Many small businesses struggle to survive with very small advertising budgets. Traditional advertising mediums like radio, television, billboards, and newspaper can be very expensive. To be effective, a business needs to purchase enough advertising to reach the target audience enough times to make an impact, which can easily cost thousands of dollars each month. For most small businesses, that's out of reach. Luckily, there are now many ways to generate free advertising for your business, which can be very effective when managed appropriately.
History
While it's been possible to get free advertising since the beginning of advertising itself, the Internet and technology have made it much easier for any business to generate free advertising and publicity. There are some advertising opportunities on the internet that do cost money, but there are many opportunities to advertise for free, or nearly free. Offline, free advertising is possible, but more difficult to obtain.
Types
Online opportunities for free advertising include blogging, discussion groups, forums, social networking sites, and web pages. Anyone can set up a blog using a free tool such as Wordpress or Blogger, and start writing short articles related to their business. Potential clients will read the blog and learn about your business at the same time. Participation in discussion groups and forums is free as well. Simply find discussions related to your business and start talking with other group members. Some sites have strict advertising guidelines, so it's wise to simply offer your expertise and include your website address in your signature line.
Setting up social networking profiles and actual websites can also be accomplished for free. Social networking sites include sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Visit each site to learn more and start creating your profile. You can include information about your business with links to your website. Setting up a free website is easy using other sites such as Squidoo and HubPages. All of these tactics help to improve your search engine placement by providing links back to your primary business website. Search engine optimization is another important aspect of free advertising that can help improve your search engine placement. Search engine optimization involves targeting specific keywords within your website copy to achieve higher search engine placement when a user searches for those keywords.
What they say is true: content on the web is king. The more content you have that contains targeted keywords within your web copy, on your blog, on your social networking sites, and in any of your online presences, the higher your website will rank in the search engines.
Function
Free advertising is used to generate publicity, just like traditional advertising. The goal is to build brand recognition and awareness, and to educate potential clients and customers about your products or services. The free advertising opportunities that are available using the Internet are often more effective than traditional advertising, because most allow you to offer some information to your readers instead of just a blatant advertisement. This allows you to build credibility among your target audience, and they will be more likely to use your business when they're in need of what you have to offer.
Specific strategies, such as search engine optimization, serve to make a website more visible in search engines. Search engine optimization is a delicate skill that can be difficult to master. Effective search engine optimization involves writing website copy targeted towards specific keywords that your target consumers would search for in a search engine. It's important that your copy flows naturally, and has an optimal ratio of keywords, because copy that is too saturated with the same keywords will actually work against you. This is known as keyword spamming, and it is frowned upon by Google and other search engines.
Significance
Free advertising is significant because it can be so effective while almost completely eliminating a business' advertising budget. Especially when combined with traditional advertising techniques and methods, free advertising adds a tremendous amount of value to a marketing campaign for zero additional investment. One of the best ways to advertise your business is to appear in the first page or two of Google search engine rankings for targeted keywords, and this can be accomplished completely free with a little work. Using the methods described in this article, any business owner should be able to achieve search engine placement within the top 30 over time.
Potential
As the Internet evolves, new applications will be developed that provide additional opportunities for businesses to advertise themselves online. Businesses that are not restricted to a geographical area stand to benefit the most from technology, because they can literally reach a global audience with advertising that they've paid nothing for. New technologies are emerging every day, and experts are coming up with new strategies and techniques for achieving optimal search engine placements. More social networking opportunities will appear on the landscape, and innovative new concepts will emerge that allow businesses to increase their exposure on the web.
Considerations
The most important thing to keep in mind when embarking on a free advertising campaign is to select your keywords wisely. Think about what words your target customer would put in a search box of a search engine to locate businesses like yours. These are they keywords that you should target in your copy and other online marketing efforts. Even something as simple as creating a text link back to your website using your target keywords in the natural flow of copy can help improve your search engine placement for those words. Search engine optimization and online marketing can get complex, and is sometimes overwhelming to someone just starting out on the internet. Luckily, there are experts available that can help you accomplish your online marketing goals, although most are not free. You may find that your one worthwhile investment on your new campaign is to hire an expert that can help you navigate and make sense of the variety of online marketing opportunities, and help you create and conduct a campaign that will be most effective for your business.
Tags: search engine, free advertising, your business, engine optimization, engine placement