There are, according to author and internet marketer, Richard Quek, http://www.exposedtraffic.com, over 100 different methods you can use to market your business online. However, as Quek points out, not all of these methods are free, nor are they effective.
Below are five more highly effective methods you can use to market your business, they're all free, and they do work.
1. Joint Ventures (Short - Long Term Marketing Strategy)
Joint ventures are the fastest way to get traffic and sales for your site.
Basically, you contact ezine publishers who own complimentary sites, offer them a copy of your product, as well as other incentives like higher commissions, and ask them to offer your product to their readers.
Although it can take a little while to find complementary sites, you can increase the number of affiliates/partners marketing your product, and you can get immediate traffic.
You can use forums to help you find joint venture partners. However, there is an easier way to find joint venture partners. JV-Network. It's free to join, but you need an invitation: JV-Network - http://JV-Network.com/JV/4632.
2. PR (Short - Long Term Marketing Strategy)
Press releases, or news releases, can help you effectively get traffic to your business because, unlike advertising, you are offering readers news about your business.
The key here is that it's news. You can make this technique even more effective when you build a list of local contacts to submit your releases to. Online news releases help you build your business globally; local releases will help you build your business in your community, and you have a better chance of getting read.
http://www.prweb.com
http://www.press-world.com/
http://www.free-press-release.com/
http://www.press-base.com/
3. Free Ebooks and Reports (Long Term Marketing Strategy)
Like articles and press releases, this is a viral marketing strategy. You can create brandable copies of your report or ebook so that others can add their information about their businesses and then give your ebook away. This method can be even more effective if you have an affiliate program.
http://www.ebookdirectory.com
http://www.ebookpalace.com
http://ebookjungle.com
4. Directories (Long Term Marketing Strategy)
Most people don't think about using directories as a way to build their businesses, but this can be a very effective way to do it.
The actual strategy here is linking. There are many directories where you can post your site for free, and they don't require that you link back to them. This increases the number of links that you have pointing back to your site, increasing your Google page rank, as well as increasing your traffic.
The most important thing you can do here is to vary the anchor text that you use in your links. Google is currently penalizing sites that use the same anchor text in their links.
5. Networking (Short - Long Term Marketing Strategy)
Networking is similar to marketing on forums, but you will find networking to be more targeted than forums.
You will also have more tools available to help you promote, like blogs, press release posts, and article posting. These sites will also often allow you to use classified advertising to promote your products and services.
The side benefit of networking is that it allows you to improve your search engine rankings through content creation, and it increases the number of entries you have in the search engines, raising your rankings.
http://www.ecademy.com
http://www.ryze.com
http://www.linkedin.com
Add these marketing methods to your marketing plan, and you'll have an ever increasing stream of traffic to your site.
List Your Business For Free
For this reason, even with the technology that covers online businesses, still, it need highly revolutionized and very effective marketing strategy in order to boost their productivity and sales.
Basically, since the advent of the Internet, people started to flock this new medium of information without even knowing its fundamental principles, how it works, things that are needed to survive in it, etc. Many people literally bombarded the Internet thinking that life would be a lot easier if they will invest on online businesses.
Indeed, it is a well-known fact that you can find money online, but only for those who know their way around and employ the best marketing strategy there is online.
What people do not know is that online marketing does not have to be very complicated. It just needs the right stuff to keep you going.
Take for example the use of mailing list, particularly opt in list. Before, no one ever dare to use opt in list thinking that it will not do any good for their business. Most entrepreneurs think that building an opt in list is just a waste of time and money. What they do not know is that, according to the ?golden rule of the Internet,? money is in the list.
It has probably been mentioned before, and is worth mentioning again, money is really in the list.
Why? Because with opt in lists, you get to keep your readers on the hook by providing them with information, promotion, and other campaigns in order to entice them to buy again from you.
Basically, opt in lists are lists of email addresses of customers with their consent. This means that after the customer had closed the transaction in a particular web site, there is an option on whether or not they wish to subscribe to the mailing list of the online business for any future promotions, newsletters, or campaigns that they would like to be informed of.
And because it is an option, the customers are not compelled to provide their email addresses to the web site. Plus, the web site owners will not be accused of spamming because emails that will be sent to the customers have the consent of the customer.
Creating an opt in list can be very beneficial to your site. In fact, it has been proven that in the two-step concept of selling, follow-ups are important to sustain the interest of the consumers. The other step is to obtain the interest of the buyer.
Hence, in order to sustain the interest of your buying public, it is best to create an opt in list so that you can always give your buyers the chance to remember your products, your business, and your services, in which they have been satisfied with.
To know more of the advantages of creating an opt in list for your business; here is a list that would tell you the reasons why it is beneficial.
1. Opt in lists are the business? most valuable asset
If you were to ask the owners of some online business about their most valuable asset, they will tell you that it is their opt in list. This is because opt in lists are customers? lists that can provide higher probability sales in a more consistent and stable condition. Because with opt in lists, all you have to do is to follow up orders or sales through promotions and ad campaigns.
2. It is always available
The best thing about opt in list is that it never grows old. As long as your customer needs something to survive, your contact with them will never grow old. This means that you can always have a fresh, new transaction wit them every time you inform them that you have new products or services. Every transaction is a new way of increasing your sales. Simply put, no opt in list = no sales (at the most).
3. Bigger opt in list would mean bigger profits
The more customer's names and email addresses you have on your list, the more chances you have in increasing your online sales. Every name, every email address can be worth a hundred dollars that can be accumulated with each transaction
Hence, the bigger your list, the more money you will have.
Boiled down, opt in lists are not just ordinary mailing lists. It is the very core of an online business? existence and survival. That is why for people who value most their businesses, they extend the same value they give to their opt in list. No wonder why most people regard it as the best partnership available online.
Both Harjit Kaur & John Ugoshowa are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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