Sharing copyright-free images to help get yourself known

Finding copyright-free pictures online is sometimes hard work. There are a number of websites dedicated to sharing photographs that can be used by anyone, but there are far more websites where images vary in price. It’s understandable: someone has to take those pictures, and why should they give them away for nothing? On the other hand, the people looking for free images may be in the very early stages of setting up their own business and have no income, or they may be working for a charity – just because they are looking for free images doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re being stingy.

If you’re a photographer then it’s worth considering uploading some copyright-free images. Often, the websites that host them allow users to make a donation for images that particularly impress them, so there’s still potential for earning a small amount from them. However, it’s also an opportunity to get your name ‘out there’ – if people like your work, they may come looking for more. Obviously it’s not wise to offer your best work for free, but if you’re good at what you do then it’s likely even your more average work is of a good standard in the eyes of other people. It’s worth a try!

 

Mobile marketing options explained

Mobile marketing is on the increase as more and more of us have smartphones and tablets. On average, we spend 3 hours a day on our phones and tablets, so it makes sense you use this as part of your marketing strategy. There are a number of ways in which you can do mobile marketing such as:

  • SMS – This is where you text your customers with a message such as notification of a new product going on sale or to ask them to enter in to a prize draw. The message should be short and possibly include a link to your website where they can read more. Always make sure that you have the consent from all the people you message to and give them the option to opt out
  • Advertising through your own or someone else’s app – you can chose to have a banner advert on your app or on someone else’s app. These adverts are sometimes displayed across the top or bottom of the screen or may be shown as the user progresses through the app. They are usually shown on a timed basis and you can usually chose how often you want your ad to appear.

 

Offline advertisements – how to do it

Many companies are moving away from offline marketing and concentrating all their efforts on online marketing, but there is still a place for the tradition forms of advertising such as leaflets and billboards.

When thinking about offline advertising you need to work out how much space and time you have to communicate your message. If for example you are thinking of creating a static billboard advertisement then you will probably only have a few seconds to capture someone’s interest as they are usually placed on motorways etc. Even just having your logo and a short slogan can be enough to grab someone’s interest. Some people combined the offline marketing with the online marketing so they may have their logo and hashtag their company name, allowing you to search and share information on social media sites, or their social media name for you to search and find out more about them.

Unlike with many online advertisements, when doing print work it is essential to make sure it is right first time as spelling mistakes, incorrect contact details or information cannot be altered without incurring additional costs for reprinting.

 

Designing a user friendly website

When developing a website you need to consider many points in order to make sure that it is successful and does what your customers want it to. Very often you need to ask yourself a number of questions before diving in and getting your website created.

Firstly it is important to remember what the main aim of the site is going to be. Is it going to be to attract enquiries, is it to sell products online or is it purely for information? Once you know this you can then start to look at how you can display the information on your site in a user friendly way.

If your website is ecommerce based, meaning you want people to buy online, then your focus will be different to that of a site trying to gain enquiries.

It can be easy to get carried away with adding in functionality to a site that may not be needed or used and this can be costly in both time and money. The more functionality the more to go wrong, so my advice is to keep it simple to start with and then build on it once you know what your customers need and want.

Don’t forget to ensure that your website is also SEO friendly so that ranks highly on the search engine pages.

 

 

 

Have you tried Facebook advertising?

Facebook is one of the most, if not the most popular social media website. It has grown massively in population over the last decade and now many businesses are taking advantage of it. It started off with individuals using it to connect with these friends, share pictures, status updates, play games and re-connect with people that you may have lost touch with. But over the past few years, Facebook has played a huge roll in online marketing.

If you have a business, then you definitely should have a profile on Facebook, whether it be a page, create a group or personal profile that advertises your business. This is not just to attract potential customers but also because Google use social media as part of their ranking algorithm.

Facebook offer an advertising program to allow you to share your page with people in a certain location, based on keywords you select. You can chose a daily budget and then select your ads to display for 7 days, 14 days, 30 days or ongoing. Once you have selected your criteria you can then see approximately how many clicks to your page you should get in one day.

Always make sure that you monitor your progress when it comes to paid for advertising to allow you to keep track of if it is working.