Promoting Your Business

How do you promote your small business at the lowest cost and for maximum effectiveness?

Yellow Pages
Once upon a time, every business paid for inclusion in the big yellow book. Today, most people recycle the yellow pages the instant it’s delivered. A listing on the directory’s website, with a link to your own website, is becoming the favorite purchase of small business owners. A web directory listing gives your business website some authority for search engines. It tells Google, Bing and Yahoo and generally boosts the performance of your website in search results.

Your Website
You must have a website. First, ensure that your site has been optimized for search engines and usability. Take the time to create plenty of articles about what you do, but don’t try to cram everything onto a single page. Your home page should provide an overview of what your company does, with optimized title tags, description and keywords.

Social Networking
Many of your existing and prospective customers use social networking sites on a regular basis. By incorporating the use of these sites in your marketing, you enable people to share information about your company and in particular, to recommend it.
The average Facebook user has 130 Facebook “friends”. By creating something that your customers would want to share with their friends, you are creating the opportunity for your customers to tell 130 people about your company. This is great advertising that costs nothing.

Vehicle Graphics
If you have a vehicle, even one that you don’t use in the business, consider having vehicle graphics applied. Website addresses are easier to remember than phone numbers, so with a short, eye-catching message and a link to your website, your vehicle can be an effective advertisement used to drive many new prospective customers to your website.

Leaflets
Leaflets are cheap, with some outrageous value-for-money deals out there. When developing a leaflet or flyer strategy, remember that often a single leaflet is not enough. Pizza delivery companies know this, which is why they typically deliver a menu every month to their surrounding neighborhoods. Repetition is the key because flyers are often looked at for a second before the recipient decides whether or not to act on the information and to keep the leaflet.

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