Promoting a business online a simple trick

With the recession in full flow and many businesses struggling to find clients and customers, the internet if used in your favour can work for you with good results.

When people talk of promoting a business online, they automatically assume it means having their own web site and all the expenses, head aches and pains involved with anything new that they have no idea about and dont understand. There are an abundance of places you can advertise for free and you dont need a website to be found.

What many companies overlook is the abundance of places they can advertise for free with no need for the own website. Plus they have 24/7 advertising at no cost if done right.

Many companies will advertise in local papers, which are good if the person looking for your services is able to get a copy, but what if that person has a holiday home and hopes to find a service provider prior to heading to their holiday home.

They might also rely on word of mouth, ask a neighbour or know someone who knows someone who knows someone etc

The humble internet forum is a highly overlooked method of free advertising that can bring in customers that might not ever have known you exist, let alone what you offer or where you are.

OK here is the reasoning behind this.
Internet forums cover a lot of subjects
The average person viewing a forum will search one subject and end up reading several pages
So you will have a person look at a post on say buying a car in Spain then get side tracked reading about property problems.
Internet forums will normally have a flow of traffic, so your not starting from scratch trying to build a web sites traffic

Dont think oh great lets go and start placing adverts on all the internet forums because its been recommended here. You can get flagged up for spam and get your ip and email banned.

There is a trick to it and there are also ways of finding your target audience.

First off the trick. Rather than doing a post about your business, use signatures to promote your company. One person who does this successfully on here is Jon who runs a satellite TV instillation business here on the Costa Blanca

One example of Jon promoting his company
http://www.thespainforum.com/f286/ne...gandia-182016/

He uses a signature link, at the same time if you dont have a website that could be a simple business name and description with a telephone number for example. If your promoting a bar you could have your bar location, estate agents can have their contact details or language lessons, your contact details.

Not all internet forums allow the use of signature links, but a lot do these days. You might find you join a forum and the first couple of posts might be moderated or you need to be approved by the forum administrator.

So how will, this help promote your business.

Each time you reply to a post or start a new thread, your details will be posted in your signature. Each time its another free online promotion your gaining.
In some cases this can be to your advantage if your an estate agent and someone needs help with a property issue, they will tell their friends of the nice friendly estate agent (if they exist )

Or join in conversations about local matters. In this case someone might be doing a search on a subject to do with a local town or village and they get to see your details in your signature when you give advice or join in a conversation on a subject.

Again posting details of local and upcoming events can be just as good at bringing in the required results. After all a lot of local companies know whats going on in an area and normally have good local knowledge.

To find your target audience is as simple as a google search which will throw up an abundance of results on any given area of Spain

For example if your your a removals company and your targeting the whole of Spain, try searching Spain forums
Spain forums - Google Search

Your target audience is the Costa Blanca Spain
costa blanca forums - Google Search

The list of forums you can advertise on is endless and they are all free.

Some forums offer blogs and free classifieds which can also be used to your advantage as a free online business promotional tool.

Again the forum will already have internet traffic and you will stand more chance of your details being seen.

The trick is to think outside the box. Dont think oh well by having our website people will find us if we rank number one for x term on the internet. If people are searching for other subjects, they still have a chance to see your company or business details

If your in any doubt about what you can or cant do on any given internet forum, contact the forum owner or administrator. They dont bite and will normally give you tips and insight into getting the most out of using the forum.

Word of mouth then comes into its own. Someone might ask a friend do you know of x company that does such and such, or do you know of a person that teaches Spanish in such and such area, best bar for a it of grub in x town.

Internet forums are a great free place for promoting your company or business

At the same time the above is open for abuse. You might get a customer to post a great story promoting your company about how you came to their rescue. Or someone ask the best place to get a full fried English breakfast in x village or town. And a simple reply of greasy jo´s is good value at such and such.

The best part about promoting your company or business in the above methods is it the forums will love you. Each time your posting and promoting your company or business your also helping the forums grow

Added 17/06

Something I forgot to mention is that most forums, even though they might look different, all basically work the same when it comes to making posts, relying to posts etc.

On here we have several walkthroughs / step by step guides to eliminating some of the mysteries on how to use an inter forum

http://www.thespainforum.com/f342/