Let's face it, today's economy is pretty scary. We are all scared to spend our hard-earned cash on small ticket items, much less - the big ticket items. The most difficult thing of all is that when times are the worst is when we need to be promoting ourselves the most. That's why we at webspeakmedia came up with an inexpensive method of marketing your business. It requires little to no cost on your part, depending on if you follow all six steps.

Get Yourself A Blog
You may laugh at this concept, but that is exactly what we are doing here at webspeakmedia. In fact, you are now reading our facebook blog, effective? You be the judge. Blogs are in, and harnessing this technology is something we recommend. Blogs allow your clients/customers to subscribe to you - so they are made aware of your updates. Blogs are quite simply replacing snail mail newsletters, and within a few years, we see blogs being one of the primary sources of business communication.

Social Media Here You Come
That's right. Social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are all vital tools in the success of your business nowadays. Did you know that there are companies popping up across the United States (webspeakmedia included) that can even assist you with turning on these Social Media programs? We're not joking. In fact, it is a big deal. webspeakmedia does offer this as a service, but if you are trying to save your money, experiment with social media on your own, and within a few hours, you will have your very own page.

Newsletter? I thought you said they were on their way out!
Well, yes and no. While the snail mail newsletter is going by the way of the dodo, the e-newsletter is still holding its ground rather well. You can join newsletter services like iContact and ConstantContact for around $15 a month. These programs are simple to use, but if this is something you feel webspeakmedia would better do for you, we offer that service to you. The biggest recommendation we have is to not pile up your newsletter with useless or superfluous data. Keep it succinct. One page will do the trick. Also, use your newsletter to offer specials to the customer. This is how you keep your customers interested in these newsletters. They may never read the 2 stories you put into the newsletter. They will be looking for ways they can save. We highly recommend this form of communication with your customers. It is still current, and it helps both you and your customers.

Google, Put Me In The Spotlight, Please?
Now, we've all seen the ads at the top of Google and on the right side of Google as we search. But here's a little factoid that you might want to jot down. Those ads account for 30% of the executed searches in Google's database, and they are not expensive to set up. You can set started with as little as $25 and you can set how much you want each clicked link to be worth, let's say 8 cents. Once your clicked links have reached $25, at 8 cents a click, you simply renew, or your links are automatically removed. It's that easy. webspeakmedia can set this up for you. For businesses trying to get the recognition on search engines, we recommend it.

Offer something free
Yes, the age-old method. But it works. People love free. We all love something that is free. webspeakmedia offers a simple, 3-page website for free. But here's why we do it. We're not sales sharks, we want our potential clients to see the quality they are getting. That's why you offer a free service or product. That free item is your introduction to the customer.

How About A Website Today?
The sixth and final way to market yourself is to have an effectively marketed website. While this is probably the more costly item on the menu here, it's also the most versatile. Every website webspeakmedia develops comes with SPEAK!UP - a web-based marketing management tool that will not only allow you to add and update pages on your website, but it will allow you to create blogs, add podcasts, add and edit news events and press releases, create forms, and even generate your own surveys to monitor your performance. If you fancy more of the aesthetic, don't worry, we have you covered there too. Our web development team can design you a beautiful website, coupled with a full photo gallery program that will allow you to create slideshows, and photo galleries on the fly.

Need your customers to go shopping? Don't worry, we've got you covered there too. Our robust shopping cart integrates seamlessly with SPEAK!UP.

Still not sure, give us a call at 800-556-3577.