\n\nWhile it’s very costly to advertise businesses online, there are multiple methods advertisers can use to get their businesses out in the open, especially if they’re relatively new and with limited funds. Here are multiple free and effective platforms from which you can advertise your business.\n\n

\n\nYouTube\n\nVirtually everyone uses YouTube. It’s free, global and provides much simplicity. Advertisers can use this avenue to promote their businesses and develop their brand. Since YouTube is video oriented, businesses can create unique video content highlighting their products and services. If they’re so inclined, they can outline their business concept and provide a brief overview. Since YouTube has a wide audience, businesses can be assured that users with an interest in their products will stumble on their videos.\n\nFacebook\n\nLike YouTube, FaceBook has a massive following. In fact, there are some individuals who are online 24/7. Businesses can capitalize on this platform without paying a penny. They can simply create a business page, upload the firm’s logo or slogan (whatever works best), and important social media content. Many businesses fail at this method as a result of being too enthusiastic. What does this mean? Some businesses become so concerned about selling their products to the extent where they fail to build trust and loyalty with their following. Instead of creating and posting content only related to your products and services, include content that provides information on what is happening in the industry. Multiple posts on small talks, humour and friendly quotes will not hurt your page or your business but build your reputation.\n\nTwitter\n\nTwitter provides similar advertising functionality as FaceBook. By creating a Twitter page, businesses can advertise their products and services without cost. They can use hashtags to make a compilation of social media posts made by the page administrator. With enough followers, likes, comments, and tweets, businesses will be able to boost their online presence. With Tweets, business owners can provide updates on new products, services, giveaways and upcoming events.\n\nBlogging\n\nBlogging is an effective way to get traffic. If you own a business – maybe online – you can use blogging to get your content to go viral. If you’re a great writer and think Internet users will enjoy your articles and blog posts, you can create unique content and upload to WordPress. You can also write about your business, your products and services, then provide a link directing traffic to your site or provide information (maybe a WordPress contact form) so that readers who are interested in your products can contact you.\n\nUse a signature\n\nBefore sending out emails for your company, it’s best to include a signature at the bottom of each email. In your signature, you can include links to your business’ FaceBook, Twitter, website and YouTube account. Since Internet users have a tendency to get very curious, they’ll be tempted to click those links to discover its content.\n\nYelp\n\nYelp is a widely used website for locating businesses. Get your business on Yelp where potential customers are able to read reviews and get relevant information about your products and services.\n\n

\n\nDigital Marketing Techniques using Youtube and Social Media\n\nDigital marketing is a popular technique used for advertising. In fact, this method of advertising products and services involve using electronic devices such as smartphones, computers, e-mails, and other electronic forms to get exposure and traffic. Among the different digital marketing techniques used, YouTube and Social Media marketing have become very common.\n\n

\n\nYouTube is a stable and widely used network. Internet users are able to use this tool to gather a wealth of information through videos and info graphics. Since there’s no cost placed behind using this platform, advertisers can use it to maximize returns on their investments. Additionally, search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo take delight in optimizing content with an incorporated video presentation. This works well with SEO and is able to reroute traffic to your main website. Videos are customarily used to gain trust, create a relationship with viewers and even to gain their trust. While these are attractive reasons for marketers to use YouTube as a digital marketing platform, the major factor is its prevalence. YouTube is used on a global scale and is capable of reaching virtually everyone, once they have access to the Internet.\n\nSocial Media\n\nSocial media involves more than interacting with others over the Internet. It encapsulates the tools and equipment used to make viable communication between people from all over the world. In fact, any platform that allows users to create and interact (via sharing photos, videos, comments, likes, tweets etc) is dubbed as a social media. YouTube is referred to as a social media but is more oriented on creating unique video content. In addition to keeping your company’s brand fresh and alive, social media networks allow their users to provide timely and quick updates on products and services. This can be done through a simple tweet or status update. Like YouTube, social media networks are widely used and allow marketers to interact with their audience by responding to posts, comments etc on their web pages.\n\nDigital Marketing Techniques for YouTube and Social Media\n\nYouTube and Social Media have a lot in common. Digital marketing techniques are easily used throughout these platforms as a result of their simplicity. Marketing techniques common on YouTube and Social Media include regularly creating fresh content. Since content is king of the game, marketers can create unique video contents and social media contents for their YouTube channel and Social Media page respectively. Additionally, they all provide sharing, commenting, and liking functionality. YouTube videos, after being viewed, can be shared on other social networking sites such as FaceBook, Twitter, Tumblr, StumbleUpon, Reddit and many others. Since there are so many social networks, your content will not go unseen, even if they’re not liked. Since pictures and videos are able to convey more information, your audience will be better able to interact with the content, in comparison to having them read through a long article (most articles are not read but scanned.) With digital marketing techniques, marketers are able to do more, be more effective and do so without having to pay a penny.\n\n

\n\nYouTube is widely used by advertisers. Throughout the years, they have become common as a result of their simplicity and ease of use. With the many benefits derived from using YouTube, marketers continue to explore their features in order to reach a wider audience. Why do marketers prefer this network? Simply, YouTube marketing is effective. Here are some of the benefits advertisers derive from using this platform.\n\n

\n\n1. A wider audience\nYouTube is used prevalently. People of different socioeconomic backgrounds – whether rich or poor- use the platform. Since it’s used on a global scale, marketers can position themselves in such a way that they’re able to reach those beyond their target audience. A wider audience simply means that unique content will be seen and may even be converted to sales.\n\n2. You don’t have to be funny\nWhile people are more captivated by and motivated to watch a video providing a bag of laughter, your content does not have to be funny. Since videos are created for multiple different purposes, you do not have to worry about losing your audience. Not everyone watch videos to be humored or poked at. Your videos can be blank and boring, provided that the audience is able to take from your presentation what they’re looking for. These videos should be informative and to the point. Additionally, if your aim is to get your audience engaged or to turn leads into sales, your videos need to be persuasive and riveting.\n\n3. It’s free!\nMany advertisers spend thousands of dollars on Pay Per click campaigns and other advertising methods. While these methods are effective (in some stances), advertisers tend to lose money without even generating a sale. However, with YouTube, advertisers can generate traffic, leads and even sales without paying a penny from pocket. Customarily, anything acquired with little or no cost is stigmatized as being ‘no good’. However, YouTube is highly beneficial, effective and best of all, it’s free!\n\n4. You’ll gain minions\nYouTube allows you to see whose hearts you’ve captured. When video content is unique and well organized, people will become loyal to you. To show their loyalty, they’ll subscribe to your channel and keep abreast with your video posts. Additionally, they’ll trust you to the point where they’ll even refer your channel to friends and the chain will continue. With these minions or subscribers, your views, comments, likes and shares will increase – and so will your income!\n\n5. YouTube knows everyone\nThe above statement may sound odd, but the reality is, YouTube does know everyone! These ‘everyone’ refers to other social media platforms. Since YouTube has built in shared buttons, you can create unique content and have them linked to several other social media platforms. These other platforms include FaceBook, Twitter, Stumblupon, Reddit, Pinterest, Blogger and several others. Since these platforms have their built in functions and features, more people will be able to see your videos.\n\n6. SEO loves videos\nWhat’s the point in creating content if Google or any other search engine does not recognize it? Since search engines love videos, it’s the ideal digital marketing technique or platform to use for getting highly ranked by search engines. Since you’ll be able to secure a lot of views, shares and comments, search engines will flock to your channel when Internet users use appropriate keyword terms.\n\n