Online Marketing Tool

Some of the best online marketing tool options are free. Fancy banner ads and expensive pay per click campaigns are not always the best alternative when trying to market your personal or commercial website. So what are a few free online marketing tools that you can use to promote your website and increase your public image?

Social Networking is prevalent within our Web 2.0 culture. Even baby boomers are increasing their presence within internet networking site such as Facebook and Youtube. Using social networking as a marketing tool for your website will allow your website (or business) to receive a diverse set of web traffic. There are many successful internet marketers that have used Web 2.0 sites such as Twitter to generate thousands of dollars of income. So how come social networking sites are effective? Social networking is effective in generating traffic because a “viral effect” happens whenever a website with great content becomes popular. Word of mouth is a very popular marketing tool and with the internet, the possibilities are endless with viral marketing as one person could spread the word about your website to thousands upon thousands of other social networking users. However, there is a trade off of allowing social networking traffic visit your website as many of these social networkers are seeking friends and entertainment opportunities, not information. If your only goal is to make the public become aware of your product or website, then social networking is a great tool for marketing a website. However, if you are trying to target a specific target group and sell a product, then social networking might not be right for your marketing goals. Lastly, using social bookmarking sites such as Digg is a great way to share products and business information with millions of people. Bookmarking your blog and website pages within a social bookmarking site are a great way to share business ideas and products with millions of people worldwide.

Another free way to promote your website is to create a blog about your product or company. Blogging is a virtual diary and with great blogging platforms such as WordPress and Blogger, there are many more options available in the blogosphere besides writing. Having the ability to create supporting websites for your business website (or business) will allow you to promote your product and business to people that you wouldn’t have a chance to reach within your local region. Developing a website or blog will give your business a better reach that it would have if you didn’t have one. Plus, it couldn’t hurt, right? All it would take for one to create a blog is have a couple of hours to read about how to blog and to write a few posts.

The other benefit of blogging is developing an RSS subscriber list and an email mailing list. Many people who like the content of blogs like to subscribe to the site so that they can receive up to date information whenever the blogger posts new content. You can also have people “opt-in” into a e-mail list so that you can e-mail potential customers about new products and updates about your company. This is a great way to stay in contact with your fellow customers and the best effect of email marketing is that you develop a personal relationship with each person that you add to your mailing list. However, be careful about the amount of times you email people within a month or you might annoy many people. Only email these people when you have useful information and make sure that your intent is not always commercial. On the same lines of email marketing, using an automatic email responder is a very convenient way to send out emails without having to manually send out emails to each and every person on your email list.

On the same lines of developing a blog, developing a website is a great online marketing tool as you will have more exposure and coverage to many people. Instead of having coverage to your local area, you will be able to reach people as far as India or Australia. Your portfolio site should show off your skills, business or product. Remember, the more websites that you have, the more potential customers and traffic you will have.

Using article directory sites such as Ezine and GoArticles will allow you to create buzz about a certain product or topic. Also, coupled with a website, article directories are a good way to increase your rankings with a search engine.

These are only a few ways to increase your arsenal of online marketing tools to increase traffic to your business.