The Top 10 Ways to Promote Your Business Online

Today, I'd like to share 10 ways to promote your business online.

The internet is a powerful marketing tool. When leveraged properly, you can reach a worldwide audience for free (or a very low cost). Even if you have a solid local marketing plan, you should leverage the internet to grow your customer base and expand your reach.

The 10 marketing strategies you see below work. I use them myself. What I suggest you do is pick one or two of these strategies and focus on them exclusively. Once you master them, you can diversify.

# 1: Email Signature

An email signature automatically gets attached to every email you write and/or reply to. If you aren't using a catchy email signature to market your business online, you are really missing out.

I can't speak for you, but I write and reply to several hundred emails per day. Every person receiving my emails sees my marketing message in my email signature. Even if just a small percentage of these people click on the link and check out my offer, it is a win-win proposition for me.

A good email signature has your photo, name, email, title and a POWERFUL P.S. line. The P.S. line is the most important part of it. That's where you put your marketing message.

Here are a few example email signatures:

P.S. We've discovered a simple home-based business anyone can do. If you're looking to earn an extra $500 to $5,000 per month part-time , you've got to see this!

P.S. Looking to make money online? Here's a detailed article I wrote discussing 37 ways to make money online fast. This is a must read BEFORE you start trying to make money online.

P.S. Want to drink coffee and get paid? Visit my website to learn how you can do it.

# 2: YouTube

Every business needs a YouTube channel. YouTube is one of the most popular websites in the world, right up there with Google & Facebook. People visit YouTube to learn new things and be entertained.

People use YouTube as a search engine, just like Google and Bing. They type in what they are looking for and BAM: they find it! You should create high quality videos to promote your product, service, and business.

Focus on educating people. Provide value. Talk as if you were sitting across the kitchen table from another person. Be unique. Whatever you do, don't be BORING!

Keep your videos short and to the point. At the end of each video, include your call to action. Tell your viewer exactly what you want them to do next. You can also include your links and contact information below each video, in the description box.

# 3: Facebook

Facebook offers plenty of opportunities to promote your business online. You can use sponsored ads, fan pages, and contact people individually. My favorite way to promote my business on Facebook is via Facebook groups.

Basically, you design a group geared around a specific topic. For instance, if you sell coffee, you can start your own "coffee lovers" Facebook group. Within your group, you can educate and entertain your audience by sharing stats, videos, photos, articles, and good to know information about COFFEE.

From time-to-time, you can mix in information about your product or service. Either way, it's a win-win, because you (1) help and serve your customers, (2) expand your brand, and (3) make more sales.

# 4: Banner Ads

Banner ads are quite popular and effective. You could hire a graphic designer on Fiverr.com or Upwork.com to create some catchy banner ads for you. You could then reach out to bloggers and webmasters in your niche and advertise on their blogs.

Done right, this is an inexpensive way to promote your business online. My secret is to reach out to popular blogs that don't have much advertising on them. Perhaps the webmaster is unfamiliar with advertising options, or just hasn't gotten around to it. You can negotiate a price with them and try out your banner ads. Make sure you use a tracking code for each banner ad, so you can track your results.

There are also websites online that offer banner ad services. Basically, they work with a network of blogs and websites. You purchase your ads through them and they reach out to the bloggers and webmasters on your behalf (for a fee) and post your ads on their sites. You can do a quick Google search to learn more about this option.

# 5: Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

PPC Advertising is the fastest way to promote your business online. Whenever someone does a search on Google, Yahoo, or Bing, ads appear at the top, right, and bottom of the page. These ads are mixed in with the organic search results. The ads you see are PPC ads.

PPC ads work great because they only appear for the search terms you select. Plus, you control how much you spend per click. And, you are only charged when someone clicks on your ad.

In a nutshell, you can create an ad, a short message, and include a link to your website. You select a keyword (or group of keywords) you want your ad to show up for and then select how much you want to "bid" on each keyword.

Whenever someone does a search on a search engine for one of your keywords, your ad shows up (assuming you bid high enough). You are only charged when someone clicks on your ads.

This method can be quite expensive, if you don't know what you are doing, so you might want to hire an advertising agency (or expert) to help you with it, or at least educate yourself first. Start small and test your results before you decide to scale things up.

# 6: Twitter

Love it or hate it, Twitter is an effective way to reach your audience and promote your business online. You can share articles, videos, photos, expand your reach, communicate with fans, send direct messages, use hashtags, and grow your audience. This is a great long-term marketing strategy. It's also a great way to build your brand.

Twitter also has a great ads platform. You can promote your Tweets to gain more visibility.

Not all audiences are on Twitter, so do your homework first. However, if your target audience tends to have Twitter accounts, don't neglect promoting your business there.

# 7: Podcasting

Podcasting is similar to a radio talk show. Basically, you can create your own online radio show where you talk about certain topics that are relevant to your niche. This allows you to brand yourself, position yourself as an expert, build up your like, know, and trust factor with your audience, and keep your audience engaged.

Podcasts are typically 20 to 60-minutes long. Personally, I keep mine to ten minutes or less. What's important is your content. Give your audience what they want. Educate and entertain them. Whatever you do, don't be boring!

At the end of each podcast, you can tell people how to get in touch with you. You can also include your links and contact information in the description box below each podcast.

# 8: Guest Posting

Guest posting on other people's blogs and websites is a great way to promote your business online, especially if you are a good writer. Basically, what you do is reach out to influencers in your niche.

For example, if you own a hardware store, you could find several bloggers who review tools, write about home improvements, or cater to the handyman or do-it-yourself niche.

You could write high quality articles showcasing your expertise. At the end of each article, you can include your author bio, along with your contact information and links to your website. People who read your articles and like what you have to say can click on your link and visit your website.

# 9: Online Forums

There are thousands of online forums. Think on an online forum as a community of people in a certain niche. If your company sells weight loss products, as an example, you could find forums that specialize in health and weight loss.

You could become an active contributor to that forum and provide a link to your website in your profile and signature. You could also do paid advertising on the forum.

# 10: LinkedIn

I definitely can't leave LinkedIn off the list of best ways to promote your business online.

One of my biggest regrets is not leveraging LinkeIn sooner. You can post articles (like this one), share content, connect with people one-on-one, join groups, do paid advertising and many other things.

It all starts with a great profile. Add a good photo and spend a few hours creating a good profile that explains who you are and what you do. From there, the key to success is to identify your target market and focus on providing value to them.

Post fresh, new content on a regular basis. Consistency is key!

Key Considerations

Choose two or three marketing strategies from this list that make sense to you. Don't try to do all of them at once. Once you choose the strategies you want to use, visit YouTube and search for tutorial videos on how to implement your chosen strategies. Each of these strategies have many "how to" videos that provide step-by-step instructions.

Final Thoughts

In summary, these are 10 ways for you to promote your business online. I hope you found the information helpful. Which tip is your favorite? What is an additional tip that I did not list that you would recommend? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.

About the Author

Chuck Holmes is an author, blogger entrepreneur, and Network Marketing Professional . He lives in sunny Florida with his wife, Rachel.