Free Advertising for Business

Every small business recognizes the need for promotion and with some creativity and a little effort there are a number of ways it is possible to advertise a business for free today. Obviously, using the Internet presents many good opportunities for low-cost or free advertising, and since most companies have websites to support their main business, there are myriad ways to get a website noticed, attract more visitors and ultimately make a sale. For most small businesses in the U.S., television ads are just too expensive for a small enterprise to produce and air for any significant length of time. Magazine and radio advertising are less expensive than TV, but can still be quite expensive to maintain when part of an ongoing business campaign. 

Although it is possible to spend a lot of money on an Internet-based campaign, there are also many ways to use the different facets of the Internet to get some free advertising for any type of business. For both websites and stores, the purpose of most advertising is spreading the word about products or services and attracting new visitors and customers. When it comes to physical brick and mortar housed businesses, simply getting more people in through the front door is usually the primary task. For businesses with supporting websites, or businesses that exist only online without a real physical presence, attracting new visitors to their website is the number one goal. In both cases, every business needs new visitors to make new sales regardless of the nature of the particular business. Without new customers, no business can survive for very long.  However, a business won’t last very long if it spends every cent of its operating budget to meet advertising costs either. Low-cost or completely free advertising online is obviously a good way for any business to attract customers without having to spend a fortune in the process.

There are an incredible number of opportunities to advertise a business online for free these days, but not all of them will be appropriate for every type of business endeavor. The important thing to remember is that the Internet is a flexible tool that can give any business many different ways to advertise and since the Web is an instant experience in real time, it enables businesses to react quickly to customer feedback and adjust their efforts accordingly. If you can think creatively and perform some experimentation along the way, there are many effective ways to advertise a business for free. Here are some of the best ways:

Press Releases – Write a few press releases about your business and try to make them interesting to the general public as making announcements that you are selling a product are not very interesting in themselves. With a bit of determination and creativity, you can get your press releases published in hard copy magazines and newspapers as well as online.

Free Ads on CraigsList – If you’ve got an event to promote in conjunction with your business, you can advertise it for free on CraigsList.

Personal Profiles – It can be a big help to include a targeted profile of your business on any social networking sites that you might frequent like LinkedIn, Ecademy, Friends Reunited, and Facebook.

Free Directory Websites – Be sure to take advantage of any free directory opportunities to include your business in local and online listings. Sites like the Yellow Pages, Touch Local and Trade Space all have good free directory sections.

Link Swapping – If you can determine who the qualified companies are that are linking to your competitors’ websites, you may be able to ask for a link back to your site, or just swap links for free.

Free Classifieds – Sites that offer free classified advertising for businesses can help attract more visitors, and every visitor is another chance to sell your products or services.

Internet Forums – There are tens of thousands of forums and message boards where people go to discuss a variety of specific topics online. If the topic fits your type of business, a forum could be an easy way to get qualified traffic to visit your website.

Email Signatures – 

Don’t forget to add a few lines to your signature on forums and in emails that contain your site’s URL and some form of incentive to visit it.

Blogs – A blog can be a stand alone site, or part of your main website and can help you advertise and get good customer feedback at the same time. A blog that contains short informative articles in your topic area can help make your site stand apart from the competition.

E-mail Blasts – Create more repeat business by making a list of your existing customers’ e-mail addresses and periodically sending them new product announcements, coupons, special offers, or other information they can use.