There are some fantastic deals to be had if you wanted to market your company or specific product in Local and National Newspapers and Magazines at the moment. But the truth is, many small business are not interested.
There has been a decline in newspaper circulation, which has had a knock on effect for the small business. Now many of them are turning away from the traditional print advertisement and looking to the Internet. Many have started to move toward social media sites such as Facebook, UK Small Business Network (www.uksbn.com), and MySpace, Video sites like YouTube and Mini blog services such as twitter. They are also beginning to understand the importance of the blog.
Blogs have been around for a few years now, but it is only in the last year that small businesses have begun to see the light and started to blog them selves.
There are some 9 million blogs out there, with over 40,000 new blog sites opening every day. Over 1500 of these are created by small businesses from around the world.
UK SMALL BUSINESS NETWORK
UK Small Business Network. Just like facebook but for Small Businesses in the UK
As you may know, we started the UK Small Business Network only a couple of months ago and it has grown from nothing to over 110 companies in that short time. I know that business has been done between companies on the site and it grows from day to day. Being able to use social media to promote your business in not a dark art, although it can be a little time consuming. The trick is to get visited again and again. This can only happen if you post interesting and relevant information that people want to read. But blogs are not the only Internet marketing small companies have looked at. There has been a push for some time now to utilise the technologies and techniques that Internet marketers use and apply then to small business marketing concepts. In fact we are in talks at the moment with some top speakers in the field to put a workshop on, which will cover that very subject.
We have seen a steady rise in the amount of calls from small business owners wanting to use landing or squeeze pages to collect data coupled with selling specific products online using nothing but a PayPal account. We have helped many to get these landing pages and micro sites up, and have noticed an increased willingness to try new ideas out and monitor the results. Such as a small car dealerships promoting a landing page so that potential clients could add their name and email to test-drive the latest car, with a prize offered for a convertible for the weekend.
If you are thinking of moving over to internet marketing then take a look at what is out there already, get some inspiration from what others are doing and then form a plan of action and give it a try.
July 6, 2009 at 2:21 pm
“Internet Marketing – The Beginners Guide for Small Businesses” FREE can be found at http://www.businessforlife.co.uk/ebook_101apim.html
July 6, 2009 at 3:00 pm
This is a well put together post and so true. In fact I use the internet to market my business all the time. Recently I started a business that creates products from recycled material. We use all kinds of things from clothing to leftover wood. Any way I was researching the net for services that would help me promote my business with out costing me anything. I found several other businesses that promised you the world and then charged you for the country! I sell products from our site on etsy, craigslist, ebay, and so on and you all know that if your not on the top or on top of the game your not going to sell nothing so I was looking for an image hosting site with templates to help make my post and sites more attractive and professional, even though my business is ran from home not an expansive office building. I came across a free 100% free that is site that host images and templates for free. I love it so I wanted to share it with others in the same boat as me. If you’re looking for a secure, reliable and free image and video hosting solution, I found it. Use.com offers unlimited uploads, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited views. Plus, you select your privacy level – share your photos and videos with just friends and family or the whole world. They offer free tools to liven up your listings, including an easy-to-use template builder and eBay Cross-Sell Gallery. Just copy and paste the code! This is great for all the people like me who need business resources and cant afford to pay an arm and a leg. The internet is a valuable tool for marketing.
July 17, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Hi Cyndi
Good spot, I have had a look at the site and it looks good. There are a few good image and video hosters such as http://www.freeimagehosting.net/ and http://photobucket.com/ If anyone has any other good sites let us know
Andy Phillips – Business For Life