How to promote/market an online business

Hi,


I am starting this thread hoping it will help me and other people who have an online business and needs some advises on how to promote an online business.

So, i have an online business and i have to say that i am somehow confused on how to promote my business and generate leads/sales.

I have read a lot about marketing and this few options are on top in a random order:

1. seo
2. ppc
3. adwords
4. facebook
5. e-mail marketing (no spam)
6. flyers/cards/brochures distribution


I will take each one and discuss it a little bit, let me know if you agree with me or share your opinions.



1. SEO: anyone wants to be on the first page on google (its the new gold chase of modern world), but for a lot of keywords the competition is huge. There are a lot of companies that could be found online that do SEO. But that is another discussion: which is good, which is bad, which uses white hat, which uses black hat. So, few questions raises:

a. How do you choose your SEO company
b. How or when do you pay the company?
c. Is their payment plan a good indicator that its a legit/good company?
d. Do you need maintenance after you reached first page?




2. PPC: heard and read a lot of stories about this, but i have to say that this is a little in a shade, at least for me, some people found success using this method, some didn't, a lot are saying that its a waste of time, is it? My questions:

a. PPC really helps?
b. Is it expensive?
c. Which companies to use?
d. Is the traffic they bring a real traffic?




3. Aswords: i used adwords for one of my business, its a good way to market your business and its a simple way to do it. The thing is that adwords also help you in finding if your site needs improvement or not before doind SEO or a larger/more expensive promoting company using other ways to do it then adwords. You will be able to learn if your price is to big, to small (and people will doubt the quality of your service or product), you will be able to learn if your selling page(s) are good or not, basically you can use a relatively simple way to learn more about your business (especially if you are at the beginning). More that that if you do it good and wise adwords can bring you good profit.

Adwords is also good for learning which keywords are good for using for SEO.

So, my advise:

--- experiment, experiment, experiment, when you are using Adwords especially if you are at the beginning. You will learn so MUCH about your business in a way that you didn;t even thought before doing Adwords.

So, adwords is good even on long term if the keywords are not expensive.

If you guys other ways to promote an online business please feel free to write it down. As well, share your experience with us so we can learn from it.




4. Facebook: what can i say about facebook as anyone uses it, we cannot leave without it (as least some of us), so, i know that facebook is food because:


a. Its cheaper that google ads (for the majority of keywords)
b. You can grow your facebook fans through facebook ads or via a good and attractive faceboook page, so, you can interact with your possible customers
c. Give them something for free in a given period for a LIKE and your page will be even more appealing for your possible customers


I really think that facebook its better and already started to replace blogs, am i right?




5. E-mail marketing: i read about it, but uts unclear for me. My questions:

a. Is it effective?
b. Who does that?
c. How could you be sure that you wont spam or the company you hire wont spam
d. How could this be done legit?
e. Are there good, honest companies that do that?
f. Is it expensive?
g. How targeted could it be?




6. Flyers/cards/brochures distribution: i recently read about this and i came to the conclusion that it could be a very good way to promote your business if its done right. I read that is very important to:


a. Have a very food copy
b. The most recommended are cards or brochures
c. To use a good company to deliver your cards or brochures directly to
the prospects mailbox - companies can do that - its that expensive as
i thought
d. To deliver them in batches and use 2 or 3 type of cards/brochures to
see which is more effective and also to deliver them in different areas





Let me know your thoughts, let me know if you use or recommend other ways to promote/market your business.

Let me know what you think of each option i named above.



Thank you for reading.