Advertising

Advertising can be split into two main groups. Free advertising and Paid advertising.

Another way to think of it, is advertising as a shortcut to more sales and you can either pay with your time or your wallet.

Free advertising usually means you will need to invest your time. This can be many different ways in which to get your message in front of potential customers. Posting online is of the best ways to have free advertising.

It could be a Facebook group, a forum or even a blog. It’s probably best not to be so bold as to directly advertise, particularly on someone else’s space, but instead be helpful.

Post interesting articles or advice on a related subject. People will then gravitate towards you and in time will find your products and services. If they have had a good relationship with you up to that point, the old adage, know, like and trust will make it easier for them to become a paying customer.

Think of all the free content you consume on a daily basis. Think of the online people who you know, like and trust. If they brought out a paid product, or already have one, would you be more willing to part with your cash than to someone you don’t know who is blatantly advertising.

This sort of free advertising is how influencers work. They provide free information and advise and promote brands to their followers who trust them to only promote relevant brands and products.

Paid advertising is a totally different beast.

Without advertising the internet would be nothing like it is today.

Google get the majority of their revenue still from brands and companies advertising on search results.

Facebook makes its billions each year from the highly targeted ads that they run for companies that advertise with them.

In fact the majority of internet companies make money from advertising.

Even old fashioned sectors like newspapers make the majority of their revenue from advertising rather than the sales of physical newspapers.

There are many ways you can advertise your online business and it depends on your branding, your product and your audience, where and how you advertise.

You could advertise on Google Ads if most of your audience are searching for your product or service.

Or Facebook, if your product can be shared or has potential to be viral.

Youtube is another great place to advertise, as most people don’t know, but Youtube is the second largest search engine.

If your product is very niche, you could even reach out to owners of a similar, but not competitive, website to place ads in front of their visitors.

However you decide to advertise, either with time or your wallet, its imperative to keep an eye on the numbers, to see what is and what isn’t working.

Start with one advertising channel, get it working with a good ROI (return on investment). Then rinse and repeat.