One of the fundamentals of marketing is to market to your target audience, and that depends on what product you are promoting. People, especially the young, are spending more and more of their lives online. The advertising and marketing media knows this, and is pushing more and more of their content online as well. This means that the line between the online and off-line world are becoming increasingly blurred.
The online world offers a vast array of marketing opportunities, and you can partake of these without being spammy. Just provide useful content to your readers. Here are some online venues you may want to consider:
* Craigslist: No doubt you have heard of this site, but have you ever truly explored it? Perhaps now is the time to do so. A good place to start is by perusing the listings for your city. Craigslist can be a great place to promote yourself and your business, provided you do so with caution. Craig’s List doesn’t like overt sales pitches but prefers something more casual.
Explore the site for a while to get a feel for the culture. You can promote yourself, your product or your service as long as it isn’t too “salesy.” Remember that Craig’s list can be used to promote a regional business or service too.
* LinkedIn: This is not just for trading business cards or job hunting anymore. LinkedIn can be used to promote any type of business, to build your network and to gain exposure.
* Facebook: With 700 million members, this site is hard to overlook. Features like Groups, Promotions and Events, not to mention Places and Deals make Facebook a great way to promote your online or off-line business.
In addition to these free methods of promotion, Facebook also offers paid advertising options that needn’t break the bank. Since it works on the pay-per-click model, you can test your ads and not pay a dime if they fail to generate clicks. Although Facebook ads work better for some products than others, they can be a viable alternative to Google AdWords.
* If you’re targeting an older audience, you can try Eons.com, which is aimed more at the over-50 crowd.
* YouTube: This isn’t just for dancing cats. Creative and savvy marketers know this is a great place to post speaking gigs, musical performances, demonstrations and presentations. If the subject matter appeals to a wide audience, you can get views, increase your brand recognition, and drive visitors to your website. It’s surprising sometimes which videos will become a sensation.
* Social bookmarking: Link aggregators like Delicious, FriendFeed, Google Bookmarks, Hi5, identi.ca, Posterous, Reddit, Sonico, Tagged, Tumblr, Yahoo Bookmarks and Yelp are not just about managing your own bookmarks anymore but are as much about getting the word out to others. Don’t be surprised if a link posted to one of these social bookmarking sites, due to their high page rank, appear far higher in the search engine placements than the original article on your own site.
Free software like OnlyWire for Mac can post your latest blog offerings to dozens of social bookmarking sites simultaneously.
* Press releases: Don’t overlook these if you have something newsworthy to report, such as a notable guest on your podcast or notable accomplishments by your site regulars. A press release can gain a wide exposure and can greatly enhance the image of your business.
The Web has opened a world of opportunities, and if you start exploring some fresh territory, you may be surprised at what it can do for your marketing efforts!
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