How to Save on Your Advertising
Taking cover and scaling back on your advertising is the normal business reaction to what is happening in our economy today. With people trying to save money on high gas prices and looking for great deals, more and more are choosing the internet as their shopping alternative. As a business owner, there are many ways to continue promoting your web site online without having to spend a fortune! Here are some simple ideas and tips to consider during these difficult times:
- Improve Search Engine Rankings- One of the biggest areas of your online marketing; having good rankings among the search engines is essential and can pay off if done properly. If you need to hire an SEO Company do so with caution. Avoid the site that “Guarantee first page rankings”. No reputable SEO Company can do that without either bidding for placement (AKA Pay Per Click) or some type of trick that can either harm your rankings over time or obtain the wrong type of visitors. Search Engine Optimization is a process that will take time, and should be done by a reputable company with experience.
- Blogging- This is a FREE way to promote your site, services or products. Setting up a blog is easy and it can be done via your site or other blog locations such as blogger.com or wordpress.com
- Articles- Write about your services or products and submit to article sites. Most of these are free, but a few may require a small membership. Articles allow you to be the authority on your service or product and it also provides a way to link back to your website- free traffic!
- Press Releases- Online PR is a bit different than traditional. One of the biggest advantages includes having copy (text) that links back to your site which in turn can increase your search engine rankings. Online PR can also be posted within search engine rankings especially in Google. Submitting your PR can cost anywhere from $60-$600. There are some free areas as well.
- Smaller-Localized Pay per Click- If you currently run a PPC campaign but it’s costing you more than your selling, consider consolidating it to a smaller campaign or even target your local market. Another option is to focus on 2-3 of your main products or services that bring in the most money.
- Social Networking- Sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace are all becoming a great tool for online businesses. Use it to promote services, gain feedback on products or ideas, as well as advertising (Facebook for example has their own pay per click program at affordable rates). Youtube is another form of marketing to consider for your business. Be creative!
- Email Marketing- Still a viable form of marketing, if you have generated a list of clients over time (those who have purchased from you before or have requested to receive newsletters and information) you can safely send promotions, general newsletters and announcements to them. This can be an affordable way to remind them that you are here, and you may have a great service or product to offer them at this time. Make sure you use either a company that offers email marketing or a vendor that is reliable in this industry such as Constantcontact.com.
We definitely have some bumpy roads ahead of us, but if you invest your time and money wisely, you can still make money in this weak economy. Let us at Big Shark Marketing help you with a FREE Web Site analysis today and see where simple updates and modifications can make a difference in your web business.
