7 Ways To Promote Your Small Business

In today’s relentlessly dense and obnoxious business environment, good marketing means everything. Seriously, regardless of how a certain small business may be good at what it is doing or what kind of revolutionary product it may have down the line, if that business is not able to attract some level of attention, it will soon be overshadowed by its competition, or never be noticed at all. Let us take a look at some of the cost-effective ways of how this unfortunate outcome can be avoided.

Set up a Website

Today’s market is a global fighting arena; you cannot possibly hope to compete in such environment if you ignore the opportunities online marketing has to offer. Good-looking, easy-to-navigate and mobile-ready website is the alpha and omega of every meaningful online marketing campaign, so be sure to set one up. If you are afraid that you are not going to be able to pay and maintain a website, do not worry. There are more than enough free website builders that will allow you to create your website with nothing more than just a little bit of patience.

Register Your Business Online

If you register your business with Google Places, it will become easier to find on Google searches, and will also show up in the immensely popular Google Maps. This registration is completely free and all you have to do is to fill out the necessary form and register, and go through the confirmation process. Yahoo! And Microsoft’s very own Bing offer similar services, so be sure to check them out, too.

Find a Foothold in the Social Media

Establishing strong social media presence can do wonders for your website’s traffic and all future marketing initiatives. Keep in mind this, though – all of your profiles should feature a link to your website, along with a good description of you or your company. Also, although a multitude of people have profiles on more than one social network, each particular network has its own sensibility you will have to crack in order to tap into its audience.

Create Useful Content

Be it in the form of a blog, free eBooks on the subject of your niche, or various instructional videos and manuals; just be sure to offer your visitor something besides sheer products. This way your website will appeal not only to your customers, but also to people who are currently not interested in buying your products, or even the ones who never heard of your business before.

Attend the Trade Shows

This move may cost you a few bucks, but if you are a smart spender, that money will return big time. What you should do to make the attendance successful is to prioritize the location and the quality of the presentation over some gimmicky things, like the look or the size of the booth. The promotional material that you are going to distribute should follow the same rules. Speaking of…

Use Promotional Products

With all the marketing focus constantly being on the online arena, people sometimes tend to forget just how valuable good promotional products can be. They are cheap, produce great ROI and grant great exposure. Just offer your customers some incentive to share with their friends or to redeem at your store, and you can use everything, ranging from simple T-shirts to prepaid Visa gift cards to your advantage.

Encourage the Word-of-mouth

Did you know that 88% of consumers trust online reviews just as much as personal recommendations? Encourage, then, your customers to write the review of your products on your website, or share the experience of using your products on social media to earn more positive word-of-mouth.

If you follow these few tips, your business should be able to find some space on today’s crowded business landscape, which is a success by itself. What you will do from there on is only up to you.