When it comes to promoting your new business aggressively to kick start it, where would you spend your money on? What's the most effective method to promote something related to business? I'd like to know about your experiences in terms of promotion (e.g. PPC campaigns, pay someone to do link building, buy relative links, etc.)
I think that depends on the type of business. For example. If it is a webmaster related business, you can probably get about as much good publicity in forums, as running an ad or press release. Many webmasters dont pay much attention to ads, and spend a lot of time in forums. You have to figure out what your target is, and where they spend their time.
Well mine is targeted at business owners (who seek to outsource projects) and freelancers (HR/IT/Writing...). I got a budget but I don't know exactly where to put it into even though I sifted through a lot of methods and ways... I don't like risks but I somewhat have to spend it now!!
Well, that is somewhat out of my realm as well, but I recommend spending a little time in their shoes. Place yourself in their position and start searching and trying to find what they are looking for. If you dedicate a little time to it, you will eventually figure out what they look for.
I recommend PPC....but, you have to know what you are doing. Do some research. There are some good sources out there for learning how to get the most out of your buck. Many people lose a lot of money because they just start throwing up ads and keywords and bids...NOT the way to do it. Still, a lot of people shy away from PPC because they say it costs too much. I spend a lot on PPC, but for every dollar I spend, I bring in 4. Not a bad ratio. Jim
@Jim: Indeed thats a good ratio, but as of now I have no revenue system for my primary project as I intend to find advertisers as soon as the pagerank has been updated and the community is more active... anyway thanks for the advice!!
For free advertising nothing can beat participating in relevant forums. As said earlier people will pay attention if it is said on a forum, but if it is in an ad it is much harder to judge the quality of the company placing the ad. As Jim did say though if you have the money to run a PPC campaign they are worth it if they are administered correctly. I do not see that same ratio as jim, but I do see a 2 to 1 ratio when running a PPC campaign.
Good post, good question. I agree with the other replies, I think you'll find a lot of potential clients in forums. Have you thought of paid exposure in forums, this can be a relatively inexpensive way to get more exposure also. Adwords can be expensive, you've had a reply above with regards to a 1 - 4 dollar return, which is amazing - but this isn't the norm, in fact the norm is more like $4 in & $1 back, so you have to be careful. Many people just plugh in money without having a clue what their average visitor value is, so they never know if they can actually make a profit or not based on the CPC of the keywords they're sponsoring. Cheers Kev
Don't ever buy links. These can and most of the time WILL hurt you in the long run if not the medium or short run. I would do PPC traffic because it's the fastest to show results, has great returns if used properly and can get you up and running in no time.