Marketing Your Online Business
Online marketing can often be expensive, very expensive. This has discouraged many a small business and led to many people just giving up. How do you compete with big business when they have a seemingly limitless budget?
Easy, with creativity and perseverance. You do not need more money for ads, you just need these two things. You can still scratch out a nice living on the internet without spending a fortune. Here are some cheap and often free ways to drum up some online business. As a small business owner, you should be taking advantage of all 7 things below if they apply to you.
1. Fiverr
If you sell digital services like website creation, logo design or even voiceover work, you need to look into Fiverr. You can make way more than five dollars.
Sure, you have the lowball service providers charging bare minimum but if you do good work, you can build a good reputation and start charging much more than the average Fiverr merchant. If you look closely, there are actually gigs on Fiverr that start at more than 1000 dollars.
The trick with Fiverr is luring people in with the five dollar price and then getting them to purchase extras. Getting them to purchase extras is easy. During the checkout process, they will be able to see all the little extras and if you are convincing enough, they will bite. In addition, after the gig is over, you can offer them a more advanced service for a higher price. If they like your original work, chances are good that they will buy more from you, even if it costs more.
Since Fiverr is one of the largest digital marketplaces on the internet, if you offer a digital service, it would be a mistake to ignore them.
2. Etsy
If your business is more related to craft work, Etsy is a great place to list your services. Things like printing and graphics sell well on this website. They take a cut of the action but you would reach customers that you would have never otherwise found.
Not only does Etsy have a strong search engine presence but it also has a huge following. People who start their search for product on the Etsy website. Why? Because they know that it is the best place to find customized pieces.
3. Craigslist
Craigslist is free to use so you should absolutely take advantage of it. The only problem with Craigslist is that, well, its free. This means that it is crowded and full of spammers.
To stand out, you need to have multiple listings. To do this, you need patience. You can not create a lot of ads at once or you will get banned or “ghosted” by Craigslist. Ghosting is a practice that they use where you can see your ads but nobody else can.
Instead, first create an account. Then place two ads a day in two separate categories. Do that every day and as they expire, you can start renewing them. The renewals do not go against your daily posting limits, so once you start renewing ads, that is when you start getting a lot of listings. It takes patience ant time, In about a 3 month time period, you will have a nice collection of ads on the website promoting your products or services.
You may not get a lot of work through Craiglslist, but it is free so do not ignore it. As a small business owner you must take advantage of all free advertising.
4. Facebook
This is an area where you can really drum up some business.
You have a big advantage with Facebook that large businesses do not have. A large company will have a Facebook presence but it is usually very impersonal and cookie cutter.
You, on the other hand, can use your friend base to create an active community that is involved with your business. When people refer your business on Facebook, they will be referring a friend to another friend. This kind of recommendation goes a lot further.
So, if you have a personal Facebook presence, be sure to use it to your advantage. Create a business account and then tell all of your friends about it and get them to like you.
5. Twitter
Another great community platform that you can use to promote your online business.
With twitter, you need to make sure that your tweets are truly entertaining and of course, non offensive. Once you start a business, your ability to be edgy is limited severely.
Try not to make every tweet about your business and you should be successful in drumming up business with twitter. Make your tweets something that people want to read and then pepper in a few business tweets now and then.
6. YouTube
Video is becoming increasingly popular as the internet community increasingly wants to have things spoon fed to them. The easiest way to accomplish that is with video and this could be a good thing for you.
Create short tutorial videos on YouTube related to your online service. You can then place links to your website in the description box that is under each video. If your video gets attention, you will get traffic.
If you are good enough with your videos, you could even develop a nice little following and then the money will really start to flow.
7. Relevant Forums
Find industry related forums and start posting, just don’t go right into marketing yourself.
You need to prove your worth first or the online community will shun you and the forum owner might just ban you. Develop a reputation as someone who is familiar with your particular niche.
After a bit of time, throw up a simple signature that lists your business. Then you can just let the people come to you without being pushy or trying to sell yourself.
