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Lesser Known (But Effective) Ways to Promote Your Business Online

Ryan Del Villar

March 24, 2014

Sure, we all know that we need to build a Facebook page, manage a Twitter account, create a blog, and build links so we can reach our market and be on top of search engine results pages. These are the most popular ways of promoting our business through content marketing. What some people may not know is that there are other ways to promote content on the web beyond the basics.

Here are a few samples:

Beyond Blogging:

Writing articles about topics such as news, tips and tricks, features are effective especially if you have catchy titles that are optimized for search engines, but to be able to create a bigger bang, you have to build a complete approach. Let’s consider the following:

· Use AMAZON to publish a book

Having a book to your name or to your company’s name will establish you as one of the thought-leaders in the industry you choose. The e-commerce giant, Amazon, has several online tools that can help you get those thoughts published and convert them into digital books for Kindle.

It can also assist you in creating audiobooks. Best of all, you have the option to have it printed on demand. Self-publishing has been made easier than ever through Amazon. Of course, the best perk is that you get to target audience that you’ve never reached before.

· Create a Quiz or Conduct a Survey

Sometimes, blogging gets to the point of boring. Your target market readers might be able to focus on the first couple of paragraphs but after that, they might not be able to see your links, or worse, not even understand and get the full gist of your story. One effective way to engage your readers is to get them to answer back.

If you can do the questionnaire without requiring the reader to register, then you will have hurdled one of the first challenges in getting the click-through. Readers also enjoy ticking off boxes and getting unexpected results. Make sure you make your questions enjoyable to answer while also being aligned with your current goal.

Beyond Social Media:

This is currently the most powerful marketing tool there is on the web. It is easy to manage, and most of your target market are already registered in the social media space. Still, plenty of social media managers and digital producers are having a hard time converting the likes into return on investments or ROIs. In order to use social media in its full capacity we have to do the following:

· Practice Micro Marketing and Extreme Targeting

Facebook offers a dashboard for page-owners so that they can easily assess the results of their campaigns. The “Insight” of your page will show the statistics of your posts. This is also where you can create ads and set the demographic of the possible recipients of your post. Although it might be tempting to advertise to the 3 million Asian female population who like fashion, it is better to target the 100,000 female population from Hong Kong who loves shoes. This way, whatever you are selling, you have a better chance of reaching out to the person that will likely turn the ad into a sale.

The Facebook page dashboard is easy to use; you just have to decide on what niche you want to be in and use it to its full advantage.

· Create a Slideshare account

Slideshare is an under-utilized content vertical on the web. It is used to present slides in such a way that will explain your business to the reader with the help of visuals and short descriptions. The content you upload on Slideshare will be easier to digest because it is in a presentation format. You can also easily get thousands of views for your content by optimizing each slide for Google search by fixing the links, the alt-tag images and the keywords for your content in Slideshare. To simplify, if videos are for Youtube, then presentations are for Slideshare. It is worth giving a try.

· Reach out to the Press

Go to your local publication and ask if you can give a free contribution to their online newspaper or magazine. Most of the editors will easily agree with you if you offer them relevant content in exchange for a mention and a link. This way, you can build the reputation and credibility of your site’s content by being associated with a trustworthy news source.

Beyond The Usual:

· Develop infographics

Find the trendiest topic that’s related to your business and create a visual explanation for it. For example, it is easier to explain an online comparison portal with a visual aid than with just sentences. Make sure that you provide graphs and charts to further explain how the online comparison portal will help the reader in his daily life. Show the results of the comparison in the form of the visual representation of savings – using images such as piggy banks, coins, wallets, and currencies.

Infographics have more chances of going viral especially if you are able to tickle the fancy of your target market. It has to be easy to understand and fun to look at.

· Produce videos and upload in niche sites

Limit your videos to at least 1-3 minutes, enough to explain and entertain your audience. Longer than that, then you risk boring your viewer. Keep it short and simple but also put as much information as possible. After getting into post-production, upload the video into tutorial sites such as Udemy or to creative portals such as Vimeo. Of course, Youtube is a must-upload site, but going to different platforms will increase your chances of being seen.

· Seek Speakership

Assess your skills and experience. If you consider yourself an expert in a certain specific field, connect with your community and ask if you can talk and share your experiences as a speaker or panelist at the nearest convention they will be hosting. The online and offline advertising for the event can be a very helpful aid to your campaign.

The internet is saturated with different topics and different tactics. It can be a difficult task to find a niche. You have a greater chance of reaching your content marketing goals if you build a complete and holistic content marketing campaign using the complimentary ways we’ve listed above.

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