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Advertising online has long been a popular strategy among businesses. The ability to reach a larger audience, as well as accurately measure results, means that advertising online could have a positive impact on a business. However, more and more problems are arising in this area, and so many businesses are starting to look at alternative options. Luckily, there are several avenues available to your business if you’re looking to move away from online advertising.
Advertising Online Challenges: Exploring Alternatives
Webinars
Webinars are becoming an increasingly attractive proposition for businesses everywhere. Whereas online adverts can often be intrusive and unwanted, webinars are events that users can sign up for, making them a much more consensual method of advertising.
What is a webinar? Simply put, webinars are online-only events that can be held on a variety of subjects. The key difference between a webinar platform and traditional video streaming platforms is in audience interactivity; most webinar platforms feature tools designed to let the audience participate, often in the form of polling, questionnaires and integrated social media.
In addition to getting your brand in front of potential customers, webinars offer an easy and ethical way to gather data on your audience, so when used correctly they can be considerably more beneficial to your business than online advertising.
Email Marketing Campaigns
Email marketing campaigns are a great low-cost alternative to online adverts. Email campaigns can take many forms, from newsletters to giveaways and new product announcements. Email marketing can often be automated, making it a great option for smaller marketing teams.
The major challenge with email marketing is in building a database, which can be difficult at first. Once this has been done, however, email marketing can be an essential tool for generating awareness and retaining customers.
Social Media
While you can pay to have your product advertised on social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, using your account to offer giveaways and promotions is a great low-cost alternative.
By building a large social media following, you can easily generate awareness of your products without having to pay for adverts. What’s more, there are many social media analytical tools that can give you an accurate assessment of how your brand is doing.
Referral Campaigns
Another popular alternative to online advertising, referral campaigns involve getting your active customers to share your products with others to grow your brands. This is done by incentivizing existing customers to share your content by offering them rewards for doing so, such as a free product or entry into a competition. By incentivizing your existing customers, you can grow your audience and build a loyal customer base at the same time.
Online Forums
If your product is targeted towards a niche community, it is worth looking online for forums where this specific audience is gathered. If the forum allows you to advertise your business, you can use these forums to get your product in front of the intended audience without having to pay for ads. Offer your product as a solution to their problems, and avoid spamming users, and you can easily build a loyal customer base.
With the rapid advances in technology, there are now multiple alternatives to the more problematic online advertising that your business can take advantage of.
