Marketing is an important aspect of any business. Home based businesses are no exception. Here are a few tips on promoting your home business.
1. Personalize your business cards with a company logo. Be sure to include email addresses and website URL on the front. 2. If you sell a product, carry several samples with you.
Attach a business card to the front. You will be prepared the next time someone asks you, What do you do for a living?. Hand them a sample along with your contact information so they know how to get more. 3.Collect email addresses from everyone.
Contact information can be as good as money in the bank. Some website owners use leads capture pages or pop up ads to get website visitors to subscribe to their newsletter but you have to offer them an incentive to subscribe for instant free information that will ad a benefit to your visitors business or some valuable information product. 4. Start a monthly newsletter filled with updates and special promotions for your products and services. Snail mail it and email it out to every address in your data base. The thing with newsletter is you have to keep in contact with your subscribers to build trust many will not buy anything from you now but they will likely buy in the future.
A newsletter is a excellent way of opening a long term relationship with your potential customers. Many internet experts will tell you that the money is in the list. 5. Learn to write good copy. If you do not have time to educate yourself, hire an exceptional copy writer to assist you. Good copy makes a difference between booming business and lost sales, it must inform the reader about the benefits of your product or service and why they must have it.
6.Request testimonials form experts in your line of work, than use them to promote your business. 7.
Publish your business in every available marketing directory in your area. 8. Word of mouth can make or break a business. Talk up your business when in public and enlist friends and family members to do the same, remember that most of your sales will not necessarily come from your marketing strategies but will come from referrals of your satisfied customers or word of mouth, so you have to give good customer service.
9. If you do not have one already, get a website. Keep it low key, professional, easy to navigate and full of quality content.
Do not overuse graphics and flashy plug ins that slow down the time it takes for your page to load. Spend some time creating a catchy headline or slogan for your business. Now would be the time to use the copy writer again. List your web site with directories and search engines like Google , Yahoo and Inktomi. Make sure you read the webmasters guidelines and ensure that your website conforms to the search engines terms of service or you can contract the services of a website submission service they will help with your website and optimize it for the search engines and directories. 10.
Get the word out about your business online by joining discussion forums related to your area of business. Post links back to your website and exchange links with other businesses that compliment your service. Avoid associating your site with fly-by night or shady businesses.
Only allow your links to be posted on high quality, reputable sites. Only post links on your site to businesses or websites that you have researched thoroughly. This can improve your page ranking and help you move up on the search engine results page. As usual if you are willing to invest some money there are website that will help build your website link popularity. 11.
Procure advertising space in your local newspaper above the fold. Check into hiring a professional speaker to read a specially prepares script advertising your business (once again, consult that excellent copy writer) and have your new radio commercial played during prime listening times. If you can only afford a few minutes of radio time, it is still a good investment. I hope this article has open your eyes to the many possibilities of marketing your website, remember if you do not get any traffic you will make not sales. Take care.
To find the best ways to promote your home based business visit: http://michaelshomebasedbusinessjournal.blogspot.com