There are many small businesses that have difficulties in marketing, specifically attracting local customers. There are many market challenges for small business. Many mom and pop shops don’t have large enough budgets for marketing. For most small businesses, print advertising becomes their medium of choice whether they post an ad in local Newspaper or pass out flyers made on a home PC. TV advertising isn’t even an option for small businesses. Another challenge is that many small business owners do not have the experience in advertising. Very few small businesses are going to know how to calculate brand equity, opportunities-to-see, and day-parting. These are all terms only marketers understand. Another challenge to small businesses is time. Many mom and pop shops are working double the hours in this economy which leaves little time for implementation and tracking of marketing initiatives with various techniques such as pay per click marketing. Most Small business owners spend their time at the business, not sweating over statistics.
First step in setting up your online campaign involves signing up for free local advertisements online. To find out where you can list your business for free you can type “free local business listing” into Google.
Here are a few companies that offer free local business listings.
- Website: http://listings.local.yahoo.com/
How will it help?
Yahoo gives you access to powerful communication tools like mail, instant messaging, and features like email Antivirus and Pop-Up Blockers.
Yahoo users post your business in up to 5 categories.
- Website: http://www.cityslick.net/
How it will help? CitySlick.net has multiple search functions that allow consumers and businesses to connect to each other in a cost effective way via search engines, ratings, coupons, bargaining tools, and more.
Deep Links. The deep linking system at CitySlick allows profile owners who own websites to specify additional links within their main site. Deep linking will tell major search engines, such as Google, that pages within a website are important. Doing so will help website owners establish an effective link building, page rank, and traffic strategy
How it will help: Merchant Circle gives you a free online website. You can add news, blogs, and coupons. Check out Optimum7‘s listing. We have really cool features and it’s free! This is very interactive for your customers. You can also track customers who sign up for your newsletter.
: Allows you to upload YouTube videos http://www.merchantcircle.com/business/OPTIMUM.7.INTERNET.MARKETING..800-736-9618/picture/gallery. A really great idea for a low cost commercial!
- Website: http://www.craigslist.org
How it helps: Allows you to pick different industries. post Ad’s specials, blogs, forums, and more. Example http://miami.craigslist.org/brw/com/904014541.html
Craigslist receives More than 12 billion page views per month Nation Wide. They can give you great expos
In a nutshell, there are many ways to increase your online exposure for free; Free ads, YouTube videos, and more. It’s also recommended that you track your results. You can track the email responses from each site or ask the customer how they found you. This will allow you to know which one is working best.
