Most business owners will most likely think about advertising when talking about increasing the exposure of their brand, product, or service - probably because we live in world in which we encounter hundreds of advertisements daily.

If you’re like most business owners, you’ve probably explored a few options here or there, such as print ads or search engine ads. The possibilities are endless, right? Not so much.

Advertising is expensive.

Don’t let the cost of advertising discourage you from marketing your business - advertising is only one of the many facets of marketing.

Ways to Beat the High Cost of Advertising

There are plenty of free alternatives to advertising that effectively increase the exposure of your brand, product, or service.

1. Launch a website or two or three

The first thing you need in order to beat the expense of print advertising, is an online presence - the best place to start creating that presence is with your own website.

For those new to the web, there are a few major attractions a business site should host for its visitors.

• The front page - this is where you’ll be promoting your various services or products. This area is designed to hook your visitor’s attention and get them to click further into your site for more information. For an awesome example, check out Apple’s website.
• The about page - this is usually the second most visited page on a website, so it’s important to create one. They key here is to create the tone of your company. For small business owners, this page is a chance to win a customer from a larger brand. The way you do this is by being transparent yet professional - reveal who you are by including a tasteful picture (preferably one that makes you look successful), a little background, and what you do. In addition, you might want to consider creating a mantra or mission statement for the company - especially if you’re trying to do something in addition to make money.
• The product or service pages - If you’re promoting your goods to visitors on the front page, then you’ll want to have a place to send them when they click your promotions with interest - this place should be your produce or service pages. Here, you will reveal the specifics about your goods. For an extensive example, check out Apple’s product page for the iPhone 3GS.
• The contact page - This is perhaps one of the most important areas on a website; without it, you wouldn’t be hearing from customers no matter how exciting your products or services were. The best way to put yourself out there is to include a contact form with a captcha image (a test robots can’t pass)- this way, you don’t risk the chance of encountering debilitating spam. In addition, you might consider making it known where else you can be contacted or found online, such as Twitter, Facebook, or Digg.
• The blog page - Whether you host your blog on a third party site, such as WordPress or Blogger, or on your own site, you should make it available and known to your visitors. Including a link from your front page can increase the page rank of your blog, so be sure to include one either in the header, sidebar, footer, or body of the page. A common method of linking to a company blog without distracting visitors from product or service pages is to place your link in the footer of your website - visit our front page to see the link to this blog in the footer. This brings us to the next step in creating your online presence.

2. Write a blog or two or three … regularly

There’s a lot of debate as to whether or not blogging is an effective way to attract readers and customers - I’m here to tell you that you shouldn’t blame the blog, you should blame the blogger.

Blogging opened the doors for everyone to publish to the web - it’s both a gift and a curse because not everyone is qualified to be publishing work.

The key to blogging successfully is to write high quality posts that help the reader (your customer) by offering a solution to a problem … on a regular basis. Providing value is what it’s all about in the blogosphere, so once you understand what your customer wants you’re ready to start providing help through your blog.

A few things you should know about blogging:

• Blogging takes time - Simply because you built it, doesn’t mean they’ll come in the blogosphere. It takes time to get use4d to the medium; it takes time for Google to index your content; it takes time for visitors to find your site. Blogging takes time, requires dedication, and requires patience, so be sure you’re prepared when embarking on the long journey. Keep at it and you’ll taste the rewards of free brand exposure, high traffic levels, and additional customers.
• Search Engines - Google just reported that 82% of people use search engines to find what they’re looking for - you need to understand what search engines like in terms of content. Check out Google’s webmaster guidelines.
• SEO - Once you have a good idea what the search engines are all about, you can then decide where you stand in terms of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Do you think it’s necessary to hone your content for the search engines, or hone your content for your readers? Perhaps a balance of both is best.
• Driving Traffic - Naturally, this is what you’ll be after when learning about SEO. The secret here is to create valuable content your reader needs and wants, create compelling titles they can’t resist, and let them know through various outlets, including social profiles, social networking, and email.

Blogging is a lot of work, but it’s one of the best ways to get your brand and profile out there organically. The more you blog, the more likely you’ll see more traffic. Remember, blogging is all about value to the reader. Provide people with free help upfront and they might just become paying customers some where down the line.

3. Build an email list

Email marketing has become one of the most effective methods of advertising, second only to search marketing, due to affordable cost, speed of delivery, and the ability to build a list of targeted leads.

The idea behind an email marketing campaign is simple - capture email information from people interested in learning more or hearing from you in the future and send them compelling information designed to get them to do what you want (buy a product, visit a website, donate, etc.).

The more emails you capture for your list, the better the chance your message will reach the right pair of eyes and you’ll succeed in reaching your goal motivating your email campaign.

There are three popular ways to do this: the opt-in, the newsletter sign up, and the email feed subscription.

Here are a few advantages to email marketing:

• Its inexpensive compared to direct mail or newsletters
• You can track statistics and response metrics
• Delivery time usually takes seconds
• Exact ROI (return of investment) can be tracked
• It supports the green movement
• Advertisers are able to push their message with publishers
• Email lists ads value to a web publisher’s advertising worth
• Email marketing is paper-free
• Email marketing helps build your brand with repetition
• Allows people to unsubscribe easily without hassle

4. Create a social profile or two or three

Chances are you’ve heard all about social media and why it’s important to get involved as a business owner - but have you? A recent study reveals up to 76% small business owners have yet to get involved with social media. Here are two more numbers that might encourage you if you’re wondering what all the hype is about:

• Twitter has over 12.1 million users
• Facebook has over 200 million users

Those are just two of the many social sites online - think of those user numbers as potential customer numbers.

While 76% of small business owners have yet to get involved with social media, Google recorded roughly 82% of people (as a whole) user search engines to find information. The bottom line here is that people have adopted the web as a form of major communication they use on a daily basis.

Creating a social presence for your business is crucial if you hope to connect with your customers in a more personal way, which is something people value about companies today more than ever - this is what transparency is all about.

In addition to connecting, your social profiles will also increase the exposure of your brand and your profile as a pro in your field, so it’s a good idea to explore a handful of social sites when getting involved - just be careful not to go overboard by joining too many sites to manage … start with three.

There are a few types of social profiles, each focused on a certain function in the social webosphere - take a glance:

• Networking - This is probably the most commonly known thanks to sites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and more. This type of social site enables its members to connect with each other, send messages, post links, publish photos, and more. This is the best way to connect with people and build a following - especially with such functions as Facebook Pages and Groups.
• Micro-Blogging - This is the runner up thanks to one site in particular … Twitter. This type of social site enables its users to post short updates, jokes, pictures, videos, and more and puts the micro in micro-blogging by capping how many characters a user can use when posting - in Twitter’s case, the cap is set at 140 characters. This type of site is great to spread the word about new posts, what you’re reading or watching, what you’re up to (if exciting … no one cares that you’re eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich), and what you’re doing. Keep it fresh, compelling, and regular to effectively harness the power of the micro-blogging medium.
• Bookmarking - For business owners interested in driving traffic, this type of social site will interest you. Sites like Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and more enable users to post links to interesting content from around the web, including news stories, blog posts, services, photos, videos, and more. Post your blog content or article links on these sites and you might just see a spike of traffic.  The more people “Digg” or “like” or “thumbs up” the content you added, the better the chance it has of reaching the front page, which has been known to send hundreds or even thousands of new visitors your way.

Reach out to the millions of people using social media and provide them with value - the more you help people for free, the more likely they’ll see you as a dependable source for information and help, which will lead to more paying customers in the future.

Avoid spamming people with advertising or sales pitches - this is a fast track to damaging your brand, your business, and your online presence.

5. Add your website to directories

Once you’ve created and launched a website or web presence of some sort (social profile, free blog, etc.), consider spreading the news to those interested in your niche by adding your website to directories.

There are all sorts of directories online, including our very own yellow pages directory here at Dapeem.com, so do your research. The key here is to find smaller directories that rank well in the search engines - adding your info to one of these might actually increase your traffic.

Here are a few types of directories that can be used to increase the exposure of your brand or profile:

• Website directories - Host to a wide collection of websites and blogs.
• Blog directories - Specifically for those contributing to the blogosphere.
• Article directories - Host to an array of articles in all categories - usually uploaded by those interested in article marketing. Uploading an article to one of these extends your reach, exposes your brand and profile, and builds an incoming link to your web presence.
• Business directories - Host to business and organization listings organized by category and location - add your business to the Dapeem.com yellow pages!

Browse around the web and consider all the different directories and their purpose - similar to social profiles, the best way to yield the power of the directory is to choose one, two, or three to start.

6. Publish a PDF or eBook

If you’re interested in extending your reach beyond the article here and the blog post there, consider producing content packages, such as PDFs, official reports, and eBooks. This might sound like a major process, but it doesn’t have to be - one way to do this is to package a few related posts from your blog together and make it available as a downloadable PDF.

While a reader could easily visit a tag or category page to view this content, the chances are slim that they will. In addition, packaging content adds additional value, even if it’s recycled content. Packaged content feels more substantial to readers because it’s something they can easily print, take with them, and share.

Here are the basics:

• PDF - This is a file format created by Adobe - for more on this, learn more about PDF on Wikipedia.
• eBook - This tends to be more extensive than a basic PDF report - including everything from a table of contents, chapter list, and forward by the author.

PDF reports and eBooks work best when made available without charge - at least in while building your brand and profile online in the beginning. By making these helpful supplementals available to those interested for free, you’re positioning yourself as an expert in the niche - this can pay off down the road when the people you’ve helped along the road become paying customers.

7. Produce a video or two or three

You can do some pretty amazing things with video these days - the most obvious being the ability to share and spread video online.

With social sites focused on video sharing and hosting, people can upload their videos (or even record directly to the website), customize the page on which the video appears, and start sharing it using the auto-generated link or embed code.

A few video sharing sites you should check into:

• YouTube - duh
• Google Video
• Vimeo

A few video ideas for businesses might include the following:

• Promotional videos - This will be most effective when embedded into your own site. Check out the promotional video for Google Wave here. These videos are designed to show the viewer what something is all about, the motive behind the subject, and how the viewer can get involved.
• Viral videos - These are hard to pull off, but if you can manage it you’ll experience an awesome amount of traffic if your campaign is carried out carefully.
• Video tours - Usually led by the CEO, owner, or other member of staff, these focus on sharing the work space, office, or restaurant with the viewer in a personable way similar to a behind the scenes featurette.
• Video podcast - This involves an dedication to produce and release a series of videos about a certain subject. Unlike a collection of videos uploaded

Video is the hot spot on the web these days - it requires less work from the web viewer searching for info, it’s more visually interesting than an article of text, and it’s spreadable.

8. Share compelling images

Much like video sharing sites, image driven sites can increase your brand’s exposure, your personal profile as an expert in the field, and even act as a viral ad for your services or company.

A few things you can do to increase exposure with images:

• Controversial ads - create a bit of viral imagery
• Eye-catching design - simple, different, compelling
• Logo - spread your logo around the web to help brand your company
• Share photos of your work place

Overall, creating images to increase the exposure of your brand or profile is effective thanks to such services as Google image search, Flickr, and others.

9. Create an affiliate program

One way to spread your brand around the web is to create an affiliate program for one of your products or services.

An affiliate program is something that enables other web publishers, including bloggers, website managers, and even the regular social profile user, to make a little money by recommending your product or service to their network of contacts.

Here’s how it usually work:

• Business owners create an affiliate program
• Web publishers sign up and promote your product or service as an affiliate member (usually in the form of a recommendation)
• The affiliate’s network listen to their recommendation and follow unique affiliate links back to your site
• When a customer arrives at your site via affiliate link and makes a purchase, the affiliate earns a percentage for their contribution to make the sale possible

Affiliate programs are particularly attractive to web publishers interested in making extra money for helping promote a product or service they believe in.

For the business owner, affiliate programs help achieve two major goals:

• Sell your product or service
• Brand your company

Imagine the extra exposure you could get with the help of five affiliate program members - then imagine the massive exposure your could be getting with 20, 50, or even 100 affiliate program members!

Consider this method like a marketing “street team” dedicated to promoting your products or services all around the web - the higher the percentage you pay affiliates, the more affiliate you’ll attract; and the more affiliate you attract, the more product and service you’ll sell.

You might want to consider getting your attorney involved with this method when drawing up the legal and financial agreement for your future affiliate members.

10. Design an app or two or three for the App Store

The Apple App Store exploded onto the scene in mid 2008 and created a billion dollar industry with the help of affiliate developers in little over a year. With the ever growing popularity of Apple’s products, including the iPhone and iPod touch, it’s time for business owners to hop aboard the app train and bring something new to the table - you never know, it might be the next hit app.

While there are several platforms to develop your app for, Apple’s App Store is the original and by far most popular - with over a billion (1,000,000,000) apps downloaded in just one year.

Apps are designed not only as an alternative revenue stream, but as a way to brand, attract, and make your services or products available on a mobile device.

Some call this web 3.0 - the ability to use an app on your mobile device to achieve something or get the value of a site without having to visit the site.

Starbucks recently published their app, which enables users to build their custom drink, find nearby stores, explore different drinks, and share your favorite drinks with friends. In addition the app reveals the nutritional value of your creation and enables you to save your friends drinks as well, which can come in handy if picking up for a friend, co-worker, or boss!

There’s been a long-running rumor that customers will even be able to place their Starbucks order using their mobile device.

The best way to get involved with this is to hire a professional developer - they’ll know the ins, out, and what’s hot. consider browsing the App Store on your Apple device for an idea of what developers and companies are publishing. Every app usually includes developer information - if you see one that sparks your fancy, contact the developer for more information.

To give you an idea of what’s out there, here’s a quick list of categories:

• Games
• Entertainment
• Utilities
• Social Networking
• Music
• Productivity
• Lifestyle
• Reference
• travel
• Sports
• Navigation
• Healthcare & Fitness
• News
• Photography
• Finance
• Business
• Education
• Weather
• Books
• Medical

Overall, the success of Apple’s App Store goes to prove that people want more not only from their mobile device, but from companies and websites as well.

For more on this, check out the App Store page at Apple and see how your iPhone gets better with every new app.

So many possibilities!

I hope this post proved there are plenty of alternatives to advertising for those interested in marketing their business.

Start your marketing campaign simple - a profile here, a business listing there - and take it from there.

Get started right here on Dapeem.com - add your business to our yellow page directory - with a team of SEO professionals, content specialists, copy editors, and administrative staff, it’s one of the best directories online.

How are you marketing your business online?

Share how you’re marketing your business online in the comments form below and whether it’s working!

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