P.T. Barnum once said, “Nothing draws a crowd. . .quite like a crowd”. Barnum was a master at promotion and if you want to be heard on the web you will have to have a way {actually more than one way} to promote your business online.

You already know about blogs, e-newsletters and social media, but there are all sorts of affordable tools out there that can help you promote your business even further. Here are seven tools, you may not have thought of using, that can help you promote your business online.

HARO – Help A Reporter Out
If you need a little help getting some free publicity for your small business, you may want to consider HARO. It’s an online service that helps members of the media {television, print, radio and online} find credible sources for their stories.

All you have to do is sign-up for an account {it’s free} and you can volunteer to “help a reporter out” when they need to site a source for a piece they are working on.

The site allows you to choose what topics you would like to be approached on and HARO will email you notifications on which reporters are looking for your “expert opinion” to include in their piece. It’s a great resource for them and could lead to great exposure for you. You can learn more at: www.helpareporter.com/

Any Meeting & Gather Place
If you’ve managed to build-up a nice email list, you may want to start figuring out how you can multiply your business online. A great way that you can do that is to offer your products and even your services online. That’s right – if you have a serviced-based business you can teach!

A fast and reliabe way to get your content to your customers, is through a webinar. Webinars have been used for quite a few years as not only a list-building tool, but as a way to deliver premium content to paying customers.

The catch – it can be pricey when you’re just starting out. More established names like GoToWebinar can charge $199/month for up to 500 attendees.

This can prove to be cost prohibitive for a small business, especially if you are just starting out, but now there are several contenders in the market and two of the most talked about are Any Meeting and GatherPlace. Why? Because of their robust list of features and affordable pricing plans.

You’ll need to do a little homework but, be sure to visit GoToWebiner, AnyMeeting and GatherPlace to see which plan works best for you.

Smore
Flyers go digital with this app. Smore is a great way to generate more buzz and traffic to your site online. You can promote your event online to a large number of people, including sites like Craigslist (check out this video tutorial here).

With Smore you can create a custom digital flyer for your event and {with an upgrade} track your results with it’s own web analytics tool.

You can see who visited your page, share it on social media outlets like Facebook and it’s mobile-ready, which is critical for events that are normally typically held offline. You can join for free and plans start for as little as $19 to create 5 flyers a month! Visit www.smore.com to learn more.

PowToons
Are you looking for a way to create a more “polished” and dynamic video presentation that goes beyond Keynote or Prezi? Then you may want to consider PowToons.

Online video as we all know is highly effective at getting your message out there and converting to sells. PowToons helps you create videos to sell, teach or train your customers and prospects. This is a great service, if you are into the animated look. You can try it for free or check out this video to learn more.

Marketo
If you’ve been online for some time and you are ready to take your online marketing efforts up a notch, you may want to consider investing in an automated marketing software application. These applications help you integrate all of your online marketing apps into one place. One of the more popular ones is Marketo. You can sign-up a 4 minute demo or for a free trial here.

Pitch Engine
PR has been on the web for quite some time and it is rare that you see something new come into this space, but Pitch Engine is that rare exception. It’s used not only by small business owners, who don’t have budgets for an in-house pr or marketing team, but by independent PR and Marketing firms to help get the word out about their client’s brands, products and services.

Again, this app is ideal for those of you who have a more established web presence and need more robust tools to do the heavy lifting for you. Visit www.pitchengine.com to learn more.

Question: What tools do you use to promote your business online or off? Share your comments and suggestions below.

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