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Online Marketing Tools for Small Businesses

Written by: Rita Cartwright

Article Overview: Marketing has become affordable for small businesses due largely to the Internet and technology. Those of us who are owners and operators of small businesses can appreciate the fact that nowadays, we don't have to use the unaffordable advertising methods of yesterday. In this article, I will provide a list of online marketing tools that you can use for advertising and marketing your business and, most importantly, they are affordable.

Online Marketing Tools for Small Businesses

Article Marketing:

Article marketing is an affordable method of advertising and marketing your business. All it cost is your time. If you don't have time to submit your articles to article banks, for example, Ezine Articles, outsource this task to your virtual assistant. Once your articles are published, they are available for publishers, who may want to use your articles on their websites or in their e-newsletters. In turn, this will give you more exposure, while at the same time give you and your business credibility.

Blogs:

Having a blog is another method of affordable advertising and marketing. Provide your target audience with useful information in your posts. It is important to post new posts to your blog frequently. Your potential clients can learn more about you through your blog. Since we operate our business online, clients need to feel a connection to you. Blogging can create a sense of being acquainted with you.

Classified Ads:

There are a few websites where you can post classified ads for little or no money. At Craigslist, it doesn't cost you anything but your time. Again, if you don't have time to post your ads, outsource this function to your virtual assistant. Ads stay on Craigslist for seven days and will need to be renewed at that time. There is also PennySaverUSA. They charge a nominal fee for duration of three weeks. After that time, you will have to renew your ad.

E-Book:

You can choose to offer your e-book for free or charge a fee for it. An e-book can be used as an advertising and market tool, as well as generate a passive income for you. Again, you become known as an expert in your field. It is an affordable online marketing tool because all it costs is your time.

E-Mail Marketing:

There are a few e-mail marketing service providers that are affordable; for example, Aweber, Constant Contact, and IContact. With these services, you are able to create affordable, professional e-mail campaigns. The campaigns will be sent electronically to your contact list. To construct your contact list, you need to have a signup box on your website, where your website visitors can sign up for your newsletters or any other type of information you provide. It is very important for your online marketing strategy to have an extensive contact list. You can also place a signup box on your profile pages, which you create in social networking forums. More about social networking forums will be discussed shortly.

Google AdWords:

Google AdWords are those sponsored links that you see, generally on the right-hand side, on a search engine results page (SERP). Although, this is an affordable advertising and marketing technique, it can become expensive.

Online Press Releases:

Whenever you have an announcement or some news about your company, products or services, you can publish an online press release(s). This is a very affordable method of advertising. It can be time-consuming to write your press release, in addition to submitting it to online press release websites. Again, you can have your virtual assistant take care of this for you.

Social Networking Forums:

Social media marketing is becoming a very popular method of marketing your small business. Again, it is affordable, and all it costs is your time. This is a form of networking, which in many cases, is preferable to offline networking, especially with the high cost of fuel. In these forums, you can setup your profile giving an insight into you and your business. You can insert photos of yourself in your profile, which creates a sense of connection as I mentioned earlier. You can offer information as well as gain information through the discussion forums. You can create new business relationships, which could lead to a new client. Due to Web 2.0 technology, social networking offers another affordable online marketing tool.

Teleseminars:

You can also conduct teleseminars for your potential clients. You provide your contacts with call-in information to access your informative seminars. The seminars are conducted using teleconferencing rather than being held at a specific location.

Webinars:

Seminars, presentations, lectures or workshops are conducted over the web. Your contacts will access the site using login information provided to them. They can also participate in the webinars with comments and/or questions.

Websites:

Your website is your number one method of advertising and marketing your business. It is more affordable than placing the traditional ad. Your website is your online business card; therefore, it needs to be professional, as well as informative. In order to create traffic to your site, you need to implement Search Engine Optimization (SEO). If your site is optimized, your potential clients will find you when they perform a search using search engines for your products and/or services.

These are a few of affordable online marketing methods, techniques and tools that can be part of your online marketing plan. My goal was to construct a list that contains some of these tools, which you can use as a reference. When implemented correctly, your business will grow with more and more clients.

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Article Tags: advertising methods, entrepreneurs, internet marketing, online marketing tools, small businesses



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