Have you considered hanging a virtual shingle to advertise your services to the world? If you’re like many independent professionals, you’ve probably thought about doing even more -- with newsletters, a Web site and online advertising. Do you feel intimidated by the technology or unsure about the wisdom of investing time and money in online marketing? Come along for our quick tour of wired selling methods -- most of them free -- and we think you’ll be sold on giving it a try.
Use an Email Signature
Using a promotional email signature is one small step for you that can help your free agent business take one giant leap in sales. Microsoft Outlook and most other programs that include email enable you to automatically attach a tagline or virtual business card to every email that you send. Keep your promotional message very brief and to the point, sketching your services and how they benefit your clients, and giving all of your contact information. Here’s how to set up your email signature in
Outlook.
Create Email Newsletters and Mailing Lists
Have you sent an email to everyone in your address book announcing your business and inviting referrals? This might just be the most productive hour you put into your marketing program this year. Describe your services, give a list of clients, and urge your readers to forward the email to anyone who might be interested in what you have to offer.
Want to maintain contact with clients and prospects by email? Use an Internet mailing list to streamline the processes of sending your newsletter and maintaining subscriber lists. Offer your subscribers a newsy, useful piece of information in each newsletter and you’ll earn mindshare and referrals.
Here’s more background on
mailing lists and a site that lets you set up your own lists for free.
Prime Newsgroups and Other Online Forums
How can you get people talking about the unique services that you offer? Announce those services for free in the appropriate Usenet newsgroups and in networks of online communities, such as
Delphi Forums, MSN Web Communities and Yahoo Clubs. The marketing advantage with online forums is that information about your business can spread around the world by word of mouth, all at the speed of light.
Build Your Own Web Site
You can hit the big time without much of a budget, by building your own Web site to market your services. Here are a few basics to keep in mind.
Keep your site simple. Don’t bog it down with large images, garish colors, too many typefaces or too much information per HTML page. Consider your audience every step of the way, and only tell them what they need to know about you and your services. Give visitors a few different ways to get in touch with you.
Once you think you know what you want or you’ve created a mock-up, hire a professional Web designer/programmer to do the job right. When you’ve got a prototype, test it on actual prospects and then question them on their experiences with your site. Then revise the site until it’s turning lukewarm prospects into hot leads.
A final thought: Consider registering your own domain name (that’s whatever comes before ".com") for your Web site, and think hard about what that domain name should be. Your domain name is your brand; before you choose one, think about where you want your business to be in five years. Here’s an interesting article on
domain names and a site offering valuable information and advice on building your own Web site.
Submit Your Site to Search Engines
When prospects seek out your services with a search engine, will your Web site appear on the first page of search results? There’s no way to guarantee that, but you’ll have a better shot if you use a submit-an-URL service, and some of them are free. Use
PostMaster, Submit Away or SubmitIt to broadcast your URL to hundreds of search engines and directories.
Swap Web Banner Ads
Want to advertise your Web site without shelling out cash? You might want to check out the free banner ad exchange services offered by
bCentral or HyperBanner. Your ad gets placed on targeted Web sites around the world, and in exchange, you place ads from other banner-exchange customers on your own site.
Don’t Neglect Ethics
If you are communicating with prospects and clients en masse, or you’re collecting any information about them, it’s bad business to ignore privacy issues. Maybe some recipients of your marketing email consider it to be spam. Have you given them a way to "opt out" of future mailings? Do you always ask your clients’ permission before sharing information about them with your business partners? Do you have adequate protection against hacker attacks for customer information stored on your computer or your Web site? Check out the Better Business Bureau's
Code of Online Business Practices to learn more about the issues.
Web Magazines
Marketing Today
Guerrilla Marketing
Advertising Age
Books
Marketing Online for Dummies, by Bud Smith and Frank Catalano
Online Marketing Handbook, by Daniel Janal
