The best place to advertise is. Where is free advertising on the Internet. Targeted advertising in social networks: VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Facebook, Instagram

28.03.2020

Services are a great business because Most often, investments are not required, only skills and knowledge are enough. But what if there are very few customers (for example, you have just started and word of mouth has not yet worked to its fullest)? Where to find them, where to advertise your services, where to advertise services? The fastest way to advertise your services is to place an ad on the Internet.

Below I will look at several places where you can successfully advertise your services, tell you how to look for such places and what is the best free way to attract customers.

1. Freelancing or Where to offer services last.

If you intend to build a business, and not do part-time work, then I would avoid any freelance sites to find clients. Now, for almost any field, there are such platforms where performers can receive an order for work or offer their services. The disadvantage of such services is that there will be a lot of people willing to do the work and, accordingly, the payment is very low (or you need to have a very good portfolio and rating).

Such sites are more suitable for honing skills, training and part-time work in your free time (or while working).

Examples of such services:

https://master.yandex.ru/ - Yandex.Master, a completely new service. Job service in the field of domestic services (cleaning, repair, courier assistance)

https://youdo.com/ - A popular order service. You can order or offer any services: cleaning, transportation, shopping, delivery, hairdresser, lawyer - in general, all possible services.

http://freelance.ru/ is probably the most famous service for working and searching for performers in the IT field: programmers, designers, etc.

http://work-zilla.com/ - any tasks and assignments for remote work. Anyone can earn here, because. the level of tasks is very different: from “collect information” to “make a website”. If, on the contrary, you are looking for a performer, then in this moment, when registering on Workzilla from my blog, you are credited with 100 bonus rubles to pay for tasks.

These services are popular, easy to sign up for and are the first place people go to earn extra money. The downside, which I have already voiced: low pay and a lot of competition. In addition, usually high quality work is not expected from performers from such services, so it is difficult to get good orders there.

Well, probably the main disadvantage is that on such services you can only be presented as individual. If you have a company, then you have to be cunning. It should be understood that customers come to such services to save money on the contractor, and those who need a company and quality will look elsewhere.

2. Notice boards

This is probably the most obvious and understandable way. Just one piece of advice - don't waste your time on unpopular boards. To help you:

I wrote instructions. Use in conjunction with the list of boards, which can be requested by mail through the form below.

For my work, I selected the best bulletin boards. They can be received by mail along with a series of brief instructions for working with the boards.

3. Catalogs of companies and services

Catalogs of goods and services - the best way to post service announcements. On each such site, you get your personal page with a description of the company and offers, and sometimes a mini-site.

The competition here is no less, but most companies treat directories and message boards carelessly: they try to register anywhere, quickly place their ads and forget about them. Although, if you choose directories wisely, look at attendance, study competitors' ads, beautifully design your page, then the chances of getting a client increase significantly (3 secrets of working with directories are just below).

Really popular directories of companies, sites of goods and services:

  • and many others

Thematic directories for your business

Also, each business area has its own thematic directories, portals and ratings, where you definitely need to add (provided that they are popular on the Internet, i.e. visited by your potential customers)

And it's very easy to find them. Look for such directories as if you were a client, for example: "firms in [your field]", "company directory [your field]". And register, register everywhere. You need to be where your customers are, especially if it's free.

3 secrets of working with directories:

  • Feature 1. Almost all advertisers, when adding a company to the directory, simply indicate the name of the company. While people don't look for companies by name (how do they know what you might be called), people are looking for specific services or products. For example "website promotion". Therefore, in the company name field, it is better to write "Internet agency "Iva" - website promotion." And you will be ranked above your competitors. And the rest of the services can already be listed in the description.
  • Chip 2. Sometimes it is enough to fill in absolutely all the fields in the company card in order to be displayed above competitors. As I said, most firms, when registering, indicate the very minimum, hastily and go to the next site. Pay attention to the cards of the companies that are displayed above, what do they have and others do not?
  • Feature 3. It is better to be in 10 popular visited company directories with a completely and beautifully filled page (logo, photos, history, USP, successes, etc.) than in 100 unknowns with a template gray ad.

4. Your site

Your website is ideal, no matter what you do. It is possible to make a website now very cheaply (for example, for only 15-20 thousand we make turnkey optimized websites that quickly get into search results), and then constantly developing it, attract more and more customers.

The advantage of being in the service industry is your expertise, which can be shared on the site, thereby showing (and advertising) your experience. People, before contacting someone, try to solve the issue on their own and find preliminary information that will help them. All of them are potential visitors to your site and potential customers (you don’t have to go far for examples, you are now reading my blog).

There are no competitors on your site and there is a place to write any information. The site is your sales manager and consultant.

One of my favorite topics to think about with business owners is free advertising in the Internet.

But here I will quote from the Internet and the most recent. It is built on a deliberate or accidental oversight.

In short: a hot dog company made an ad with the following slogan: “This is the best thing that was in my mouth for 100 r.” To which they received an application to the FAS. The news spread all over the internet.

Search results

2. Aggregators

There are sites on the Internet that combine the offers of different companies or people. Among the most popular (for goods) and Tiu (for services).

But each area has its own thematic platforms that combine purely companies and people in one profile (for example, beauty-sphere specialists).

On aggregators, you can advertise for a business both for a fee and for free. The principle is normal, you place your ad and it is in the list of all offers.

And if you want to get the privileges of showing and highlighting, you will have to pay extra.

3. Guest posting

No one is just going to place your ad. It is obvious. But if you make useful material (article, video, infographic), then this is a different story.

Everyone needs content, and we are no exception. Therefore, create expert material and invite others to post it with a link to the author.

The method is not fast, but this way you get the most simple sales because people see that you are an expert and buy better.

Moreover, this way you can easily become a regular author on popular resources.

And I'll tell you, this is not a bad option to start with, since you only have articles on them, when everything else is on them (advertising, website, staff, servers, etc.)

4. Partners

If your business has at least some flow of customers (to the site or to the trading area), you can agree on mutual PR with another company that has the same target audience as you.

The principle is painfully simple, but at the same time extremely effective. The company recommends you and you recommend them. Thus, everyone is in the black and receive free traffic.

And, you can do it in different ways. The easiest option is to place promotional materials on each other.

Or you can go with more complex mechanics, for example, when your partner sells, he will issue a coupon to the client for s__ rubles to your company.

5. Notice boards

This is an alternative to aggregators, but from the side of free classified ads. For example, you can easily stay on Avito for free.

In addition to Avito, there are other boards (Yula, IRR), but there are not many of them. Although you do not need much, because these are the ones that collect the main Internet traffic.

But I want to draw your attention to the fact that if earlier it was easy to place tens and hundreds of ads and get completely free traffic, now the shop has been closed.


Ad on Avito

6. Forums

At one time I thought all free forums were dead. But to my great surprise, they live and develop.

Not as fast and global as it was in the 2000s, but there are customers there who are ready to buy. All you need is to know how to advertise on them correctly.

All forums are a priori free (not counting advertising positions). Therefore, there are tough moderators who remove any hint of advertising so that their offspring does not turn into a dump of suggestions.

In order to still break through there, you first need to become “your own” (just chat for a while).

The ideal strategy for you to get the maximum number of customers and not remove your link is.

That is, you do not offer to buy for everyone, but only in cases where it fits the context of the conversation.

And of course, you can create topics for conversation yourself and then unobtrusively, from another account, send yourself a link to your site. A common trick in .


Advertising on the forums

7. Mass following, mass liking and mass…

For volume, I could divide this step into “Vkontakte Advertising”, “Instagram Advertising” and other ways. But this is not logical, because they all have almost the same motor skills of action.

I hope you know this without me. Also, we are not talking about buying posts in groups, because this also requires money or useful material (method 3).

Hmm .. empty-handed will not work ...

Adding friends, liking, writing private messages and just chatting on social networks. networks.

All this brings customers according to the principle: you are active, a person goes to your page and sees the offer.

WE ARE ALREADY MORE THAN 29,000 people.
TURN ON

It is impossible to perform these actions on an industrial scale. The only social network that still allows you to do 1000 actions per day from one account (and they don’t block you for this) is Instagram. In the same VK, you cannot get such coverage for free.

In this article we are talking about 0 rubles of costs, but if you get tired of doing everything manually, use the Tooligram program for Instagram. And as a guide to use, our articles

In contact with

Classmates

Ads that you don't have to pay for aren't ineffective. Of course, marketing campaign budgets can reach huge figures - both five- and six-figures - but only large corporations can afford such expenses. And the promotion of a small personal business does not have to be expensive at all. For it, you can also use free advertising options (on the Internet and not only). Probably, in the future, advertising budgets will be reduced due to competent methods of promotion. Our article answers the question of where to advertise for free, and in such a way that the effect of it is maximum.

Pros and cons of free advertising


Nowadays, trade in various products and services is shifting from ordinary stores to the World Wide Web, which opens up great opportunities to satisfy the desires of consumers. As a power user, you will be the first person to turn to the Internet when you need to buy or sell something.

Free bulletin boards and specialized portals are very convenient and functional tools for making transactions, which have many advantages:

  1. Speed ​​and cost savings (you can place and search for ads absolutely free). To publish your information, you just need to fill out a special form.
  2. An active influx of regular customers. The World Wide Web has become a place for the purchase and sale of almost any services and goods, so an interested target audience seeks to go there, providing a huge number of views.
  3. Clarity and functionality of interfaces. Announcements and advertisements that users place for free are clearly grouped by subject and section, which makes it easier to find them.
  4. Indexing in all major search engines is the main tool for promoting free ads and attracting consumer attention to them. By posting your information, you can be sure that it will not only be found by the internal search on the site, but will also be displayed in a selection of search engines for a suitable query.

The disadvantages of this method of free advertising can be called the rapid updating of ads: every second new entries appear that move yours down the list. You can fight this by systematically publishing your ads on the portal.

Where to effectively advertise online for free

Free classifieds boards


This free advertising tool is not new, but quite effective. Information posted on bulletin boards (including advertising) is indexed by search engines and is easy to find. However, not all such web resources can boast of high traffic and data quality (some such sites, filled with 90% spam, are visited only by sellers who place their ads there for free, and customers are not interested in them).

How do users even find these free classifieds boards (other than the most popular portals)? It is unlikely that anyone will memorize the URL of such sites, which are now a great many.

A person usually gets to the free classifieds board from a search engine for a specific request, and then, having become interested, can view the rest of the information. Such web resources are usually searched for by the name of the product or service of interest (rather than using queries like "bulletin board Moscow"). Perhaps your ad (or advertisement) will not be in the first positions in the search results, but will still be found (including potential customers).

Free advertising on forums

The administration of the forums and especially the moderators have a very negative attitude towards those who try to place their ads on the resource for free. Therefore, active registration on all sites in a row and spamming them with your ads is not the best option: your information will be deleted very quickly. It is not suitable as a method of attracting customers for free.

But you can act more deliberately and competently. Find the main forums on your subject or regional forums, register on them, read, leave some meaningful comments. Having figured out who is who on the web resource and what are the rules of communication, you can move on to free placement of unobtrusive advertising of your services or products.
In some cases, with the permission of the moderator, you can start your own topic and advise in it on some goods (for example, “All about double-glazed windows”). It will become a platform on the Internet where you can freely and freely advertise your services or products.
When choosing forums, you can focus on the attendance and activity of participants, or you can - on their position in search engines for the corresponding request.

Q&A Services

Working with such free services is very simple. You need to give competent and detailed answers on the topic. You can advertise a product or service (also free), and it will not be removed if it is relevant to the topic and solves someone's problems.

You can shoot and post on free video hosting sites (YouTube and others) various videos, both educational and explicit advertising.

It is very important to fill in the description for the story in as much detail as possible - this will make it easier for the user to search through the videos. Videos are also indexed by search engines, and your video, even ads, can be at the top of the list of results for a related query if you present it correctly.

Creating and posting useful videos on free video hosting sites that people will share is a more reliable way of promotion than outright video advertising. The more unobtrusive the ad, the better. For example, it can be placed at the end of the review of a toy (in the form of the text "To place an order, call us ...").


Articles in magazines

Online publications can become your free advertising channel. But traditional print media should not be discounted either. Being an expert in any field or having valuable and interesting information, you can write articles and, by agreement with the editors of journals and electronic media, free to post them. This will give you the opportunity to indirectly advertise in the form of mentioning your contact details and the company's website.

Take a closer look at the authors of articles in magazines and newspapers: you will see that at least a third of all materials, especially in highly specialized media, are written by various professionals and company executives. By placing their ads in this way for free, they get potential customers, the media editors get valuable expert comments and first-hand information, and readers get interesting texts.

Free social media advertising

Creating a page, group or public for your business project is a modern and convenient way to advertise on the Internet for free. Such sites are usually filled useful tips on the chosen subject, small articles.

Be sure to invite your friends to subscribe to your public, encourage them to like and repost the posts they are interested in. This way of free advertising is quite forgivable if you have one project and you do not bother your friends with such requests. And if your business goes uphill, people will even be glad that they helped you in some way. Thank them with discounts for free and disinterested participation!

Where to advertise for free on Google

Surprisingly, not all entrepreneurs know that you can place your ads for free on various Google services.

If your business has some kind of territorial connection (there is a corporate office, a warehouse with the possibility of pickup, etc.), then be sure to use Google's advertising opportunities and add information about your company.

Because information can be placed there absolutely free of charge, and the publication process itself is simple and fast. In addition, Google is one of the largest search engines in the world, and getting extra points in it is a significant advantage for a business.

  • the company's location will be marked on Google Maps;
  • increase in traffic to the company's website;
  • there will be live reviews of buyers and visitors;
  • the company will be at the top of the search results;
  • it will be possible to get valuable attendance statistics for free.

All these advantages will become available to you after you place information about your organization in the Google My Business service. This information will automatically appear in search results and maps.

The Google+ service allows you to post links to new articles, which significantly speeds up their indexing by search engines, and reposts raise these publications to the top of search results. Don't miss out on this great free advertising opportunity for your business.

Those who subscribe to your Google+ account will see relevant records in the search results, and on the first page, which everyone is sure to view. The more relevant a post is, the higher it ranks and the closer it is to the top of the results list.

For example, when you search for "psychologist Moscow" you see companies that have accounts in the Google My Business service, immediately after the contextual advertising block, in second place in the list of results. Very impressive, isn't it? And it's completely free - these companies did not have to pay anything in order to place their ads.

If this convinced you to use Google as a marketing tool for your business, let's get started.

What information is required to submit an organization profile to Google My Business?

  • Brief description of its activities.
  • Contact information (address, phone number, website), work schedule.
  • Logo, photo (institution, office, shop, etc.).

By placing this company information on Google Maps, you will see something like this:

To get this result and publish your ads on Google services for free, follow these steps:

Step #1 Sign up for a business page account.

To do this, go to Google My Business and use the big button to create an account and publish information in it.

The account in this service is linked to the main account in the Google system (it should already exist at the time of registration of the business page, but if it does not exist, follow the instructions of Google to create it).

Type your company name and address into the search field. After making sure they are not in the list, add them.

Step #2 Place basic information about the company in the newsletter.

Fill in the following fields:

  • company name;
  • the country;
  • the address;
  • city;
  • postcode;
  • main telephone number;
  • business category.

If you serve clients remotely or travel to them, do not forget to check the appropriate checkbox at the end. In the window that appears, specify the approximate location of your target audience(settlements, remoteness from the office of the company).

This information is needed for the usual search for goods and services and search by maps. Take the opportunity to advertise online for free to make it easier for your customers to find you.

Step #3 Confirm the identity of the business.

Within two weeks, a letter will be sent to the address you specified containing a verification code that opens many additional features free advertising for the company.

You can confirm that your business is real, and by phone. This is optional, this step can be postponed for some time, but if you are serious about active free advertising of your company, then its authenticity needs to be verified.

Step #4 Complete all other profile fields.

Place a company logo, a photo, be sure to indicate the time of work and write a concise description of your activities. It should contain the keywords for which you want to bring the company to the top of the search results (but remember that this text is advertising, first of all, for people, not for robots, there should not be too many keys).

The basic information can be edited, if necessary, using the "Change" button located at the top right.


Step #5 Keep track of the relevance of information and user comments.

Post the change to Google immediately:

  • the work schedule of your office (warehouse, shop, etc.);
  • his physical address;
  • Site URL.

Don't ignore comments posted by users. Comments can become both free advertising of the company, if they are informative and positive (and then they should be thanked for), and anti-advertising, if they are complaints and negative feedback(in this case, you need to initiate a dialogue with their authors).

Once you've entered your business information into Google My Business and configured everything correctly, move on to the next step. Simultaneously with the business page for the company, a profile is created on the Google+ social network. Having this account is an effective SEO tool: in fact, it is free advertising of the company in the search results for relevant queries.

The organization profile itself on Google+ can also (and preferably) be made attractive to users so that it becomes a full-fledged advertising tool. To place all the necessary information and materials, use the submenu on the left and go to this page:

To make your Google+ profile a free online advertising channel for you, post the following information on your profile:

  1. Cover photo.

Choose and place an attractive, high-quality, high-resolution image that captures the essence of your business.

For example, you can use a photo of your team or good pictures from an event with your participation. These photos are great advertisements.

  1. History of the company.

A company profile on Google+ is an abbreviated version of the “About Us” section of the corporate website, where you need to place basic information: the range of goods (services) offered and, in short, data about the organization itself. Be sure to include text keywords so that the business page can be found through search - then it will become your free advertising.

  1. Links.
  1. Photo, video.

To add visibility and brilliance to the corporate page, publish videos and photographs reflecting the activities of the company and the products (services) it offers. Small videos about goods or services in action are a great tool for free advertising.

Update and supplement information on your business page more often: statuses, news, events. Conduct surveys, reach out directly to readers and ask for their feedback. If there is not enough time to maintain a page on Google+, just copy content from other social networks (VKontakte, Facebook).

If you have already collected your own subscriber base, send them an invitation to your Google+ page (only those of them whose mail is registered on Gmail).

  • Promise unique content that is not in the mailing list or in the company's profiles in other social networks. The promise must be kept by starting to prepare this material specifically for Google+ and not posting it anywhere else.

Which ad is the most effective? To what extent is it necessary in small and big business? These and other questions arise for everyone who starts doing business and is faced with the fact that in order to increase sales and promote their own product, they need to talk about their business.

Types of advertising

Today, you can present information about your activities in completely different ways. Before you start promoting an enterprise, you need to familiarize yourself with the types of existing advertising and choose the most suitable one for yourself. This is required in order to understand which effective advertising for a construction company, for example.

Most of the informational messages we see are commercial advertising aimed at attracting buyers, but there are also social and political ones.

  • outdoor - presented in the form of shields, posters on public transport, signs, signs, etc.;
  • through the media - television, radio, newspapers and magazines;
  • internet - banner, social networks, contextual advertising, hyperlinks.

The role of advertising in business

Advertising is not just a luxury. This tool is necessary for every entrepreneur to disseminate information about himself to the target audience and promote his name in the rating of enterprises. This will help present you as a reliable, solvent and responsible company.

When using competent marketing, you can easily answer which advertisement is the most effective for your activity, and in addition, create a positive image, emphasize advantages and form a loyal attitude towards the company.

It should not be assumed that small businesses do not need advertising, that only word of mouth works here. This is not true. In any case, advertising helps to tell potential buyers about the company, to promote the product of this company to the market.

It is important to choose the look that does not affect the budget too much, but at the same time will help to unwind and increase recognition.

Small business: how to advertise it

Small businesses, like large ones, require advertising, which should not be abandoned, even if there are no extra funds. You should know: the first 2 years are the decisive period in the development of any activity, when the initial acquaintance, habituation and recognition take place. During this period, promotion should be as intense and saturated as possible.

Before deciding on a way to promote an enterprise, it is worthwhile to study the information on the question as much as possible: what kind of advertising is the most effective? Statistics is a convincing thing and with the help of specific data it will help to decide on this choice.

It is important to focus on specific offers and stop using formulaic words such as “cheap”, “fast”, “guaranteed”, “profitable”, etc. If once such methods worked well for potential buyers, now they are does not attract, but even repels. People need specific figures, an understanding of what they will pay for.

Methods for increasing sales

There are several methods and types of advertising, each of which is aimed at increasing sales and making a profit, but all these are not spontaneous actions, but a well-thought-out strategy. What kind of advertising is the most effective for small businesses can be understood after a while, but the fact that any type obeys a certain structure is a fact:

  • problem - if you are selling a product or service that can help in a solution, then when advertising, you can use interrogative sentences: “Tired of waiting for prices to drop?”, “Are you tired of paying too much?” etc.;
  • problem solving - after a question has been asked, you give an answer in advance that it is your company that is able to solve it and on favorable terms;
  • the offer is unique - many firms can help, but you must be different and offer something that will attract the target audience even more;
  • restrictions - people may be interested in your product and service, but at the same time they will think about buying later in order to think everything over thoroughly. It is worth introducing a time limit or availability limit so that they go shopping faster;
  • call - after the interest and desire to purchase appears, the buyer must immediately see where to call, how to order, how to pay.

How to attract a consumer?

Which ad is the most effective? Statistics confirm that not every company can afford to talk about itself on television or radio, as it does not have large in cash. Of course, before advertising on one or more sources, the owner examines the data showing the most effective ways. But it is worth remembering that each business area has its own type of promotion and its own indicators.

According to the statistics on the example plastic windows in the city of Ufa, the cost of one attracted client in different ways is very different. Advertising was given on the radio, in newspapers and magazines, outdoor advertising, in the help desk and the Internet. The cheapest was promotion on the Internet, where 42 rubles were spent, and the most expensive on the radio - more than 15 thousand rubles. This suggests that on the Internet you can set up advertising specific to your client, control the budget and determine the cost of the contact.

Budget advertising for small businesses

  1. Telemarketing - calls potential clients They can attract buyers, but they can also repel them. Advertising in this way should be well-written: the text should be short, but capacious and understandable. However, this method is ineffective and can repel people.
  2. Sending messages to email addresses and social networks - this kind of takes time, but does not need cash investments. It is also ineffective, but a certain percentage of buyers can attract.
  3. Leaflets. Certain attachments this species advertising, of course, requires: it is necessary to print the material in a printing house, preferably in color, which will attract people more. This is a recognized marketing tool, but only if well-designed - good text, bright picture, quality paper. It should be distributed on streets where there is a lot of traffic.

How to evaluate effectiveness?

What is the most effective advertising method, how to evaluate it? After this tool is launched, the owner will want to know how advertising has affected sales, whether it is worth using it in the future or is it better to change something.

There are two measurements of advertising effectiveness: communicative (i.e. how well and accurately the message conveys information to the target audience) and financial. It is worth knowing that this indicator partly depends on the owner, who determines the budget, strategy, parameters, and partly does not depend, because there are uncontrollable factors: characteristics of the audience, advertising time, legal requirements.

But the assessment of effectiveness depends on the specific situation on the market: how many similar firms are there, what methods are chosen and why? For small businesses, it is recommended to build promotions using direct click methods, that is, the result should be commensurate: they launched advertising for ten rubles - they got thirty, which means it works. They launched it for five rubles - they got three, the method does not work and the company goes into the red.

A complex approach

It is impossible to give the same assessment of the effectiveness of advertising for each area of ​​business and use the statistics of the results of one company to analyze another. This method will only spend the budget, but there will be no sense.

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