If you want to learn how to advertise your business but don’t know exactly where to start or what to do, this complete and simplified guide on how to promote your business will help give you direction, and show you what to do.

So you have a product or service and you need to get the word out about them, but you are considering the money you have and how best to use it? The good news is that you have many options. You can choose to advertise your business for free online or pay far less compared to a traditional advertisement. As you will soon find out, online advertisement is far cheaper than offline advertisement. In fact, you can boost your business visibility without money online.

Be that as it may, advertising your business effectively involves a combination of strategic planning, creativity, and utilizing various marketing channels available. In addition to trusted business promotion channels, the advent and popularity of social media have created an abundance of new marketing opportunities for businesses of all kinds. No matter what your sell or the solution you offer, the methods below will help you promote your business locally and internationally.

Pre-Advertising Steps of How to Advertise Your Business

Here are some things you need to do first before starting your online promotion so that you can see better results.

1.) Define your target audience

As a pre-step to promoting your business, you first need to understand who your ideal customers are. You need to know their demographics, interests, and needs. This will help you tailor your advertising messages to resonate with them.

Knowing who your customers are is crucial if your want to succeed in your attempt to advertise your business online or offline. You can get a lot of insight into who your customers are by looking at your regular customer data, and researching on Google and social media.

2.) Develop a unique selling proposition (USP)

Often, the difference between a successful business visibility campaign lies in the ability to craft a compelling USP-based message. Developing a unique selling proposition simply means identifying what sets your business, product or services apart from competitors and highlighting it in your advertising or daily content.

Your USP should communicate the value and benefits customers can expect from choosing your products or services. When it comes to how to advertise your business successfully, having a great USP is never enough. You need to ensure that you can deliver on your promises to boost success further with word of mouth.

3.) Use the appropriate advertising channels for your business advertisement

After knowing your target audience and creating a great unique selling proposition, you need to choose the right channel to promote your business. Select the advertising platforms and channels that are most relevant to your target audience. Don’t assume that every channel will work for your business promotion, you need to know which is best for you and start with that. It could be one, two or even omni channels, depending on your campaign goal.

Options include social media, online advertising (such as Google Ads), business website, print media, radio, television, outdoor signage, and more. Consider the reach, cost, and effectiveness of each channel before you dive in.

Now that we have talked about 3 key steps before advertising, let’s look at how to advertise your business properly.

Here Are Some Steps to Help You Advertise Your Business

Running your business without advertisement is like having potential that nobody knows about. When people don’t know what you offer, you will make little or no sales. Below are the channels and steps to follow in promoting your business on each channel.

1.) Get a business website

We have previously answered the question of whether a business website is needed for business growth. But suffice it to say that a website is a must-have marketing collateral or tool no matter how old-fashioned your business or clients may be in today’s world. Your website is your number 1 never sleeping front office staff from “whom” current and prospective customers get information and answers about your business.

Even if prospects find you on Google or social media, still, they want to visit your website. A website serves to advertise your business twenty-four hours a day.

A business website plays a crucial role in today’s digital age in your attempt to advertise your business. Even if you are engaged in offline advertisement like handing out flyers, radio ads, tv ads, etc, people want to know your website so they can get details about your business at their convenience.

A good business website not only serves as a promotional tool, it also tells the story of your business, showcases the team behind the business, and what you offer, reflects your brand identity, provides contact information, a place to pay for your products and services on the spot, and so much more.

Here are some of the key reasons why having a business website is important for business:

• 24/7 Online presence
• Boost credibility and professionalism
• Great for branding and differentiation
• Perfect for USP showcasing
• Reduces business advertising cost
  Offers your business opportunity for high-converting free advertisement(SEO)
• Perfect for marketing and customer acquisition while you sleep
• Excellent for communication and customer support
• E-commerce and sales
• Best for faster customer data collection and analytics

A business website is vital in today’s digital landscape if you are really serious about advertising your products and services. You can create a business website yourself by following this comprehensive guide on how to design a website for business.

If you want a more advanced and professional business website, here is where you can get a free quotation.

2.) Create Google Business Profile

If you want to advertise your business, build trust and see more sales, Google Business Profile is required as an additional marketing tool. Google Business Profile formerly Google My Business (GMB) is a free and powerful business listing service that can help your business promote itself without spending a dime.

The platform offers you the opportunity to promote your business online by allowing your business to show up in Google Maps results for free. Google Map result is the local section of Google Search results

A Google Business Profile allows businesses to display important information such as their name, address, phone number, website, hours of operation, new offers, and customer reviews. It also provides a platform for businesses to engage with customers by sharing updates, photos, and responding to your customers’ reviews.

Having a Google Business Profile is important because it increases your online visibility and helps potential customers find and connect with your business. When someone searches for your business or related keywords on Google, your profile may appear in the search results, along with other relevant information.

How to create Google Business Profile to advertise your business online

Here is a video guide on to set up Google Business Profile. You may also see the text walkthrough below the video if you prefer that.

To create a Google Business Profile, you can follow these steps too:

• Visit the Google My Business website and sign in with your Google (Gmail) account. If you don’t have one, you’ll need to create a Google account first at gmail.com.
• Once signed in, click on the “Manage now” button or the “Start now” button.
• Enter your business name. If your business name appears in the dropdown list, select it. If not, click on the “Add your business to Google” option.
• Select the category that best represents your business. Make sure you select the best category. The best way to be sure is to conduct a search for your competitors and see what category the top-ranking businesses in your niche uses and use that.
• Enter your business address. If you operate a service-based business without a physical storefront, you can choose to hide your address.
• Specify the areas you serve if you have a service-based business (Meaning customers can walk into your store or office).
• Add your business phone number and website URL (Website is not mandatory).
• Choose whether you want to receive updates and recommendations from Google.
• Verify your business. Google will typically send a postcard to the address you provided with a verification code. Once you receive the postcard, you can enter the verification code in your to confirm your business.
• Complete your profile by adding photos, business hours, descriptions, and any additional information you want to share. This will help prospects convert to customers and make more sales.

Once your Google Business Profile is set up and verified, you can regularly update it with new information, and respond to customer reviews.

Another best practice is to ensure you send your Google Business Profile review link to existing customers so that they can drop a review to help your page rank better.

For more ways to advertise your business with Google Business Profile, See this Guide.

3.) Use social media to advertise your business

Whether you like to admit it or not, Social media has become a necessary tool for business promotion online. Popular social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tiktok, Twitter, etc, allow you to actively inform, attract new and engage with your existing followers.

The major reason social media is so powerful for business advertisement is that it is a free platform. And it allows you to showcase your products and services to millions of people. Though you can boost your business visibility on social media for free, the most effective way to gain more customers on social media is still via cheap paid ads.

Social media ads are a form of online business advertising that is displayed to promote products, services, or content. These ads can appear in various formats to users, including images, videos, carousels, and sponsored posts. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Snapchat, among others, offer advertising options to businesses and individuals to reach their target audience.

To learn how to advertise your business on social media see the following:

How to advertise on Instagram (Text and video guide)

How to promote a post on Facebook (Text guide)

How to advertise your business on Tiktok (Beginners guide)

LinkedIn Advertising Guide

4.) Leverage SEO for your business advertisement

Advertising your business with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) involves optimizing your business website and online presence to rank higher in search engine results.

Search engine optimization (SEO) helps your website rank high on Google search results. SEO is basically implemented by using relevant keywords throughout your business’s web pages and blog posts.

This helps you increase the chance of searchers finding your site when they search online for businesses like yours. Though SEO is deeper than just keyword research, keywords are the foundation of any SEO strategy.

Search engine optimization processes

A proper SEO process will include the following highlighted steps

• Keyword research: Finding keywords and phrases that potential customers might use to search for products or services related to your business.
• On-Page Optimization: Optimize your website’s content to make it search engine-friendly. (Keywords in page titles, headings, meta descriptions, URLs, and within the content itself.)
• Quality content creation: Create high-quality, informative, and engaging content that aligns with your target audience’s interests and needs.
• Link building: Build a strong backlink profile using a white-hat strategy. This basically means acquiring quality links from reputable websites. If you want to generate quality backlinks organically, you have to produce evergreen content.
• Technical optimization: Make sure your website is technically sound. This is done by optimizing its loading speed, mobile responsiveness, site structure, etc.
• Keep your content updated: Regularly update your content to reflect new information and changes.

To learn more about how you can deploy SEO to advertise your business, see this comprehensive guide.

5.) Organize or attend trade fairs

A business trade fair, also known as a trade show, exhibition, or expo, is an organized event where businesses gather to showcase their products and services. It offers businesses an opportunity to promote their brand and interact with potential customers. Businesses can also network with industry professionals, and other businesses at trade fairs.

Trade fairs typically take place in large exhibition centres or convention halls and can last for days depending on activities. They often attract a variety of participants, including manufacturers, distributors, retailers, suppliers, and buyers. The fact that there are usually in flocks of customers to trade fairs makes it great for business promotion.

6.) Advertise your business with email marketing

Email marketing is a powerful and very cost-effective strategy to advertise your business online. It helps you build relationships with your customers, and drive sales better.

Well-planned email marketing strategies not only help businesses boost sales but also help increase customer loyalty.

Great email marketing strategy includes these steps

• Choosing the right email marketing platform with a great delivery rate
• Email list building
• Audience segmentation
• Creating compelling email content
• Designing attractive email templates for better engagement
• Writing captivating subject lines to boost email open rate
• Personalizing your newsletters and automation
• Including clear calls to action (CTAs) in emails
• A/B testing and optimizing for better results
• Proper customer relationship nurturing

To learn more on how to advertise your business with email marketing see how to use email marketing to grow your business

7.) Make use of Google ads

Google ads (Search Network) is the most effective online promotion channel. According to Fobes’s research, Google search ads have a conversion rate of 8.2% on average, followed closely by Bing (7.6%). If you really want to learn how to advertise your business, you should learn Google ads too.

Advertising with Google Ads is an effective way to reach a large audience and promote your products or services to people who are actually on Google to look for what you offer.

Profitable advertising with Google ads involves the following steps:

• Google Ads account setup: Visit ads.google.com to sign in with your Google account.
• Define your advertising goals: Determine what you want to achieve with your ads. (Website traffic, Leads generation, sales, or brand awareness)
• Choose a campaign type: Choose between Search Network campaigns, Display Network campaigns, Video campaigns, Shopping campaigns, App campaigns, physical store visit campaigns, and call ads.
• Determine your campaign budget: How much are you willing to spend? (Per click, per conversion, daily, and ads lifetime)
• Determine your target audience: Targeting on Google includes keywords, demographics, interests, and behaviours of the audience.
• Create your ad: Use your compelling message in the pre-step above to create your ads.
• Set up Google ads tracking and conversion goals: This helps measures the effectiveness of your ads on your business website.
• Continually monitor and optimize your campaigns: The best way to improve ads performance is to monitor and optimize them. This also includes A/B testing.

Google ads are divided into two broad categories. Search network ads that display on Google.com and search partners, and display network ads that are displayed in Youtube, Gmail, mobile apps, and across millions of websites globally.

To learn more on how to advertise your business with Google ads, see the following step-by-step guides:

How to Run Google Ads: The step-by-step recipe to success (Text pictures and video)

Google Ads Tutorial 2023 [Step-by-Step] YouTube video

8.) Host a webinar

One of the ways to build brand credibility and advertise your business is via teaching. Teaching can help you gain more exposure and position your brand as an authority in your sector.

Consider hosting webinars online by your team or invite an expert to join the webinar. With a webinar, you be able to provide valuable knowledge to current and prospective customers. Only make sure that you keep up to date with industry trends especially if you will be accepting questions during the webinar.

Zoom, Livestorm, Webex, Adobe Connect, and Google Hangouts are some of the platforms that offer free webinars access.

9.) How to advertise your business with online business directories

An online business directory listing is a website or platform that compiles and categorizes information about businesses either locally or globally. Online directories allow users to search for specific types of businesses in a particular area.

Business directories websites provide details such as business name, address, phone number, website, and sometimes additional information like customer reviews and ratings. Consumers visit these websites a lot to look for companies in their locale to deal with, making them of very high traffic and domain authority.

Because of that, you do not just get business exposure on the platform but also get quality backlinks to help your website rank better.

Your listing on business directory websites can also make it to Google Page 1.

They are valued by consumers because consumers can easily find businesses in their desired category or location, read reviews, compare options, and make informed decisions.

Some popular online business directory listings include Yelp, Yellow Pages, Bing Places for Business, TripAdvisor, and Angie’s List. There are so many other local business directories across the world. You can easily advertise your business by signing up with them. The process is always very simple.

10.) Advertise your business with Tv or Radio Commercial

TV and Radio commercials are a great way to advertise your business and gain more clients. The only difference is that they are more expensive and less customizable.

Television and radio advertising still has many advantages for brands. Watching TV and listening to radio continues to be a popular pastime. Many people around the world turn to TV as an escape from daily stress and many more turn to radio when driven or stuck in traffic.

There is no denying the fact that a great number of people who are fans of sports and various TV shows tune in non-stop to get entertained. This is the perfect moment/time to advertise.

Similarly, radio channels have great talk, news and entertainment programs that attract a lot of listeners.

When done strategically, television and radio ads can be persuasive and evoke emotional connections with prospects. This can lead to big sales and brand loyalty. According to marketing expert Neil Patel, running business advertisements on TV and online leads to lower cost per click and conversion online.

TV and Radio advertising remains a significant marketing strategy for many companies. They can reach a wide audience and create a lasting impact.

Conclusion

The need to learn how to advertise your business online and offline cannot be over-emphasized. The right advertisement strategy plus good service delivery can take any business to the next level no matter where you are located. Hear what Mark Twain and Henry Ford has to say about business promotion:

• Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”-Mark Twain
• “Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time.” – Henry Ford

Frequently asked questions on how to advertise your business