You did it. You finally started that solo business venture that you’ve always wanted. No more 9 to 5 for you. You’re on your own. A fresh start. So, now that you’ve broke free from the cubicle, and are finished with punching a time clock, you’ve got to get the word out about your venture. You’ve got to drive traffic to your business, whether it be online, or off.
So what do you do to drive this traffic, especially if you have limited startup funds? How can you get the word out effectively, without breaking your bank, and potentially putting your new business in jeopardy before it even gets off the ground? Here are 4 easy ways to inexpensively promote your business, and drive that much needed traffic to your new solo venture.
1. Pay Per Click Advertising
Pay per click advertising is a great way to inexpensively promote your business. The two best places to place small ads on the search engines are Google Ads and Bing Ads (Bing Ads being less expensive, but has about 1/3rd of the search traffic). With both of these systems, you can easily place your ads using a daily or monthly budget you are comfortable with – you are in complete control of how much you spend, and on exactly where your ads are targeted. You can get the word out over the web, at a comfortable cost.
2. YouTube
Use YouTube to get the word out about your venture to the millions of searchers that hit the site every month. First, shoot or make a video presentation about your business (the content of which, I’ll leave up to you). Using effective keyword research, ‘tag’ your video with the best and most effective keywords and phrases that people are looking for. Once your video is up and running on the site, you will be getting ‘hits’, and thus, passive promotion of your business while you’re busy doing other things. This method of promotion, along with the Pay Per Click mentioned above, are very effective “set it and forget it methods” of promotion.
3. Offline Ads
Placing ads in appropriate newspapers, weeklies, periodicals, magazines, etc, does not have to break the bank. There are very reasonable sites out there that will pace your ad in a variety of locations, to wide array of readers, depending on your budget. My suggestion is to find an appropriate local area paper, and try a few different types of ads (not necessarily at the same time, of course). As one ad works more effectively to drive traffic to your business, then expand that ad’s reach by getting it published in a wider, more encompassing array of daily/weekly papers.
4. Article Marketing
As a budding entrepreneur, you may very well have an abundance of expertise in a certain area. Why not write about it? Using your specific knowledge to write articles in your area of expertise, you can accomplish two fold. You will create a library of knowledge for readers to use as a reference, which gives you yet another vehicle to use in promoting your venture. You will also have direct links to your business in the article, driving traffic directly to your venture. And again, as previously mentioned, this is another system where you can “set it and forget it”. Your only input with this method of promotion is to create more articles/content.
So, there you have it. These four simple methods of promotion can not only be low cost, but are extremely effective in enabling you to “work smarter, not harder”. Using these methods to “set it and forget it”, you can smartly set up your promotion and advertising, using a budget that is appropriate for your business, and leave yourself free to build your brand, spend more time with your friends and family, or the opportunity to expand your business, and bring it to the next level.