It happens to the best of us. You start a home business. You spend countless hours creating a killer website for your soon-to-be customers or clients. You are so proud of yourself for accomplishing this seemingly insurmountable task. You are watching your stats hourly… No one shows up but your mom and best friend. Now what?
Just as starting a new business was an investment of time, sweat and tears so will be getting people to your fabulous website. (On second thought, no tears will be involved here.) It’s time to start promoting your home business website. The good news is there are numerous free marketing methods available for generating buzz and getting those customers to your virtual door.
1. Get Friendly on Facebook
Facebook remains one of the most trafficked and most interactive social sites available. It provides the perfect opportunity to build trust and get people talking about your business with others. If you don’t already have one, create a Facebook Page for your business and start engaging your followers by asking questions and sharing information. Facilitating these conversations will make you a trusted and recommended resource.
2. Show Up Where Your Target Market Hangs Out
Guest Posting is an excellent way to get your business in front of a large audience, even if you don’t have the web traffic yourself. In most cases, the host blog will allow you to include a link back to your website and social networking profiles. Choose popular and trustworthy blogs that your target market reads. Provide quality, expert information in your posts. Remember that guest posts are not sales pitches. They are an exercise in relationship and brand building. Stick around to respond to comments.
3. Generate Your Own Press
Press Releases are still a great free marketing method for announcing product, service, event or business launches. Write a press release announcing your latest business news then submit it to free submission sites like PRLog and your local newspaper. You may not only receive the attention of your target market but also the media.
4. Help A Reporter
Rather than waiting for visitors and the media to come to you, answer journalist queries to publicize your business. Help A Reporter (HARO) is a free online service that sends out requests from members of the media by email three times per day. There are often high profile opportunities within these emails. Read the requests carefully. Choose those most suitable to your business. Respond exactly as is outlined in the email.
5. Go Local
The local market is often overlooked for a number of reasons. If your home business operates primarily online, you may think local customers are not in need of your products or services. Perhaps you are assuming that everyone locally knows about your business and will come to you. Either way, never assume. You may be missing out on an untapped market. Seek out networking events through your Chamber of Commerce or women’s groups. Be a local consumer. Hold a free workshop related to your business. These are all great ways to meet potential customers and get them interested and talking. Word of mouth marketing is priceless.
Becoming a successful home business owner often requires taking fate into your own hands. You control your destiny. There is only one way to the top and it requires hard work, self-promotion and a relentless attitude. When no one is coming to you, go to them. And never stop expanding your network.
Join my newsletter subscribers! You will not only receive free updates by email and subscriber-only content, you also get instant access to my Ultimate Work at Home Business Plan.
About Angie Nelson
I am headed over to check out HARO…this sounds interesting. Thanks as always for the tips Angie.
Thanks for the list of ideas. I have never used HARO before, so I’ll go sign up and see how it works.
I agree that a lot of times, we have great ideas, get our website up and then get disappointed because it’s less than “busy.” We have to keep trying different ways to get the news out there about it.
There is always somewhere or something new to try, Laurie.
PRLog is a great way to spread news about your business. It does help show up on Google quicker too. Nice advice! Thanks for sharing.
Love the list, Angie! I think that HARO has helped my business the most. In fact, it is so successful that some of my clients have outsourced the handling of going through HARO requests each day (there are literally hundreds) to me, so that I can match the up with the best opportunities without wasting time sorting. I’ll have to spend more time on local, though. We are so close to Omaha, and I haven’t even begun to tap my potential market yet!
I have seen a few service providers with HARO offerings lately. As someone who uses it, I definitely see the opening for a screener. Three emails a day can be overwhelming at times.