1. FACEBOOK 

Not only is a Facebook page a great way to keep in touch with your potential clients and gain a following but Facebook’s “like” button is now everywhere- add it to your website, YouTube videos or blog and when someone click’s “like” all their friends can see, instantly increasing your visibility.  

■ It seems like the whole world is on Facebook now so advertising on Facebook is a great way to reach the masses.

■ Connect with more than 400 million potential customers & choose your audience by location, age and interests.

■ Set up & test several image and text-based ads. Through the tracking page, you can see what’s working the best.

■ Pay Per Click- no matter how many impressions your ad has, you only pay when someone is interested enough to “click”.  Set a daily budget you are comfortable with which can be adjusted at anytime.

■ Use the "Like" button to increase your ad's influence

2. TWITTER

Twitter is a social networking & microblogging service that enables users to send messages- “tweets” of up to 140 characters. 

 ■ Although Twitter comes with many standard background options, a graphic designer can customize a completely unique background showcasing your logo and company’s color palette to help promote your brand and make your page memorable.

■ “Tweets” are searchable and appear on Google... Use this to your advantage by incorporating keywords or buzzwords within your 140 character message.

■ Include links to your website, Facebook page, branding video or recent campaign. 

■ In the best of cases tweets can go viral so it’s a good idea to limit the number of characters to 125 and leave room for several people to re-tweet (or “RT”).

■ Follow feedback of your company- or your competitors.  Especially important to ensure you can deal with any potentially negative feedback immediately.

3. VIDEO BRANDING

Video Branding is a fantastic new form of advertising that has taken the web by storm.

■ Videos promoting your company brand are available in every budget.

■ By branding your own videos you are selling your product and your site.

■ Use videos as a pre-sell method to gain trust and build credibility.

■ Effective low-budget branding videos can be made using your logo, photos & promotional text. 

■ Higher level branding videos can include interviews with company principals or past clients, stock video clips, narration & music. 

■ Showcase branding videos on your website & Facebook page.

■ You have the ability to send links to your video thru email or include in your e-newsletter. 

■ Upload to YouTube & the reach is practically endless with billions of people on YouTube at any given time.

4. E-BLASTS 

Almost everyone checks their e–mail regularly these days so this is a great way to reach people & promote your brand message.  For best results, an e–blast must not be a mere self–promotional advertisement for your business, but a message of relevance and genuine value.

■ E–blast messages to all your contacts, prospects, colleagues and clients, not just those subscribing to (or checking in with) Twitter, Facebook, etc..

■ A great way to reach the people who aren’t addicted to social media yet and only check in with their social networking sites sporadically. 

■ E-mail lists filtered by location, age, income, etc., can be purchased giving you a much wider reach. (Make sure you go thru a reputable company as some companies sell outdated lists which may be virtually useless.)

5.  NEWSLETTER

Although traditional corporate newsletters are still a nice hand-out, e-newsletters are by far a more budget friendly way to reach the masses...

■ Much more cost efficient than a printed newsletter because of the significant savings in time, printing and mailing costs... a PDF of your traditional newsletter can be easily downloaded & printed by anyone, from the web or email.

■ Keep consumers up to date on issues, promotions or events.

■ Contact a large number of people in minutes with detailed information.

■ An E-Newsletter generally provides a higher response rate because it is being sent to a more receptive audience.

■ Include links to your branding videos, website & social media sites.

■ Virtually real-time response rates- all a consumer needs to do is hit “reply” to immediately interact with you directly.

■ Post links to e-newsletter on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook & showcase on your website.