Marketing Communications are becoming more than essential
for business today. Consumers integrate more and more communication technology into
their daily activities. This makes it extra easy and difficult in the same time
for companies to communicate their messages. And extra expensive.
Starting and maintaining a business is an economically
challenging task. No matter in what branch you operate you will need a lot of
visibility, both online and offline. This requires as a minimum a website – web
host, domain registration, website building, website optimization, SEO
monitoring, updating and maintaining on ongoing basis. And this is just the
beginning! You have not even thought about advertizing, offers, newsletter, teasers,
etc. Here I am not even mentioning all other costs in connection to renting an
office or simply maintaining the daily operations.
Looking at it from this perspective it looks like running
your own business is next to impossible. The question here is whether it
necessarily should be like that.
All the great and
free business and marketing tools
If you really think that paying for services and software is
absolutely necessary maybe you will miss the point here. If you though consider
that price is simply a marketing trick after all you might realize that the
price of opening your own business might fall drastically.
Let’s explore a few of the options you have for making you
life easier and your business low cost.
1.
Webhost: There is a wide range of webhosts out
there and it is important that you research a bit before you make a decision
about who should host your website. Consider the importance of 24/7 live
support and Control Panel with all the cool features and extra services you can
use. The technical characteristics of a webhost are also very important. How
much space and what speed your website requires? Is there an option for secure
server? Are there website import/export features or databases? After being clear about what
you need you can choose webhosting that ranges between 1 USD and over 10 USD
per month. Do not limit yourself to webhosts from your own country. In many
cases the big international providers will be much better for you.
2.
Domain name: Choose carefully your domain name
as it is going to shape your image. Just as with webhosting you have the option
to buy (actually rent) your domain name anywhere in the world and with any
suffix. Prices vary a lot also there so research can save you around 10 USD per
year if not more. If you need sub-domains make sure that your domain registrar
allows that.
3.
Website design: I read an article for entrepreneurs
written by Region Midt in Denmark and in it I saw a price of 700-800 Euro for
getting your website running. Be careful as you are going to stumble upon such
offers by designers, IT-specialist and many other consultants. In reality you
are able to build your website on your own. It is a myth that you need a
programmer for that task. Nowadays website building is made accessible for
non-specialists. You only need to understand how and what your website should
communicate. For this task you might want to consult a Marketing Communications
Specialist or someone specializing in Online Marketing. Using Wordpress for
example can give professional results with almost no effort. On top of
everything else you can find countless themes and plugins in Wordpress which
will make it easy for you to integrate exactly the design and the functionality you
want.
Do not get carried away with buying
expensive Wordpress themes. Here I want to use a moment and mention Graphene Theme. It is
a completely free and fully responsive theme which can be used as you like and
adjusted beyond imagination. My special thanks to the developers!
4.
SEO and Online Marketing: We are trained to
think that SEO should cost a lot. It should not. Not so many out there know
that Microsoft has developed a free SEO toolkit which does a lot of the work.
Furthermore you can facilitate many small and bigger SEO plugins directly into
your Wordpress website allowing you to count social conversion, visits, perform
on-site optimization and set custom micro data, meta titles, descriptions and keywords. You
can learn a lot about your website’s effectiveness by signing up for Google
Analytics – it is a free and great service! Google Master Tools provide you
with a lot more control and optimization options in connection to managing you
website and authenticating it which helps your SEO. Last but not least you can
draw on the keyword and search activity analysis provided in Google Trends and Google
AdWords. You can even see your ranking in connection to different key words in
Google Webmaster Tools. The only thing you cannot see there is a competitor analysis.
But I am pretty sure that there is a simple and free tool for that too out
there.
Yes, it might seem a bit overwhelming and it is true that it
requires a certain level of understanding of those systems. But it is just like
with everything else – you need to learn it in order to use it.
If you though think that it is way too complicated for you
to handle, there are even free consultancy options online. Just check http://www.dcommunication-group.com/
and learn how to make your life easier and your business low cost.
DIDI
