With millions of internet users and potential customers online these days, it is imperative that you advertise your business online. After all, what would be the point of having a beautiful website design if no one sees your showcase of products or services? There are unlimited resources you can use to expand your business to local customers and clients.
This article will cover specific areas where you can advertise and market your business. Budget or no budget, this will really help your business. Please note that this is not a complete list of areas where you can advertise online, but rather the most useful and important of the many options available to small and medium-sized businesses.
First, let’s cover free services.
* Online classifieds. The most popular free classifieds sites are Craigslist and Kijiji. Before posting, we recommend that you take a look at the niche market you are targeting to see how your competitors are writing effective ads.
* Directories for indexing your website. Examples of this type of networks are Cylex and MerchantCircle
* Google places. You can add your business to Google Places for free. Google Places works in conjunction with Google Maps so potential customers can search for your business address and phone number and get a map of your location.
* Facebook fan pages. Fanpages are not the same as using your Facebook profile. Fan pages allow you to customize with graphics for your business, track people who liked your fan page, and Google indexes fan pages. Did you know that you can send notifications to all your fans?
Resources that will cost you money,
* Look for charity websites that provide a link to their website in exchange for a tax-deductible donation. This will show your business as a sponsor and provide a backlink to your website that has value for your search engine ranking.
*Facebook ads. Facebook allows business owners to advertise on its ad network. It is estimated that there are currently 800 million active users. You can even customize your ads to only show in the area of your choice. That is, you live in Belleville, you can customize your ad account to show ads to users who are from Belleville. More specific and, in fact, more effective.
*Google ads. Google is another popular medium to showcase your business. Like Facebook, you can customize which geographic locations your ads will show in.
* 411.ca and yellowpages.com Print media is much less popular than it used to be, which means that very few people use phone books and yellow pages. You must have a 411.ca or yellow pages listing for your business.
Whether you are a designer, renovator, or scrap booker, you need to turn your attention to the huge amount of business you can get from the online community.