Promoting your business and it's website on the Internet does not need a large outlay of funds. If any!
Below you'll find a large list of FREE options. The just require some of your time to complete.
Register your business with:
Google Places
Yahoo! Local.
Bing
A must for any aspiring business is to have your website appearing in the search results.
Embrace social media:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
LinkedIn
Social media has become a necessary time investment for every business to make. If you spot a news item on the web that is relevant to your business you can quickly share this with your clients and prospective ccustomers. You can also produce adverts and offers on your Facebook page and have a direct channel with your customers on Twitter. Networking on LinkedIn—both at the personal and company level—can be another way to help your startup.
Add News Stories or start a Blog
Frequently adding news to your website, either by adding articles or starting a blog, will keep your website dynamic and your customers updated. Remember though that it is important to keep the stream of information coming. Old news. or a dead blog will not help your business growth.
Use Multimedia:
YouTube provides a free way to distribute creative promotional videos, but in order to succeed you must put up content that people want to view and that is relevant to your business—a simple ad will not work.
A Flickr profile can also help by giving you one place to compile all the photos for your business, and allows you to link back to your website.
Press releases
Every time your business does something newsworthy, send off a press release. They are a powerful media tool to use to help generate publicity, and having free distribution of them is a bonus. There are dozens of websites out there that you can use for your press releases, such as PRFire . Other FREE press release services include:
- PR.com.
- Pressbox.co.uk.
- PRlog.org.
- PRweb.com.
- Clickpress.com.
- PRBuzz.com.
Online Communities
Joining and contributing to a relevant online community will enhance your brand. Try NOT just advertise your business as this will annoy other users. Be seen as an expert in your field. You can passively advertise your business easily by using your 'signature'.
Create Links
The Search Engines will promote your website more if there are links to your URL from other relevant websites. For example, as a mortgage broker you may be able to generate mutual links with your local estate agents. Talk to your business contacts about mutually beneficial links and advertising.
Get Listed!
Beside the big 3, Google, Bing and Yahoo, you will benefit by registering with as many relevant directories as possible:
- www.yell.com – Listing Price: Freemium
- www.yelp.co.uk – Listing Price: Free
- www.thomsonlocal.com – Listing Price: Freemium
- www.scoot.co.uk – Listing Price: Freemium
- www.foursquare.com – Listing Price: Paid
- www.uklinked.co.uk – Listing Price: £4.99
- www.freeindex.co.uk – Listing Price: Freemium
- www.hotfrog.co.uk – Listing Price: Freemium
- www.lacartes.com – Listing Price: Freemium
- www.192.com – Listing Price: Free
- www.cylex-uk.co.uk – Listing Price: Freemium
- www.locanto.co.uk – Listing Price: Freemium
- www.allinlondon.co.uk – Listing Price: Freemium
- www.approvedbusiness.co.uk – Listing Price: Freemium
- www.uksmallbusinessdirectory.co.uk – Listing Price: Free
- www.opening-times.co.uk – Listing Price: Free
- www.yalwa.co.uk – Listing Price: Freemium
- www.brownbook.net – Listing Price: Freemium
- www.localdatasearch.com – Listing Price: Free
- www.businessmagnet.co.uk – Listing Price: Free
- www.opendi.co.uk – Listing Price: Freemium
- www.thetradefinder.co.uk – Listing Price: Free
- www.listedin.co.uk – Listing Price: Paid
- www.searchme4.co.uk – Listing Price: Free
- www.pinbud.co.uk – Listing Price: Freemium
- www.tradepages.co.uk – Listing Price: Freemium
- www.ukbusinessdirectoryltd.co.uk – Listing Price: Freemium
- www.business-directory-uk.co.uk – Listing Price: Freemium
- www.uk-businesses.co.uk – Listing Price: Freemium
- www.bizify.co.uk – Listing Price: Free
More Ways to Market Your Business:
Craft an elevator pitch. You should be marketing all the time — wherever you are. ...
Leverage your community. You don't have to think big when it comes to your marketing efforts. ...
Collaborate. ...
Network. ...
Give a speech. ...
Create buzz. ...
Ask for referrals. ...
Build relationships.
Offer coupons...
Offer free trials...
Promote your reviews
Transform old campaigns in to new ones
More?
If you would like further reading try Top 60 ways to promote your business