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Every business owner knows that advertising their business is critical to running a profitable business. It does not matter whether this business is internet-based (online) or a ‘brick and mortar’ business, a business needs to regularly advertise its products and/or services. Advertising is what draws customers to any business. If customers are not aware of your business, how will they be able to purchase the products or services you offer?

What then are the ways to bring your business to the attention of your prospective customers? We will be looking at this mostly perspective of a business that is internet-based. However, the same methods can be easily used to advertise an ‘offline’ business. We will be looking at four different ways of advertising your business to get the attention of customers

Pay Per Click (PPC Advertising)

Since Google came out with their search engine in the late 1990s, PPC advertising has never been the same again. With PPC, your text advertising is displayed to online searchers on the particular search engine (Google, Bing, etc.) and you pay for each click made by the searchers. Early on PPC was a very profitable means of advertising your business. However, in recent times, it has become increasingly challenging to run profitable PPC campaigns using the search engines. Many business owners have found out that running a profitable PPC campaign is better left to professional PPC management companies,

Facebook PPC

With the introduction of Facebook PPC in 2008, PPC advertising underwent another revolution. Users have found Facebook PPC to be more relevant and profitable because of the high levels of targeting that is possible. Users can target their audience by various attributes such as age, sex, interests etc. Facebook PPC has really exploded in the last few years. As a result many online business owners are moving their PPC campaigns from Google & Bing to Facebook PPC to experience the high Return On Investment (ROI)

Online Classifieds

Based on the format of traditional newspaper classified advertising, online classifieds are also useful for generating leads for the business owner. This method of advertising has also become an increasingly popular method of advertising your business. There are various online classified advertising websites all over the Internet. You can find relevant classified websites through a Web search. Make sure to include your niche to get more targeted results.

Press Releases

Press Releases are also useful in advertising your business. Press releases are especially suitable for new product launches and/or new services. There are a large number of Press Release agencies. It is highly advised to have an expert write your first release to you so that you can have good idea how PRs are written and formatted. One great thing about Press Releases is that you can continue to receive referrals and traffic for a long time from the same Press Release. This is due to the fact that for a fee Press Release agencies will help you distribute your Press Release to a massive database of Press Release Agencies sites and other news sites.

You’ve probably heard the saying “the more things change the more they stay the same”. I entered the game (network marketing) just as the internet was ramping up, about the same time you didn’t need to be a bodybuilder to hold a cell phone to your ear (remember the bricks of past years?). We were essentially told to write that proverbial names list (you’ve heard it – by 21 you know 2000 people… ) and start calling – did that ever work?

Not knowing much about the industry we simply used the products we purchased monthly and attended every training we could. We were lucky, we benefited from the products our company of choice produced so personal consumption was never an issue.

Like so many people we got no’s pretty well everywhere we turned but with sheer persistence eventually found and trained some great people and our business took off.

Fast forward 10 years it’s time to bring our MLM business online – why you may ask. Simple, while the essence of network marketing is the same, marketing methods evolve and change over time. One of the hallmarks of the 21st century is “You Inc”, or personal branding.

Thanks to the internet I’ve developed what I call a hybrid model, using the best offline MLM business strategies with online strategies. This means real approaches where I can send people to a web based presentation or do a one on one presentation if local, and attraction marketing through social media and content marketing to extend my reach.

Online is definitely a learned skill which for me at least has and is taking time but is absolutely worth it. “Brand you” will get you so far offline, and we have built teams in numerous countries just to prove the point, but online you’re only limited by your belief in yourself and the effort you put in.

Key lessons from my journey so far:

• Pick the right guru (s) to follow
• Throw some money at quality training, it speeds up the learning curve enormously
• Invest in personal growth on a daily basis. Network marketing / internet marketing is often called a personal growth course wrapped in a compensation plan – your income grows as you grow
• Have an advertising budget
• Find your voice – don’t give your voice to someone else. Sure you can outsource your content (assuming content marketing is part of your strategy) to oDesk and the like, but rolling up your sleeves and creating your own content gives you authenticity
• Be patient – it takes time but it does take
• Have a daily plan of action – social marketing can drain your time. Never forget it’s only part of the answer, you still need to daily prospect
• Find a company to align yourself with that supports online marketing as part of the mix
• Don’t be afraid to look outside your company for the training you need
• Persistence – stick with it. Seriously, if there is one skill that trumps all others this has to be it

If you were to listen to the advice of most keynote speakers they’d say there there’s a simple recipe for making a presentation: make and point then tell a story.

But keynote speakers don’t have to make presentations that contain data or analysis. So what do you do if you have to present complex information or make multiple points for just one slide? When this happens you more than just simple advice, you need a system.

Probably like most of you I often have to do complex analysis. Sometimes it can involve gathering data over two or three different organisations. For example a few years ago I completed an analysis for a UK criminal justice system. I had to build a picture of how three different organisations worked together and problems that resulted from the interactions.

I had to explain the consequences of the following points.

1. Some police officers have to leave the scene of the crime without gathering all the statements
2. There are frequent late submission of police reports
3. There is a lack of clarity between prosecutors and police
4. There are poor arrangements in place for the provision of legal aid
5. There are often court cancellations due to lack of preparation (I actually had 10 points to make).

Here’s how I did it.

1. Soon after opening the presentation I explained that I had 10 key points to show them about the failure of the criminal justice system. I specifically mentioned the number of points so that the senior executives could track progress through the presentation.

2. I gave each point its own slide. And in-between the points I repeated the same slide which showed a blueprint of the system. This helped the audience to remember and understand how the whole thing knitted together. It also re-grabbed their attention by moving between the picture and the points.

3. After every point I reintroduced the blueprint but with a different part of the picture circled in red. This had the effect of:

a. Drawing attention to that part of the picture

b. Moving the executives mentally through the presentation and picture.

I recently met an executive who had been at the meeting. He mentioned how much he still remembered from the day and the simplicity of the structure I used. So here’s my advice to you, steal my system, use it and refine it. If you do you’ll get more than change from your presentations, you’ll get remembered.