Four Cheap Ways to Promote Your Startup
You've finished the business plan, filed the incorporation papers, and launched the Web site. In other words, your shingle is out. Now what? How can you get some exposure for your fledgling business, and do so on the shoestring budget you undoubtedly have?
Mashable editor Matt Silverman offers four suggestions in How to Earn Some Inexpensive Online Exposure for Your SMB. For starters, he says, bring your "story" straight to the media:
Bloggers and reporters are always hunting for interesting stories, products and companies to cover and discuss with their audiences. For news outlets and blogs that fosters very niche coverage, it's not always easy to find sources.Silverman also suggests starting a business blog -- and making sure to use search-optimized titles so the Google crowd is more likely to find your posts. (Around these parts we call that search-engine optimization, or SEO.)That's where media query services like HARO (Help a Reporter Out) come in. It's a place where media pitches are sought out, which isn't always the case elsewhere.
Another solid option: press-release distribution services like PRWeb, which for as little as $80 will send out your release and give it some SEO polish.
I think Silverman covers all the basics quite well. Have you learned any other tricks of the SMB-promotion trade? If so, share 'em in the comments!