In this 5-minute read:
- Why every small business needs to use online marketing methods
- Alternative advertising solutions to Google and Facebook
Looking for other online outlets to reach your audience? Or maybe you’re just tired of giving your marketing budget to Google and Facebook each month. Either way, we suggest you take a look at these other advertising opportunities to see if they could be a good fit for your business.
With Womply Reputation Management, you can manage, read, and respond to all your online reviews in one place with one login, and build your business’s online presence. Learn more, plus get free reputation monitoring and customer insights when you sign up for Womply Free!
Do you really need to advertise online?
First, let’s answer an important question: do you really need to advertise online? You absolutely need to market online, but paid advertising isn’t always necessary. It depends on your goals and your current online visibility.
You can use the tools in this article to help check your online visibility: 10 SEO auditing tools and how to use them.
If you find that your business is not showing up well in the search engines, and therefore not bringing in organic traffic and leads, then advertising online can be a good way to bring in more business.
If you are showing up well, but not getting a lot of business, then you may need to do some brand awareness campaigns on social media to build recognition and trust with your community.
If you are showing up well online and busier than ever, you might be able to avoid the online advertisements for now.
Alternative advertising solutions to Google and Facebook
Where you advertise online is important too. You need to put your ads where it makes sense. Google and Facebook are huge in this area because the vast majority of people go there to shop or spend time.
But there are other valuable places that your business can advertise its solutions. Just make sure they are places where your audience is spending time too, so the money isn’t wasted.
Microsoft Advertising (Bing, MSN, Yahoo)
Google is not the only search engine around. Bing has around 1 billion active monthly users and may be worth spending a little time on.
Microsoft Advertising is similar to Google Ads in that it allows you to create search ads on Bing, Yahoo, and MSN. This could be a great place to catch leads that your competitors aren’t targeting.
And because Microsoft Advertising isn’t used as heavily as Google Ads, you may be able to get cheaper bids on clicks because there isn’t as much competition for that space.
Get started at ads.microsoft.com.
Reddit is a popular forum-based site that is most frequently used by US adults from ages 18-34, and it has over 430 million monthly active users.
The premise behind Reddit is that users come together to create these internet-based communities and discuss topics that are important to them. There’s a space for just about every topic you can think of, and if it’s not there, you can add it.
Advertising here is a good way to reach consumers in their area of interest. Do you sell health products? Target the health-based communities on Reddit. Do you offer pet services? Target related communities for animal lovers.
Find the communities that your ideal customer spends time in, and use Reddit’s ads to reach them.
Want to try now? Go to redditinc.com/advertising.
Quora
Quora is another forum-based site that people frequently use to find answers to the questions that they have. If your product or service could provide the answer to someone’s problem, then this might be a great place for you.
With Quora’s ads, you can get placements around content that is related to your brand and offerings.
Give it a try at q.quoraforbusiness.com/business.
Spotify
Sure, a lot of people pay for Spotify Premium so they don’t have to hear the ads, but there are many more that are willing to put up with ads to listen for free. Think about the times when people listen to music: while working out, on their daily commute, while working on a project. People are listening to music all the time. Take advantage of that!
With Spotify, you can use Spotify Ad Studio to record your audio ads and set specific targeting based on age, gender, location, and platform. You can also record your own ads and upload them to Spotify’s advertising platform.
You can get started at adstudio.spotify.com.
Pandora
Pandora, like Spotify, has a premium option where users can pay to avoid the ads, but again, a lot of people listen for free. Pandora ads use some top-notch technology to target your ideal customers at just the right moment based on their location, time of day, and even the weather!
Learn more at www.pandoraforbrands.com.
More advertising resources for your small business
Paid advertisements on popular websites and online platforms aren’t the only way to get your business out there. Check out these other resources to help your market your business and build brand awareness:
- 25 free local advertising ideas for small businesses
- Local SEO: 15 free tips for better search rankings
- 6 proven methods to improve your business’s online reputation
Another tried and true way to get more business from online resources is to make sure you have good reviews in the places where customers will find you: Google, Yelp, Facebook.
Womply Reputation Management can help with that. With this solution, you can easily track your online reviews across various platforms, respond to those reviews, and even set up automatic replies, all from one dashboard with one login.
Fresh, positive reviews can help customers who are on the fence about you and a competitor, tip in your favor.
Learn more, plus get free reputation monitoring and customer insights when you sign up for Womply Free!