Just Say NO
Promoting your business with as little expense as possible is a top priority for any business startup. Keeping the overhead costs of marketing to a minimum can be difficult when so many solicitors are telling you how they can get you noticed in printed materials, radio, TV, or the Internet for a small fee. The temptations they offer sound good, but the return on your investment (ROI) might not be as good as promised. You need to learn to say "NO" early on. Practice that a few times, go ahead and just say "NO".
Getting Started
In the early stages of marketing your business, you will have some down time to fill. Make the most of it by getting your name out on the Internet. It is not as difficult as it might seem and you will be surprised at the results.
Here is where you start:
Using a pad of paper, Microsoft Word, or whatever you like to use begin completing the following items.
- Name of my business
- Address
- Phone
- E-mail Address
- Web site addresses such as your business web site, Facebook, Twitter, or any other site that you plan to post your business information.
- Tag line, that single brief sentence that says who you are.
- Brief description of your business in less than 150 characters.
- Extended description of your business in less than 500 characters.
- The logo or picture you will upload.
- What are your business categories, services, and brands
Keeping your information consistent is important, so this information above will provide just what you need for all of your listings. Review what you have jotted down, spell check, and make sure you are using some of the keywords that are in your business categories in your description of your business.
Getting Listed
Use as many of the free listing services you can register your business. Many of these free listings will attempt to get you to pay for them, so pay close attention to the process and stick with the FREE listing. Some sites will want to verify you as the owner or authorized administrator through e-mail or phone calls.
Locating the option to start the process might be more difficult on some sites than others, so get the easy ones done first. Here are a several to get you started.
http://www.google.com/placesforbusiness
http://www.bingforbusiness.com
http://www.supermedia.com/business-listings
Verify Your Business Internet Listings
Once you have your listings, you will want to check them out from time to time to verify that the information you posted is still up-to-date. This is also a good time to check to see if there are other listings you can add your business to.
GetListed.org is a great site to check your current listings and find those sites that you may want to be added to. Like everything on the Internet, you need to verify for accuracy. This site does a nice job of showing various listing sites, but it will sometime incorrectly indicate that you have not confirmed you listing.
Pay Per Click Advertising
The pay per click (ppc) advertising is a growing and somewhat popular way for many businesses to get their name and product at the top of the search engine lists. We know that a very select few small businesses have found this to be a viable way to get their clients. These few are often successful because the market space they advertise in has little competition with respect to other industries. This means that for a relatively low cost for a click on their ad because of their keywords results in high visibility and conversion rate.
We don't recommend this for most small businesses that are looking to use this method in a crowded market space unless they have a very targeted advertising niche group that they want to go after.
We hope that this information is helpful. Please let us know how this has helped you or if you have additional questions. As always Firestone Technical Resources, Inc. is here to help with your computer support issues - "Providing personal service for your impersonal technology."