That's right. The most effective way of advertising your business on
net is FREE and mostly ignored. And yet it's so easy to see why it is so effective. We just need to ask ourselves two simple questions. Question 1- What do most people use internet for?
Answer - For email and to seek information to solve problems.
Question 2 - How do you get information from net?
Answer - I go directly to certain web sites or I use a search engine like Yahoo or Google.
So shouldn't it be obvious that a free article on net that mentions your business after providing valuable information free will be seen by hundreds of thousands of your eager prospects over time?
The biggest marketing mistake that many businesses have made and continue to make over internet is treating this new medium as if it were just an extension or advancement of last new medium to change marketing world, namely Television. In Television, advertising is king. And therefore many assumed that internet was next big thing in conventional advertising with predictably disastrous results. The internet is primarily an information medium. So is it any wonder that people get so upset when somebody tries to interrupt their search for information with an advertisement?
Being an information medium, it stands to reason that you will only attract attention by providing information - free, valuable information. So most effective way to advertise on net is to give away free information of a very specific nature. The free information will of course have something to do with your product or service. But it should be written in such an interesting way and should focus on solving a problem or need of your potential clientele that it will be of great value without them having to purchase your product immediately. For example, somebody selling anti-glare gadgets for computers or headache medication or whatever service or product that deals with problem of headaches, can post following useful free information;
1) An article about different types of headaches caused by sitting in front of a computer whole day.
2) He can post yet another article hinged on a case study of a headache that refused to go away despite medication etc.
3) How a deadly type of headache feels like e.g caused by a developing brain tumour etc.
In all articles, no direct reference should be made to product or service except in resource box right at end which should have your web-site, email and any other contact information.
An article on web is a very powerful advertising tool that will do more for you than any conventional advertising or email list. Firstly you are guaranteed that many of your target market or people who may be interested in your product or service will read your article and name of your business. Most so-called advertisements on net, never get read at all, even by people targeted - they get deleted long before. Secondly, you create a very favorable image of a knowledgeable and competent person or business and you do this instantly. Offline this is rather difficult to do even over a longer period of time. In fact articles can't even be posted as easily as they can on net. For example it will be virtually impossible for any newspaper or magazine with a decent readership to find space for any of suggested headache articles above.
