As I sit here I am wondering whether I should chase up the advert in the local paper and see if the format is right and find out how much it is going to cost, or whether or not I should un-pause my Google Adwords account and chase Yellow Pages about an online listing.
My question is, how much do you spend on online vs offline advertising and how effective is each?
SEO is going to cost quite a bit per month and even once you reach your target, it is a constant slog staying near the top, not to mention Google’s changes to it’s algorithms used to index your site. But then, good old fashioned printed means is a costly exercise as well. Whichever is more effective is really down to your target market and whether they are actively looking for something or happen to come across your add in the local rag and think “I could really do with one of those”.
Here are some helpful tips around the online space to better promote your business online and save on advertising budget for the print world, TV, or radio worlds.
- Talk to your Web Developer or me about making your site more search engine friendly, a quick chat is often free
- Use your content management system to update your content and make it easy for people to get form your business the information they need. No content management system? Talk to me 🙂
- Sign up for Webmaster tools on Google, Yahoo, Bing and other popular search engines. Most of the time they require a sitemap file and verification of you r site so they can be crawled and indexed by the search engines
- Create a Facebook page, Twitter account, Google+ Account, in fact any social media account and start promoting yourself through these channels
- Sign up for local online business directories. here we have www.localist.co.nz and it is free to list
- Comment back on other people’s blogs and posts – don’t spam, just honestly follow them if you are interested in what they are writing about and participate, speak up, have your say
- Create a blog like this one and share some knowledge, nothing to do with SEO, just good to do sometimes 🙂
Start with this and keep at it. Sure, you may not beat the big guys to the top, but you will create a presence and a following which is key.
Related articles
- The Knowledge: The basics of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) (simplybusiness.co.uk)
- Your Online Workout (theformationscompany.com)