Like most small business owners faced with a limited marketing budget, incorporating a low cost ‘viral’ internet marketing program is a smart way to increase visibility for your business.  Viral marketing is like word of mouth marketing on ‘crack!’  YOU can gain instant visibility beyond your wildest dreams!  Viral marketing in simple terms is an extremely powerful and unique ability of the Internet to build self-propagating visitor streams.

Here are 4 ways to strategically market your business and spread the word ‘virally’: 

Audio/Video

Adding audio to your website is a nice personal touch for your visitors.  Visitors will feel welcome as they click through your site.  There is something about the ‘voice’ that will allow visitors to let their guard down and connect with you.  Remember, people buy from people they know and trust.  Visitors feel like they know you, thus, more apt to trust you.  Using this tool will greatly enhance the message you are trying to convey to your customer.    

A few ways to use audio:

• Welcome Messages: just as we appreciate being greeted face-to-face, creating a warm welcome for visitors can be attention grabbing! 
• Interview Experts: this is an excellent way to gain credibility in your industry.  Your listeners will receive valuable information, and you will become the ‘go to’ expert for information.
• Record Teleseminars: creating teleseminars is a common way to increase your visibility. You can provide a recording to people who were not able to attend; build an information library; and provide a recording for people who were not able to attend.   

Blogs

Having a blog can be an incredible way to grow your online presence.  This is a great opportunity to establish yourself as an expert in your industry. If executed effectively, this can be a smart online marketing strategy and an affordable way to grow your business.  Blogging is ‘big business’ among entrepreneurs, writers and those who just want to express themselves thru electronic communication. Blogging is fun, easy and free!  Yes, FREE!

What is a blog?  A blog is a Web site that contains an online personal or business journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer. It gives your business a personality and facilitates the voice between you and your customers, in essence, it establishes you as an expert on a topic and is a brand extension tool.  Programs such as www.wordpress.com, www.blogger.com and www.typepad.com are all free and easy to use. 

Business Articles

An effective way to build your business and establish credibility as an expert in your industry is by writing articles that are useful to your target market.  This is a great way to market your business and increase visitor’s traffic to your site.  Ultimately, you will gain visibility and repeat visitors who will become loyal clients.  There are several online sites where you can submit your articles for publication.  Here are a few:

• www.ezinearticles.com.   Expert Authors & Writers are able to post their articles to be featured within the site. The searchable database of hundreds of thousands of quality original articles allows email newsletter publishers hungry for fresh content to find articles that they can use for inclusion within their next newsletter
• www.associatedcontent.com.  Associated Content enables anyone to participate in the new content economy by publishing content on any topic, in any format (text, video, audio and images), and connects that content to consumers, partners and advertisers.
• www.articlesbase.com.  Articles Base is a free article directory where you can submit and find articles. You can publish your articles for free or find content for your website, ezine, or newsletter.

Email-newsletters

When you expand your traditional marketing to include a regularly scheduled e-newsletter, you are creating an easy, no-cost and profitable way to market your business. The use of e-newsletters has quickly come to be an indispensable component of the advertising campaigns of many businesses, large and small!  By developing an ongoing relationship with prospective clients, you are establishing yourself as an expert. This also provides you with email information of potential clients. For an example of an e-newsletter relating to your industry, do a ‘Google’ search for  competitive businesses, ‘opt-in’ to subscribe to their e-newsletter and see what your competitors are up to.  Two common email marketing services:  Constant Contact  and IContact.

Whether you use features such as blogging, business articles, emails, video/audio clips or e-newsletters, implementing an effective ‘viral’ marketing strategy to spread your message will allow you to put your focus on the customer and ultimately, GROW your business! 

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Sylvia Browder is CEO of Browder Consulting Group, a virtual small business consulting and coaching firm.  She is currently employed as a Project Director, business coach and consultant for the Women’s Business Center, Inc., a non-profit economic development organization with a mission of empowering women to start and grow successful businesses. She also serves as a volunteer SCORE counselor, an organization dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide. She is also a Technical Assistant Provider for SBA’s Community Express Loan Program.  For FREE weekly articles go to Sylvia Browder’s Blog for Women Entrepreneur’s, www.sylviabrowder.com.  She can be contacted at info@browderconsultinggroup.com..

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Sylvia Browder

Sylvia Browder is CEO of Specialty Home Services LLC, a Home Improvement Company; a Small Business Consultant at Browder Consulting Group, a startup consultancy firm to help women with startup assistance, marketing, website and graphic design work and other support services. In addition, she has co-authored several published books; publisher of ‘Sylvia Browder’s Blog for Women Entrepreneurs’ a lifestyle blog; and publisher of ShopSpendBlack.com Business Directory & Blog platform created to help consumers find black owned businesses in a searchable format. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her husband of 30 years; 5 adult children and 5 grandchildren; church; friends and motorcycle riding.