How to bring awareness to my Services

[homie107]

Hi all.

I run an online research and consulting business, helping new and existing business owners find the right suppliers.

Below is a little brief about the company so you guys can better help me.

We all know how difficult it is and the risks involved when dealing with China factories. Even if they come highly recommended on sites such as Alibaba, there are alway cases where their claims are bogus. We reduce the time and risks involved.

Majority of people I have feed back from say this is a really good service and most importantly a value added services.

I want to exhaust all the free channels of advertising and site awareness first before paying for it.

I appreciate any comments you have.

thanks

[Freelancier]

There's no free lunch. You have to invest in your business to grow it. Assuming that anyone on a free small business forum is going to want to find an Asian supplier is a waste of energy, because we're not your best potential customers.

Who are your best potential customers?

[manishsqrt]

In which country is your business located? because if you are in india, people are less used to internet technology yet, just wait and have patience things are going to change in future, when more people will start using internet they will gain more faith in all services that run online, but it will take some time, even big companies are also only doing fund raiser till now, they don't get any ROI and it is said that things will start changing only after 2020, just keep working till then to improve your and user's experience, and improvise your quality of service and online reputation.

[Harold Mansfield]

I agree with Freelancer. The folklore that you can grow your business using all free methods, OR the old "before I spend any money on it" is very over rated and usually never works.
You either believe in your business or you don't. If you don't have the budget to do marketing, that's another story and something you should have considered before you leaped.

But saying "I want to exhaust all the free channels of advertising and site awareness first before paying for it." is said around here all the time and it doesn't work that way.
Yes, you should utilize all that you can that is free, but using all free things is not any kind of realistic plan to attract any customers. It should be a part of your marketing, not all of your marketing.

If you want to attract customers you need to get serious about your marketing and advertising and that generally means spending money on your presentation and execution unless you can do it all yourself and do it well enough to attract interest. Your personal best isn't good enough. It has to be competitive with your competition.

I'm not saying that you can't totally kick ass with things like SEO, Content Marketing, Interviews, Podcasts, Webinars, List Building and so on...but most people don't have the will or commitment to learn how to do any of those things well. They just dabble in one thing to the next looking for something easy, cheap, that requires no significant investment in time that will bring immediate results...and when it doesn't work, they blame the system and move on to the next thing.

[david15beck]

The best method for brand promotion nowadays is social networking sites, promote your services or brand on famous websites like Facebook,twitter,link din etc. or you can try other methods like videos promotion on YouTube , daily motion etc. if you can invest little money then promote your products through Google ad words, Facebook and link din ads. in my opinion the Best way to promote your services or business is display ads on ad words. try any way,hope it should help. Good Luck.

[RR151]

I don't understand your business?

Are you the middle man like aliexpress.com or something else? Alibaba is a huge business that fills the gap when looking for a factory in China.

What would you do to make my purchase safer than Alibaba? This sounds like something that is already working or am I missing something?


RR

[LouiseToronies]

Hi wow ok this is all going to be hard for me I know but I am also looking to explore more Marketing options for when I want to start a business that's why I am starting a Marketing degree soon so if I get lots of tips I will let you know. Good luck, Louise xx

[Kumar Palani]

I think basically you pay to get the best stuffs, and anything that comes free cannot be assumed to be the best here. Any product/service has it's quality/efficiency/longevity factors tied to its price (although not always). Besides I hardly think it will be a smart idea to use all free services/sites just because they are free, most of them may not be related to your industry, and some will be a total waste of your time. By that logic there is nothing called free service, you either waste your time finding the best free (a never ending quest) and end up wasting a lot of your productive time, or pay few bucks to find a trustworthy source.

[SEOHouston]

Lot's of great responses to this thread!
I recommend that you join LinkedIn if you haven't already, and join groups that are in your niche. Post good content and engage in that group!