Advertising is a critical fundamental for the success of any business, big or small. It is one of the imperative aspects that often determine whether a business prospers of falters. The advertising effort takes up a considerable portion of the business’ operating expenses. In these tough post-recession days, every business is inclined to limit its expenditure and, as such, cost-trimming has become the order of the day. Advertising on a budget may not produce the desired optimal results but there are options that can supplement this effort. The best thing about these options is that they are free.
While free advertising may be music to many business owners’ ears, it is prudent to remember that advertising shouldn’t be seen as an expense per se but rather as an investment. It therefore follows that a business should not solely rely on free advertising, but as much as possible the best approach would be to use a combination of advertising strategies. In the same vein, it is apt to realize that not all free advertising strategies work to the same efficacy for all businesses. A rotation of different free advertising options is the best way forward.
Below are some of the free advertising ideas that are easy to implement in a small business scenario:
1Making Use of SEO Optimization
2Using Free Classified Ads
The internet has a good number of websites on which one can place free classified ads. Some of the most popular among these are CraigsList and Kijiji. The classified ads do not remain on these websites indefinitely; they will be replaced over time. As such, one should spare some little time, perhaps weekly, to check on or replace ads. This is quite a good bargain bearing in mind that there are no charges for the publicity and that it does not take too much time to create an ad.
3Making Use of Forum Posting
Forums are an effective platform for free business advertising if they are used in the appropriate manner. The best approach to forum posting is via your signature file in which you create a link to your small business. This is the most sensible approach to follow since doing it otherwise will result in a spamming of the forum(s). Through the said technique you will also not be in breach of the rules of most forums, many of which are against personal website advertising.
To make the most of forums, it is wise to simultaneously advertise as aforementioned and to regularly contribute meaningful posts to the same. In this way you will gradually be recognized in a given community and your website will certainly be visited by many people.
4The Use of Opt-In Emails
Opt-in emails are basically email lists that visitors to your website can decide to join. Joining these is subject to different criteria, e.g. the visitor may be required to purchase a product or it may be a prerequisite for them to receive free information they require on a particular subject. Opt-in emails are quite productive in that they target people who have already expressed interest in a given website rather than a random online population.
5Article Writing and Submission
Article writing and submission has been hailed as one of the most effective means to benefit from prolonged free advertising. This strategy is all about writing articles on diverse subjects, only ensuring that these are related to the content of your website. These articles are then submitted to article directories including popular ones like Ezine, Isnare, Amazines etc. Upon submission, you are granted access to a resource box which is where you provide a link back to your website. Such articles remain on these directories for long periods of time which will definitely be sufficient enough to give your business valuable exposure.
6Taking Advantage of Free Directory Systems
Numerous free directories are available online and these are excellent locations on which to paste your website’s URL. Due to the sheer magnitude of these directories, it is of essence that one remains relevant so as to get optimal results from the effort. In this regard, the best approach would be to use a search engine to select niche specific directories related to your website. Though this approach may result in non-reciprocal links, you will at least be assured that your search engine ratings will have improved quite significantly.
7Using the Most Reciprocal Links You Can
Reciprocal links are the exact opposite of the aforementioned non-reciprocal links. The best thing about these is that they are free and they have a great potential for generating web traffic.
Two steps are involved in getting them. You should first locate a number of niche-specific websites that you can link with. Once these have been acquired the next step is to communicate with them via email and suggesting the possibility of posting your links on each other’s sites. In doing this, it is worth the effort to regularly monitor your links. Having your links on inactive websites weakens your search engine ratings thus negatively impacting on a free advertising strategy that is otherwise regarded as one of the most effective.
8Social Networking Sites and Blogs
Many people are taking advantage of sites like Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and the like to reach huge online audiences. They have proved to be a great platform on which business products and services can be introduced to new customers. Blogs are quite effective media as well, but they tend to have a delayed impact compared to social networking sites.
