You can use marketing techniques and tools like social networking, emailing and blogging that do not involve a lot of direct costs. You will want to dedicate your or your employees time to them, but they don't need to use up a lot of money. You can choose all of these forms of e-marketing, or choose the ones most useful and accessible for your clients:
- Blogging
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Create a corporate blog (video blogging, photoblog, art blog) and share it with the world. Through your own blog, you can reach your clients to tell them of changes in products or services, you can get their feedback and gain ideas for better ways of doing business. Again, your client should be your main focus; tell them how they are getting value for their money, but also provide something useful like your expert advice. Provide a service through your blog that naturally gets shared and attracts traffic. More about Blog: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
*You can create your own blog without having a website.
- Commenting
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You can post your messages on other blogs that focus on specific topics. If you sell organic produce, use the Internet to find consumers who are interested in organic produce. You can answer people's questions, while allowing them to contact you or your business for more information.
- Emailing
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Sending emails to clients and others who agree to receive information from you is a useful way to keep them abreast of new developments in your business, all the while reminding them of your existence. They'll appreciate that you take the time to reach out to them. Remember, people are busy and it's up to you to be proactive. Always check your inbox; most clients expect some form of response within 24 hours. Also, be sure to give your clients an option to unsubscribe from your emails, if they don't want to receive them.
- Podcasting
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A podcast or non-streamed webcast is a series of digital media files, involves sharing audio and video files on the Internet. You can use podcasts to promote new products, provide tutorials, share interviews, and more. Listeners can tune in when they want and how they want. As long as they have Internet access, listeners can tune in with a computer, an iPad, iPod, iPhone, an MP3 Player, a BlackBerry or other mobile devices (cell).
- Search Engine Optimization
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If you have an online presence, make sure people can find you. Learn how to use the right keywords (or use my help), in the right place, so that interested consumers can find you on the Web. Use incoming appropriate-links (get other Web sites to link to yours).
- Social Networking
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A social network is a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations), which are connected by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, common interest, financial exchange, relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.
The new generation of chat rooms is called social networking sites and range from general topic sites like Facebook and Twitter or other sites on specific topics (segments), like LinkedIn which focuses on business.
- Media Sharing
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Websites allow users to share photo (picasa), video (youtube) or audio files online at no cost. You can take advantage of media sharing sites to directly advertise your business (maps.google.com) and drive traffic to your website. By posting a video about your products or services, you can potentially generate new customers as you engage with existing ones.
- Wiki
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Wikis allow you to collaborate with others online. Wikis can be very useful (with powerfull a link to your website) in business by allowing you to develop team based content and to maintain documents with multiple authors. Common uses of wikis include community websites, corporate intranets and knowledge management systems.
