Category: - Online Marketing Advice

Achieving the absolute most from your Home Business Advertising

12/22/2009

There are numerous ways in which you can carry out your home business advertising. However it is important to make sure that you choose the right ways for your business so that you can maximise your profits. This is a short article that highlights just a few areas that you need to make sure you are aware of if you wish to get the most from your home business advertising.

Understand your business

This sounds really obvious but it is so important that you understand your business and what it stands for. You need to make sure that what you hope to achieve is completely realistic and that you understand exactly what it entails. To get the most out of your advertising you also need to understand and appreciate the type of people you are targeting. Make sure that you only advertise in ways that will capture your target audience and do not waste time and money on areas that your business is not suited to.

This is incredibly important when you first set up your home business as you will most likely have a small advertising budget. So make sure that you know who your customers are and organise your advertising so that you target them.

Advertising does not have to cost money

It is also worth remembering that home business advertising does not necessarily mean spending a lot of money. Of course there will be some areas that may require a little money such as advertising in magazines or newspapers, producing flyers and business cards. But there are also many ways of advertising for free. You could seek out relevant websites and forums and get to know the people there and mention your business and site. Or you could create an account on facebook or twitter or any other social networking site and spread the word to people who may be interested.

You could also consider setting up your own blog to help promote what it is your business does and to make yourself be seen as an expert in your area. This can be a great way of building up trust between your business and potential customers.

Overall home business advertising need not be complicated, just make sure that you know who your target audience is and seek out free ways to advertise.

Learn more about how you can make money online by visiting this home business advice site.

Click here to receive FREE online marketing advice and tips to help you run a profitable home business.

Why Tracking Your Advertising is key to Home Business Success

12/15/2009

When you first start your UK home business you will no doubt spend much time, effort and money on advertising. However many do not then keep track of which method is the most effective for them. As a result of this they could continue to advertise in ways that are not resulting in business. This is just a short article explaining how and why you should track all of your advertising.

Why you should track your advertising
Once you have set up your UK home business and decided on the methods you wish to use for advertising, you will need to track everything. This will include hits to your websites, blogs and back links created from articles, press releases and posts you may have made on forums.

Essentially this is so that you know which methods of advertising are the most productive for your business. After all if you are spending a lot of money placing ads online then it pays to know how many views and hits they are creating to your site. Similarly if you place ads in magazines or papers then think about requesting people quote where they saw your ad. You may like to even add an incentive for people to use certain links such as money off or freebies.

How to track your adverts
Now you know what you should be doing you may be wondering how exactly you go about tracking all of your adverts. Many people have no idea how to go about this and assume that it is more complicated then it actually is. However there are numerous programs available that can help you to do this and they need not be expensive. It is worth viewing tracking as a necessary expense though as it can help to contribute greatly to the success of your business. In fact it could actually save you money in the long run as you will not need to pay out for expensive ads that are not generating any business.

It is therefore important to realise that you should only advertise if you are prepared to track it to see how effective the method is. Hopefully you will realise that it makes more business sense to know that the money you are putting into advertising your UK home business is actually paying off and not being wasted.

Click here to receive FREE online marketing advice and tips to help you run a profitable home business.

Why Business Plans are useful for a UK Home Business

12/15/2009

A business plan is a document that will help you to create a successful UK home business and outline your objectives, providing you with an idea of how it will work financially.

Why you should have a business plan
It is incredibly common these days for someone who is thinking of starting a new business to create a detailed business plan. Often these will be needed by the bank before you can obtain a business loan if you require one. However, even if you do not require a loan or financial backing you could greatly benefit from having a business plan in place.

By having a plan set out you can establish if your expectations are reasonable. It will also enable you to work out the amount of money you need to earn and how much work you will need to make the business financially viable. You can set a business plan for whatever time frame you feel necessary. If you set yourself a specific goal then you are more likely to stick to this and achieve it by having a plan in place. Often those who do not have a business plan find that it is easy to lose their way.

Items to include in your business plan

A good business plan should include well thought out ways of meeting the goals that you have set for your business. This should mean that you have also carefully thought out the best way to achieve your goals. A business plan is after all no good if it simply consists of a list of objectives that you have no way of meeting. To have a successful business you need to plan ahead and make sure that your UK home business is viable which is why having a business plan is important. A business plan will also contain well thought ideas on the best ways for you to find customers and the budget you have for marketing.

If you have no experience of creating a business plan then you will find that there is a lot of expert help available on the internet. This will give you an idea of the things you need to include and areas that you need to focus on along with the best way to write one. Even better, if you know someone that has made a UK home business plan before then ask for their help.

Click here to receive FREE online marketing advice and tips to help you run a profitable home business.

Marketing a UK Home Business with your Own Website

12/15/2009

When you first set up your UK home business you may find that you could benefit from having your own website.

By creating your own site you can quickly and easily explain the type of work that you do and what you are good at, post examples of work if relevant and provide contact details should people wish to get in touch. You may also find that if you have your website set it up correctly then potential customers can find your site by searching on the internet.

Make sure your website is professional
One of the best things to remember is that you are creating the site to help you obtain more work. You should therefore remember to keep the tone of the site professional and do not be tempted to include information that is not relevant to your UK home business. Make sure that you do not bombard people with information and keep the site clear and easy for people to use.

What you should include on your website
It can be a great idea to include a photo of yourself and a short introduction explaining who you are and what your business has to offer. Often people like to build up an idea of the person they might take their business to and this can help to make you seem more approachable.

One of the main points to having a website is to help inform people of your business so make sure that you include any work or products that will help to show people what you can provide. You may also like to include price lists or any other information that is relevant to your business.

Remember to include a list of contact details such as an email address or a work phone number in a prominent place so that any potential customers can contact you simply. Many websites also benefit from having a testimonials page which can really help show that you are a professional. Often if people see that others have been happy with your service or products they will be more inclined to use your UK home business too.

You should also think about ensuring your website ranks well in online search engines as this can be a great way of making sure that people see your site. It is therefore worthwhile exploring search engine optimisation.

Click here to receive FREE online marketing advice and tips to help you run a profitable home business.

How to Advertise your UK Home Business on a Budget

12/15/2009

When you set up your UK home business you may find that there are a number of tasks that you need to carry out that you have little or no experience of. This may include marketing your new business in order to find work. By creating business cards, leaflets and postcards you can simply and effectively aim your promotion at your chosen market to help make your business a success.

Leaflets
Creating leaflets regarding your business can be a very effective way to advertise what it is you do. They are easy to take around with you and can be a great means of providing potential clients with contact details and information on what you offer. You can also include information on your costs and any deals that you have on or you may like to provide a small discount if the leaflet is shown when they come to you.

Make sure that you keep the leaflets themselves easy to read and professional looking without bombarding people with information. Depending upon your line of business you could ask to leave some of the leaflets in a shop or post them through people’s letterboxes.

Business Cards
Business cards are an ever popular way of advertising a UK home business and are easy to carry with you and distribute to any potential clients. As with the leaflets you could consider leaving some in a relevant shop or business or post them through letterboxes in order to promote your business.

Postcards
Postcards are probably the least well known form of marketing and are somewhere in between the above two methods of advertising. They can provide you with an effective way of getting information regarding your UK home business to a large number of people as well as keeping in contact with those who may have used your business in the past.

Postcards are also a great way to inform new or old customers of any promotions that you may have. As with the methods above it is important to keep them professional and easy to read so that people are more likely to take notice of them.

With all of these ideas you should not feel that you have to spend a lot of money on them and in fact many people can easily make their own. However if you do wish to use a professional printer then you can often keep costs low with simple content.

Click here to receive FREE online marketing advice and tips to help you run a profitable home business.

Why Building a Client Base Is the Key To Business Success

12/9/2009

Many people assume that working for yourself is easy and that you can spend your time leisurely working. They are surprised to learn just how much hard work is actually required to run a successful UK home business. To begin with finding work can take along time and is unfortunately not always going to be regular.

For this reason building up a client base is vital. It means that you should be able to receive work on a more regular basis and hopefully receive some recommendations to extend this client base even further. As a result this should mean that your business will become more profitable.

It is important to remember that creating a suitable client base is not something that will happen over night. You will need to dedicate a lot of time and effort to create your client list and this will be based upon the marketing and promotion you carry out as well as the standard of work that you produce.

Creating a profile for your business

When you first set up your UK home business you will need to create some sort of profile for yourself. By doing so you can effectively market yourself to your potential customers and provide them with information on what it is you offer and how they can contact you.

You will no doubt find that there are many relevant websites, forums and blogs that could enable you to reach out further and spread the word of your business directly to those interested. Depending on your line of business, you may find that you have more success by going straight to your customers.

Maintaining your profile

In order to keep and further expand your client base you will need to make sure that the work that you carry out is of a high standard and that you maintain the deadlines you are set.

You should also never take for granted the custom that you have and should continue to promote and advertise your UK home business as it grows. Often offering discounts or special deals can be a great way to attract new customers as well as enticing the old back

Remember that the more jobs you successfully finish and the more good feedback you receive, the easier it should become to obtain further work and you will slowly accumulate a client base of happy customers.

Learn more about how you can make money online by visiting this home business advice site.

How To Make a Lot of Money Using Very Few Words

12/2/2009

If you are looking for a way to promote your UK home business for free you would be a twit to ignore Twitter!

Twitter is a relatively new social networking site and one which often causes some confusion. However for those in the know it can provide you with a great way of networking and also promoting your UK home business. It allows you to provide information on what it is you do, what products or services you have to offer and any promotions or special discounts that are available.

Tweeting?

If you are new to twitter you may find some of the terms slightly confusing at first. A ‘tweet’ is essentially text written by the owner of the account with a maximum total of 140 characters. This is then displayed on your profile. By creating these tweets anyone who follows your status updates will be informed of any promotion for your business and can reply if they feel necessary. This provides a great source of advertising for your business.

Choosing your target audience

It is important that you make sure that you select your target audience or ‘followers’ carefully and choose only those who may be interested in what your business has to offer. There is no point in spending time and effort promoting yourself to someone who has little interest or need for your UK home business. Once you have built up a list of followers you should do your best to interact with them on their posts and build up a relationship. In this way they will become familiar with you and your reputation will hopefully increase.

Do not spam

As with any form of business promotion it is important to respect your client base and avoid spamming them. This will only lead to alienating your potential customers and they are then unlikely to use your business or mention you to friends or family. You should therefore make sure that you do not over ‘tweet’ and that you mix up your posts a little to avoid it sounding like constant promotion. After all, Twitter is essentially a fun social networking site.

Remember to keep all of your ‘tweets’ professional and informative as you only have a limited number of characters with which to promote your UK home business. Include keywords and links and perhaps from time to time offer discounts especially for your followers so that they can see that you value their friendship and business. Overall you should treat Twitter as any other type of business promotion and make sure that you take your time to do your research and build up business contacts slowly and carefully.

Click here to receive FREE online marketing advice and tips to help you run a profitable home business.

Do You Know Where To Find Your Customers Online? Read This and Find Out.

12/2/2009

When you are looking for ways to promote your business online it’s important to know where to find your potential customers. In most cases there will be an online chat forum dedicated in your particular subject and these forums can be a fantastic way of promoting what you have to offer.

Using online forums to promote a business may not be an area that you have considered, but it should be. Forums can provide you with the perfect platform to gain ideas, subtly carry out some market research as well as for promoting your UK home business. Not only is this free but it also saves you a lot of effort and allows you to speak to and interact with potential customers.

Research is important

However this does not mean that this type of promotion is completely quick and easy. It will require you to do some prior research to find forums that are relevant to your business and also for you to slowly become a part of the community. Trying to find larger forums that are very active and have a number of members is a great way to ensure you have a wider audience.

It is important to remember that forums are not specifically designed as a way for people to promote their business and by doing this you can quickly alienate yourself. You may find that some forums have a marketplace or trading area but even so you are not advised to just jump straight in and promote your business. More often then not many forums will have rules preventing you from spamming or promoting your business so tread carefully.

Interact with members

In order to get the most out of the forum you should interact with other members, post on threads and become better known and trusted before you mention your UK home business. In this way you can build up a good, solid reputation with other members and you are more likely to be listened too and gain more custom. Often those who just join up to a forum and make no effort to contribute will be ignored.

Making sure that you spend some time on the forum will not only allow you to become a genuine member but will also allow you to ask questions and be given useful answers that could benefit you in the long run.

Using signatures

One of the great features of forums is that the majority will allow you to have a signature of some sort which will automatically show up every time you make a post. This can consist of words, links or pictures and could be a very useful way of linking to your business without having to mention it straight out. However you should make sure that it is not too long or too fussy and does not make it seem like the reason you joined was purely for promotion.

Overall forums can make a really great free addition to promoting your UK home business. Just make sure that you abide by any rules of the forum, slowly build up trust and respect and do not over promote.

Click here to receive FREE online marketing advice and tips to help you run a profitable home business.

Did you know That Facebook Can Be a Fantastic Way To Promote Your Business?

12/2/2009

Facebook is perhaps one of the biggest social networking sites around at the moment and as such can provide you with a great way to promote your UK home business. It provides you with a way of building up a contact base and keeping people informed of everything you are doing. If you are unfamiliar with Facebook it may take a little time for you to get to grips with it but is worth the effort. All that is required is some time invested on your part.

Using Facebook Groups

Facebook has an ever increasing number of groups and these can provide you with access to like minded people who are likely to be interested in your business and what you have to offer. The main way in which people use Facebook is by setting up a group page for your UK home business. This will then give you a platform in which to explain what it is you do. You can then choose to add existing friends and contacts or ask them to invite anyone they feel may be interested. Facebook also allows you to look for similar groups and invite members to join yours from there.

One of the advantages that Facebook has over twitter is that you can directly email members of your group. It is however wise to remember that you must keep this professional at all times and do not send too many emails as you may end up alienating people.

Status Updates

Another way of keeping in your contacts up to date with everything you are doing is via your status updates. This enables you to post updates and information for all of your contacts to see and can be a great way to get them to engage with you by commenting on your status updates.

Those that do respond in this way are often interested in your business and you could then think about providing subtle links to your site or your products or services. You may also like to run special promotions or discounts for members of your group to make them feel that you value their business.

It is important to remember that Facebook does not offer a quick way of promoting your UK home business and it can take much time and effort in order to build up a suitable contact base. You should never under any circumstances spam your contact list as this could well be detrimental to the overall perception and success of your business.

Click here to receive FREE online marketing advice and tips to help you run a profitable home business.

5 Great ways to advertise your UK Home Business for FREE

12/2/2009

This is a quick article highlighting a few ways to advertise or market your business online for FREE.

When you first set up your UK home business you will need to find a way to get yourself noticed with minimum expenditure. With the popularity nowadays for working from home as well as social networking sites, there are now a number of ways that you can actually get your business noticed for free.

Twitter Marketing

Setting up an account on Twitter is completely free and will allow you to add contacts or for them to search and find you. You can then update your status or ‘tweet’ regularly with new deals or promotions for your business and keep everyone up to date instantly.

Facebook Marketing

Another great way to get your UK home business noticed is to set up a free account on Facebook. This is possibly one of the biggest social networking sites available online and can offer you a great way of building up a contact base and keeping people informed of everything you are doing.

The best way to use Facebook is often to set up a group page for your home business and explain exactly what it is you do with a list of contact details. You can then either add friends and contacts and perhaps ask them to invite their friends to join. Or if you prefer you can search for similar groups and invite members from there.

The benefit of this over twitter is that any updates or offers can be emailed to every member of the group guaranteeing that they will see them. However remember that it is essential to keep this professional and not to bombard people with emails.

Article Marketing

Articles can be a great way to help you build your reputation and get your UK home business noticed. If you are not used to writing articles you may find that it can take a while to complete, but the benefits are definitely worth the time spent.
Producing a written account of your business and what it is you do is likely to help you spread the word quickly and efficiently. You can also give detailed information regarding promotions and any other information you feel is relevant and that may encourage people to use your business.

Forums Marketing

Once you have set up your business it can be a good idea to search online for forums that are relevant to your line of work or that may have members interested in what you offer. Many forums will have an area for people promoting their businesses or a section where members request services. This can be an ideal way to spread the word about your business and find custom.

If you do a good job then you may find that others will be more inclined to use you if someone else reports good feedback on the forum.

Free online classified ads

Using classified ads is possibly one of the most well known methods of getting your UK home business noticed online. You simply create an ad that provides adequate information on your business, what it is you offer etc and leave your contact details. You can then place the ad in the categories that you feel are most relevant. Make sure that you include plenty of keywords so that your ad can be easily found by those looking.

Click here to receive FREE online marketing advice and tips to help you run a profitable home business.