How a business chooses to promote itself has always been a key element in their success (or failure).  Effective promotions increase revenue and adds value to your brand. Bad promotions can hemorrhage your company now and later from reduced sales. The best methods to promote a business has undoubtedly changed in the past decade, but here are 5 ways to promote your business without breaking the bank.

Have a great website (Cost:Varies)

Having a great website should be a no-brainer, but many businesses – even those that need it the most – neglect their online presence with outdated and poorly developed sites.  A properly developed website is one of the greatest assets one can have in business. It’s a 24/7/365 sales force, customer service center, and marketing machine that is always working for you.                                                        

Use social media (Cost:Free)

Social media is here to stay. The names will change (myspace<facebook<twitter<thenextbigthing) but one thing is for sure: social marketing is a great way to build your business. You can gain massive exposure for nothing more than a few hours a week. As long as you’re providing content that adds value to the person on the other end, people will like/follow/share your business’s message.

Leads from social networking are typically much warmer than other methods of promotion, because they already have a bond with your brand and like how you do business (or at least your product).

Write articles (Cost:Free)

Writing articles are beneficial in many ways – more than I thought possible when I first started ‘blogging’. Most people will tell you that the greatest benefit of writing articles is establishing your expertise on the subject you’re writing about. While it is certainly true articles showcase your knowledge of a particular subject, the greatest benefit in my opinion is that what was once a typhoon of information thrashing about in my head is an organized and linear fashion that can be shared with the world. The 80% increase in traffic my site’s seen since blogging doesn’t hurt either.

Gather customer reviews (Cost:Free)

Do people tell you how happy they are with your product/service? Then why not share their enthusiasm and satisfaction with customer reviews. People are more likely to do business with you if other people have already taken a chance and had that trust rewarded. Gathering customer reviews isn’t hard: in fact, it’s one of the easiest things to do – all you have to do is ask. Although I’m a big fan of the personal approach, you can ask in other ways such as offering a coupon in exchange for a customer’s opinion. If you’re in business, you have customers. If you want to stay in business, you’ll make those customers happy. If you want to grow your business, you should share the fruits of your labor with customer reviews.