Tips For Small Businesses

You have finished making your own website. You have introduced your company and presented your products and services. You have added propositions and promos to catch your target audience’s attention. You have achieved the dos and don’ts of building a company web site. But why isn’t your website a major success?

Maybe you’re not planning the key to the best promotion of your web site. Here are some guidelines on how to acquire free web site promotions for your company’s success.

If you have started to promote your web site, keep it constant. If you promote your site with persistence, it will catch your audience’s attention.

Be patient. Try each method in promotion until you acquire the best, free promotion there is. You have to accept trial and error for your web site to reach the top.

There are many ways for your web site to be seen. Here are some free web site promotions you could try until you find the most effective.

*Free promotions such as search engines and directories would give your web site the deserved traffic you always wanted.  Make sure to check your web site’s ranking to know whether or not this type of free promotion is right for you.

*Make a deal with other web sites on trading links which could help both web sites.  Make sure to use words that could easily interest the audience.

*Find free classified ads that could boost the promotion of your web site. These ads could be seen by other people who you are not targeting for, but may as well be interested in your services.

*Free and low-cost internet banners are spread all through out the World Wide Web.  Banners that pop-up at the top of a page or in a separate window would automatically catch your target audience’s attention.

If your web site and its free promotion did not work even after accomplishing these methods, analyze your web site. Track down all visitors, advertisements, and transactions. Then locate errors in your web site. Upload new files to your web site continuously for audience to return for new products and services. Monitor your own web site if it’s up in the market or down.

Then be ready to try the methods again and surely it will work.

It has always been said that the best things in life are free. Yes they are. And as soon as your free web site promotion proves to the audience its worth, then you’ll believe it’s true.

1. Engage the customer. For example, social media is a hot trend.  Try posting your products on sites that encourage customer or peer reviews. Social media add an element of impartiality and are increasingly looked to as reliable sources of information.

2. Integrate off-line and online campaigns. Look for ways to use off-line media to drive traffic to a website with specialized landing pages that tell a deeper story. Use print and TV ads to start the customer education process and direct potential buyers online to learn more and take the next steps in the purchase process.

3. Move off-line dollars online. Online advertising now offers a strong alternative to some traditional media, such as print yellow pages. Consider moving some of your traditional directory advertising dollars into online directories and search engines. The vast majority of Americans research their products online before making purchases, so a paid search campaign is an ideal way to make sure you turn up at the top of search results.

4. Follow your customer. Alternative out-of-home advertising opportunities let you place your message wherever your customers go. Look in your area for places to PLACE your name. Little League, Hiking Trails, Corner Car Lots. The key to using these new opportunities effectively is to place your message where it will appear in the proper context and reach your potential customers when they are in the right frame of mind.

The new year comes full of high-return marketing opportunities. By closely watching the hottest trends, you can make smart choices that let you step ahead of your slower-moving competitors.

DISTRIBUTE 81/2 X 11" CIRCULARS

Co-op Mailing (short for co-operative) means that two or more businesses share in the cost and distribution of a direct mail campaign. It's kind of like having you and another non-competing business split the cost of printing, assembling and mailing an advertising flyer to a shared (same) marketbase.

Co-op dealing is very beneficial (and usually safe) for everyone involved. One example of co-op dealing in mail order is to send your 8 1/2x11 camera-ready circular to a co-op printer and they'll print your ad on one side,their ad on the back side and ship them back to you for a low cost of around $10 per 1,000. You get your printing almost free and the other dealer getshis or her flyers mailed on the back of yours free.

But what do you do with them when they are mailed back to you? If you're newto mail order it's doubtful you have a mailing list to distribute them to.Plus, postage costs alone would run you about $290.00 first-class. At thisrate it would have been cheaper to send the camera-ready to a tabloid oradsheet publisher rather than by a co-op. But don't despair.Simply have the printer ship your copies to a co-op circular mailer insteadof sending them to you. A couple good circular mailers we recommend are BMGServices, PO Box 429, Johnson KS 67855 (your cost is only 1c for 8 1/2x11pre-printed circular) or Thorn Gifts, 1807 Stillwater #5, St Paul MN 55119

(your cost is only 5c for each 8 1/2x11 pre-printed circular.) Why thedifference in price? BMG mails by bulk rate and Thorn mails by first-class.Either method is effective and sure beats paying 29c each.In addition, you benefit from the mailing list of the circular mailer. Ifthis particular mailer sells a mailing list, having them do a 1,000 or 5,000"test" mailing for you would be a way to test their names. You should get afew responses from a mailing of this size but it all depends on "what" you are offering and the "price" you are offering it for. It's very difficult to sell any item for more than $50 on a 8 1/2x11" circular. For items costingmore than $50, you need to use the two-step approach. In other words, use the 8 1/2x11" circular to generate inquiries and follow-up with the complete sales materials that constitute the higher price the customer may decide to pay.

Another idea is that you could contact a dealer with products and services not conflicting with your own and ask them to co-op mail for you. In thisdeal, you would pay for the 2-sided printing (with the mailer's ad on back of yours) and he/she would mail them for you free of charge. It works! Another way to co-op deal in mail order is by co-op advertising. HighMountain Advertiser and Popular Advertiser are both long running co-op publications. You place your ad the first time through a dealer and all future ads are 50% less. Then you have the option of mailing pre-printed copies with your name in the publisher's block as an authorized dealer.When other people order advertising, they will send their orders to you. You keep 50% of the money and send the rest (along with the order) back tothe publisher. This way, you can have your 8 1/2x11 circulars printed andmailed in a publication at a 50% savings. Coal Publishing, 27 South 4th Avenue, Highland Park NJ 08904 also offers co-op advertising in their "Small Business Keeps America Growing" tabloid.

For the low cost of $35 per tabloid-size page, you can have your 8 1/2x11"circular along with four 2-inch ads printed and mailed to a whopping 5,000circulation. All you are responsible for is the mailing of 200 of them.Any beginner can handle mailing 50 per week to a mailing list or to theirown customers. Besides, no one can offer you a 5,000 honest circulation forthis price. This is a real money-saver!

If you market the direct mail method, it's a good idea to send a goodcircular you plan to keep around for awhile to a mail order printer andhave 1,000 printed on 1 side. Then, you can use the back of 100 or so for testing purposes of other circulars. Run down to the copy shop and run the circulars through the copier by printing on the back side. Only run 100 or less and send them to the best names you can find. If they pull orders, you may have a winner and can have 1,000 printed. Nothing is more annoying than being stuck with 1,000 circulars with something you want to mail on one side and something outdated on the back.

NOTICE: Rates and prices shown here were current at the time of writing.

Call for quotes.