Wondering how to promote your online business when you are not sitting in front of your computer?
Marketing an online business is not as easy as you might think. Not only do you have to spend countless hours online growing your business and reaching out to potential clients, you need to create brand awareness to the offline public as well. The more you promote your product to the general population, the more likelihood they will sit down at their computer and visit your site.
Here are 3 simple and straightforward steps every online business owner can take to ensure success in a competitive online world.
1# Branding
First and foremost, create a logo for your brand. This should be easy if you already have a website established. However, if you are doing freelance work of some sort you may want to invest in a design tool to expedite this process for you. There are plenty of free resources online that can help you easily create a logo of your own.
Once you have created a logo for your business, it’s time to brand it. Make some business cards or order some inexpensive promotional products from a site like QualityLogoProducts.com to pass out to everyone you come into contact with. You can find tons of websites offering cheap business card options for small business owners. Most of them let you customize and design the cards to your liking.
Buy some fun promotional items to hand out. Use your creativity here. There are plenty of companies that supply really fun items you can buy in bulk with your business name on it. Promotional items are the new business cards of today.
Some good ideas for these products are
- Pens
- Fridge Magnets
- Koozies
- T-shirts
- USB flash drives
What beneficial item can you give someone that reminds them of your brand every time they go to use it? Think of something unique to your business and create a promotional item based on that to give out to potential customers.
Don’t forget about personal signage too. Yard signs and car magnets are great ways to promote your brand to anyone that passes by your house or car. Signs help get the word out for your business when you are unable to talk to someone. There are many great businesses out there that offer cheap signs for businesses. And you can usually always get a lower price when you buy in bulk quantities.
2# Networking
Once you have your business cards and promotional items all together, it’s time to get out there and start handing them out. Finding contacts and potential customers is easy in today’s world. We are connected online more than ever before. Use those online resources to make real life connections.
Find those local “big names” in your industry and follow them on Twitter and connect with them on LinkedIn. Find out where they are going to be and be there. It is easy to find local organizations and groups for nearly everything imaginable.
Most cities will have meetups specific to your niche industry. Attend some and you’ll see how easy it is to meet relevant contacts. You may find people you can partner up with and plenty of people who could use your services.
Also, these types of events are usually fun. Networking today is more casual than ever. Usually there will be food and drink on hand. So let loose and have fun discussing business with your local peers.
3# Selling
This likely does not need to be said, but it is probably the most important thing you should be doing to promote your online business. You should let everyone you come into contact with know what you do or offer online.
Now you don’t need to try to sell your waitress at lunch on your programming skills, but simply mention what you do. Perhaps she knows someone who could use your services. Just try to let everyone know about your business in some casual way.
This could simply be mentioning an online resource to someone. If the waitress writes your order down, tell her how you have to use Evernote on your computer to keep track of everything otherwise you would never remember anything. Then transition in to how you spend all your time behind a computer and what your new online business is. Now you havejust informed one new person about your new online business.
You should especially be networking if you are a freelancer or in the early stages of a startup business. You are the greatest asset and salesperson for your company. You know all about your business, so who better to promote it?
Also, maybe it’s just me who feels this, but everyone loves hearing about new online innovations. So tell everyone about that new application you’re developing, or that new social networking site you are launching soon. People will be impressed.
Building an online business is tough these days. Competition is fierce! Not only should you be promoting yourself to the internet community, but you should be building your business in the real world as well. Work these simple steps in your everyday life and you can easily promote your new online business with little effort.
Author Bio:- Josh Waldrum is a web enthusiast and lover of all things tech. He works in public outreach at Signs On The Cheap, a site that specializes in customizable and affordable yard signs.