You CAN Have Effective Online Marketing on a Shoestring Budget

How to boost your online business without spending a fortune

If you follow the news on TV, the internet or the paper, you’ve no doubt run into the common wisdom that times are tough.  You have probably felt it yourself when you check your bank balance or paid your bills.  If you run a small business or make your living through a home based venture, perhaps business has been a little slow lately.  You may even have considered quitting and looking for a traditional job in that same paper or local news website.  Before you do, take a little time to give the following tips a chance to bring new customers your way through online marketing.

Optimise your site for both search engines and people

When business slows down and people don’t seem to be finding you, there are two potential culprits.  The first possibility is that people aren’t finding you because you aren’t showing up high enough when they search for your keywords.  The second possibility is that they don’t feel like your content is relevant to them and are not persuaded to do business with you.  Both of these problems can be resolved by an agency that specializes in SEO, and more affordably than most people expect.

Establish a solid online presence

It does not take a great deal of money to find success online, but it does take a little more than a great idea and ambition.  You need to establish an online business presence that potential customers can connect with and recognize.  This is a strategy that should be in easy reach of even small home businesses.  Take a little time to develop an image that showcases the important aspects of your business, and be sure this image is reflected in everything you do, from your website and blog posts, to your business card and stationery.

Engage with your customers online

Blog posts, brand pages and social media platforms are just a few of the many ways you can reach out to your customers online.  The beauty of marketing your business online is that you can get great results spending as much or as little as you want because many platforms are free to use.  While online marketing may not necessarily require a monetary investment, you need to be willing to invest a little time.  Done well, engaging with your audience in this two-way medium allows you to not only gain exposure, but also helps you find out what your customers really want.  You don’t necessarily need a professionally brilliant strategy to win at online marketing, just a little thought, a bit of initiative and a dash of creativity, and and you can develop a strategy that is inexpensive, realistic, measurable, and effective.

Photo Credit: “My Twitter Followers Mosaic” (CC BY 2.0) by MattJhsn