Guides

8 Ways to Promote your Business Online

Content Manager

Krasnova Margarita

Content Manager

August 30
2021
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Do you constantly keep looking for ways to promote your business online? More probably, you would be happy to spend some money on promotion, but do not have enough at your disposal at the current moment.

This is a very common problem business owners face. Trust us: many entrepreneurs struggle with a lack of funds and creativity to make their ads work. However, this is not a reason to give up. Everyone has their ups and downs. The Internet allows entrepreneurs to promote their business very efficiently yet spending little money — or even for free.

In this article, we will give you some advice on how to promote your business online without spending too much. The time to get visible has come. The promotion methods listed below will help you attract new customers and increase their loyalty.

1. Set Up a Website

The first step to take for promoting your business on the Internet is to set up a website. Regardless of your services’ high quality and your devotion to the project, people have to learn about them somehow. Imagine (you probably won’t have to, as this is your reality) you run a small store with few customers. How do you promote it? Put a standing board, hire a promoter? Today, the Internet provides business owners with other options, and the website is on top of that list.

The website is a business’ signature line. It should contain all the relevant information on the services you deliver, a contact form, and your location. Because if you wonder how to be successful on the Internet, you should have something to promote!

The website represents your business as is. Bear in mind that before deciding on a purchase, 88% of people go online to gather information about a service provider and to see some feedback. It is at the stage of browsing the Internet that people decide whether they want to buy from you or not.

2. Social Media Presence

Presence on social media rapidly increases the business’ weight in the eyes of consumers. People have an impression that the company’s active pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, etc. have somebody behind them, meaning that business owners do care about their public image. Moreover, these media are an inexhaustible source of new visitors, as you have the opportunity to invite friends and colleagues to join the company’s pages.

Social networks allow gathering a vast audience around your project. Facebook, or Facebook Touch alone has 2.7 billion active monthly users. Of course, it does not mean these are all yours, but you still have a great platform to work with. Do not forget to put popular hashtags in texts and add CTAs (call-to-action) at the end of blog posts.

Viral content gains popularity very quickly. We would say that active social media accounts stay afloat mainly thanks to viral content. However, even if you are not a professional in newsjacking, the advice for you is to post regularly, preferably with equal intervals between posts. Pages with content submitted rarely stop being promoted by the social networks’ algorithms and fall into oblivion. Do you need it? Perhaps you do not. Thus, prepare posts in advance, or even better — draft a content plan for future publications.

Managing user feedback on social media helps new visitors form an opinion about your communication style. Community management is frequently underestimated. Still, you should not ignore a single comment or question left under your posts, so consider setting up an auto reply to Facebook comments, etc."

Also, most social networks allow posting stories — short videos or images displayed on the top of the news feed. They are stored on the servers for 24 hours and disappear after. Today, most people tend to focus on stories more than on their news feed, so posting stories regularly will certainly increase the brand’s visibility and build strong relationships with your subscribers.

3. How Brand Identity Can Help Business Grow

Another feature to help your business is brand identity. Being one of the most efficient ways to promote your business on the Internet, it also takes much effort. It is not easy to come up with a logo, brand slogan, and brand story that would attract potential customers and stick in their memory.

As a business owner, you should not be afraid to show up on the Internet pages yourself. Real people tend to evoke more credibility in others compared to digital characters or posts with no personality behind them. More and more frequently, people subscribe to an actual person rather than content alone. Be sure that you can become an excellent advertisement tool yourself. A real person is someone people can trust. Plus, this is what influencer marketing is about.

4. Email Signature for Promotion

For efficient communication, mind working out an email signature. A great way how to promote your business via email is by leaving a link to your webpage in a signature added to letters automatically. Now, everyone you communicate with will receive your link along with the letter content. The link can redirect not only to the website, but also to hot offers or any other relevant information about the business.

You can also put a promotional banner into your signature, adding your business’ logo on it. This is a useful instrument for building brand awareness that will distinguish your emails from others. More than that: email marketing strategies allows you to promote business for free. Be sure to add a CTA on the banner as well, so that the person seeing it knows what to do!

5. Put Business on the Map

Have you ever paid attention to places’ ratings on Google Maps? You probably have, as these yellow stars often help us decide if we want to visit some establishment or not. We generally tend to go for those having a higher rating. In the reviews, customers share both positive and negative experiences, and Google encourages their enthusiasm by introducing users’ levels of expertise.

So, the first thing you should do for additional promotion is to put your business on the map if you have a physical office. It will make you more visible in the neighborhood and nearby districts. In the venue’s description, specify the company name, exact address, your website, phone number, and business hours. The more detailed information you give, the better for you. People like information to be evident and easily accessible; if you make them lurk, they will probably lose all their interest in your product or service and go to your competitors.

Care to add some photos of your location for customers to find you easily. Sometimes, especially in jammed districts, people may struggle to find a specific location, so why not help them by adding pictures?

Encourage visitors to leave feedback on Google Maps. For example, offer a discount in exchange for review submission. This will make your location profile more complete, and customers will probably return to use their discount.

6. Create Videos

These should not be evidently promotional, like a TV ad. In these videos, try to look natural and not too orchestrated. Today’s people value real human interaction highly, so creating lively content is your main concern. Videos help promote a product or brand via building interpersonal relationships with customers. The statistics are impressive: businesses that use videos in their marketing strategy attract 66% more interested leads a year. The audience loves video content and is willing to consume it, that’s for sure.

What to film is the question. You may create a whole blog online. A video should demonstrate your product, which is beneficial for you, yet be useful for viewers. On your video blog, you can show how your enterprise runs, what types of products you make, and what story is behind your brand name. Modern smartphones allow filming decent quality videos practically anywhere, so all you basically need is an idea, making the filming itself free. We did not lie, having said you would not have to spend a lot!

7. Advertising Spaces on Google, Bing, Yahoo

Advertising space on such platforms as Google, Bing, and Yahoo is a golden dream of many entrepreneurs trying to promote business on the Internet. Why so? Everyone knows how important it is to promote business on the Internet to increase sales. And all of these entrepreneurs face the same question of how to get such space. The solution is very simple.

You will need to perform a search using engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo. After that, you will get a list of companies that might help you with advertising. Contact them and make sure they offer a free trial; as you probably own a small business, you do not have to spend much money at first. However, if you already have a website for your business, other options may be suitable for you. Look through the packages these companies offer and look into services included like Google AdWords, Google AdSense.

Having decided on which company you opt for to market an online business, it is time to make sure you know all the requirements of the selected company. Getting a package from one of these giants is a responsible step, so you definitely do not want to screw it up.

8. SEO: Why Is It Important for Business Website Advertisement?

The SEO abbreviation stands for Search Engine Optimization, but for website owners, these are more than just words. Thanks to SEO, it is easier for people to find you online. How does SEO work eventually?

Remember that texts on your website are meant not only for people, but for search engines as well. You need to make your texts readable for the first and clear for the latter at the same time. Texts should be rich in keywords and meta tags, which are very important for your website ranking on search engines. For example, if you sell doors, the request leading to your website would be “buy doors” in a specific city.

When a potential client is searching for a service or product like yours, they will probably come across many webpages on the same issue. Many door sellers will appear once you make the above request. To hit the first pages of search results, fill your website with highly searched keywords. The more your website is optimized, the more chances it has to get a lot of traffic — and attract new customers.

Remember that the results of search engines optimization will not become evident until some time. Search engines usually need up to several weeks to index-link every single page of your website and update the results ranking. So do not give up if your labor does not bear fruit in the first days. Let the engines take their time, and make further decisions once you are totally sure that you have not done enough. Alternatively, go for help from a SEO company.

Conclusion

In fact, there are so many promotional opportunities for small and local businesses. In the article, we have listed such ways to promote business online in 2021 as: setting up a website, posting on social networks, creating brand identity, using an email signature, putting your location on the map, creating video content, buying ads packages from search engines, and SEO.

We are glad that you are looking for ways to promote your business online. Having built a marketing strategy following our recommendations, you may significantly increase the KPIs and make your brand more recognizable. Do not underestimate the importance of marketing. Online tools are what will make your business visible, attracting people from around the world. Advertising the business is the key for entrepreneurs who struggle to survive. Anyway, surviving is not something you want to do, don’t you?

To conclude, the Internet has brought promotion to a new level, having given entrepreneurs many opportunities and places to promote their businesses. Indeed, ads in the newspapers and on TV are extremely costly and require a lot of manpower. So why not take advantage of the opportunities we have thanks to the Internet and grow business bigger today?