First of all, the business strategy should be clearly defined. Before you start promotion, you need to know your strengths and weaknesses, your mission and your goals. For example, the strategy for business to business market promotion will differ greatly. When you sell to the companies the ways to promote won’t be the same as when your target audience are private individuals. But there are some trends relevant in any case.
Social media
Social media importance cannot be overestimated, it is just indispensable for every company, as well as the website. But for the small business it doubles. You can have a direct connection with your clients via Twitter, network on Linkedin, draw attention to your innovations on Instagram. Facebook stands out, as it allows not only connect and create community, but also is one of the most effective ways to advertise. You can focus on your target audience and show your ads to those who are most likely to appreciate the information and find it really useful.
Be visual
Create a YouTube channel and upload creative videos that promote your service or product, a how-to video, mentioning it. Share it on your website and in Social Media profiles. If you don’t have a promotional video yet, create slideshow. Surely, you can also put a paid ad on YouTube, but it is not only much more expensive – it is not so effective. Pinterest is very popular right now, but only with certain audience. Flickr also offers opportunities for business. Remember, your visual content has to be of great quality.
Personalize
Surely, every small business needs advertising. But users are tired of innumerable faceless ads aiming to manipulate them. So try to provide customized unique experiences with the help of data collected from users.
Get your link on Wikihow.com or Answers.com by writing a useful unique article for your industry. Create step-by-step instruction how to use your product. For example,an essay writing service can provide detailed recommendation on writing different papers. Comment on relevant blogs – but remember, the spamming will do no good. Really relevant and original information should be provided.
Listing services
Register your organization with Google Places, Yahoo!Local and Bing. Imagine the customer searching nearby places at map for special product or service — you can get your clients that easy. Make sure you will be able to make in-person contact with customers during the stated hours and share an account with your partner. If your organization is an online shop and doesn’t have a physical address, create a brand page.
Be Mobile
Mobile Markets are an important part of the digital marketing today. It goes without saying that your website should be optimized for mobile devices. The next step is to utilize Mobile Markets. Place ads in mobile games and free apps, have an app built for your company. It can be either a showcase or content rich app.
There are a lot of ways to promote your small business, but you still have to work hard to build your reputation and to retain it.
