Promoting Your Online Business
Having a business with an amazing product or service is great, but you won’t get too far if no one knows about it. That is where advertising and promoting comes in.
There are tons of ways to advertise your business, but by far the top places you’re going to want to promote is going to be on social media and in person by word of mouth and/or merch.
Below are some of the best places to promote your business on social media as well as some ideas on how you can promote in person;
Social Media:
It’s no secret that social media is one of the top ways to promote your business in this day in age. With that being said, you have to actually utilize and use them to reach an audience.
- Facebook – This is the obvious one, but create a page for your business, invite friends/family, and make posts. Be active with it and people will see that you are invested and will take more interest in what your business has to offer.
- Facebook Ads – Facebook Ads is an amazing way to reach a large audience. You do have to pay for your ads and make sure that you follow Facebook’s policies, but it is definitely something you should have in your arsenal if you are serious about promoting your business.
- Instagram – Same as with Facebook (Facebook owns Instagram), start making an active presence and promote what you are selling.
- Twitter – See above
- YouTube – A great way to show showcase what your business has to offer is to post videos of what you do/ what it is. This can work great for artists who want to demonstrate their skills or for a salesperson to showcase/ review a product they’re selling.
- Twitch – Same as YouTube, Twitch can be a great way for people such as musicians and artists to showcase their skills. It can also serve as a great way to get live feedback from an audience.
** Note – Remember to stay consistent when promoting on social media. If you only post every few weeks or so, you run the risk of losing your audience’s attention. **
In person:
Before the internet, you had to promote your business in real life. And that is still a great way promote your business today. Don’t underestimate the power of word of mouth.
- Friends & Family – Just like Facebook, tell your friends and family what it is your doing and ask them if they’d mind telling one of their friends, etc. The more people hear about your business, the more likely they are to check it out.
- Merch – My favorite way to advertise and promote my businesses’ products/services is with merchandise. It’s fun, easy, cheap, and once done, it does the work for you. If you have a cool logo for your service/product, try slapping it on a t-shirt, hat, or sticker. People tend to lean towards what they recognize, and having people wearing your merch is a great way to get recognition.
- Here are some things I like for merch, but if you think your logo will work on something, try it out!
- Stickers – By far my favorite way of advertising in person. I can’t even count how many cool places I have been because I saw a sticker for it. Put your logo on a sticker and start getting them out there.
- Clothing – Hats, T-Shirts, Sweaters/Hoodies, Etc. Wearing your logo helps create brand recognition to those around you.
- Keychains
- Water Bottles
Miscellaneous:
As I mentioned earlier, there are tons of ways to go about promoting your business. Here are a few other ideas to consider;
- Billboards – Although quite expensive, they are always an option for larger businesses to consider as they have the potential to reach a large audience.
- Commercials – Another popular but more expensive way to promote your business is by running some commercials locally and in places where your target audience has access to it. Commercials can catch people’s attention, especially if they’re clever, so it’s always a solid idea to have on the back burner.
- Flyers – This is something to consider no matter what size of business you have. See if your local grocery store has any boards for local businesses that you can post on or spend an afternoon passing them out on a busy corner if law permitted. I have found a couple cool businesses from random flyers, so don’t completely ride them off.
I hope this has helped in giving you some ideas that you can use to advertise and promote your own business. See what works for you and your business and have fun!
Thanks for reading!