A good friend of mine asked me to write something about marketing a business on the internet without an expensive website or without a website at all. So, I am writing this post for the benefit of my friend and I am using a Car Detailing business as an example. Of course you can replace the car detailing business with whatever you like to market.
I am a big fan of free Google products so this post will run primarily around using Google to market business for free. Products that I have recomended in this post are:
1. Google Places
2. Google Photos
3. Blogger
1. Google Places
Google places is basically Google’s business directory. Getting your business listed in there will allow people to find your address, hours of operation, pictures and business information whenever they search for (example: Car detailing).What it looks like:
This is how it looks like:
How to start:
Follow the instructions below to add your business to the directory. I tried to register this for you but Google was asking information such as description of the business, hours of operation and a photo (optional).- Visit http://www.google.com/local/add/g?hl=en-US&gl=US#phonelookup
- Enter your business phone number and click on "Find Business Information"
- On the second page enter as much information as you can. This page will also ask you to add “category”. Enter car detailing or similar terms for category (image below). The category is basically the terms which people will search and will see your business listing. (For example if you enter “Car wash”, then when I search for Car wash canton Ohio, you list will show up in Google results.
2. Google Photos
Google Photos is new product from Google but I can see it catching up in the future. Google photos allows people to see inside your business. The only catch is that you have to get the pictures taken from Google’s certified photographers.What it looks like:
This is how it looks like:
How to start:
- Visit http://maps.google.com/help/maps/businessphotos/ to read some introductory stuff about what is this all about
- Visit http://maps.google.com/help/maps/businessphotos/get-started.html to select a photographer
- Schedule a photo-shoot with the photographer (make sure to ask him/her how much it will cost)
- The rest of the work will be done by the photo dude.
3. Blogger Blog
Blogger offers free blogs where you can write whatever you like. The benefit of blogger is that your business will have a website for free, you will be able to communicate with your customers, put marketing information, offer coupons etc. You can also upload lots of photos. Blogger is owned by Google.
What it looks like:
You can look at my blog to see how this looks like at http://www.razafayyaz.com/
How to start:
- Visit www.blogger.com/start
- Register for your blog there. (you will need a gmail account to register)
- Start posting things about your business.
0 comments:
Post a Comment