image from: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

• Press Release: shout out your business achievements through press releases; there are people who follow this stuff. This is a potent tool that can help you publicize your business without spending a load of money. Sites like 24/7 Press Release and PRLog are some of the reliable sites you can use for this purpose.

• Be active in online communities: every industry has online communities and forums which you can be part of. You can participate by posting about your business only occasionally (tom-tom your business here and you may find that you are tossed out), offering valuable info or solutions to customers (even if they have not bought your product as such). This will help you build relationships in the community. Ensure to include a link to your business site in your signature.

• Use QR Codes: Quick response codes can be scanned by everyone with Smartphones and this will grant them easy access to the website or FB page of your company. Using these codes on banners and outdoor signs will spread awareness about your business. Make sure you have them on flyers, visiting cards, brochures and any other material that you print. This way you have an instant interaction with your customers and they can get quick info on your products.

• Get on Pinterest: This site with its online pinboards is driving sales in a big way. You could even pin your YouTube and Vimeo videos here, in addition to still photographs. People especially love to see behind the scenes videos. You could video shoot your employees on a typical day at your business or something similar.

Andrea Walter, a freelance writer, is writing? for Buy Verizon ? Find the best Verizon fios California on tv, internet, and phone.

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Source: http://www.ebestproducts.com/2013/03/creative-ways-promote-business-online/

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