So, you have your new product/service ready and you would like to promote the same in the Internet to generate leads. As any new venture, you have limited budget and you don’t want to blow it away by means of online advertising. In fact you prefer it to do it freely and wait for the response. The only investment you want to make use is your time.

Sure – there are proven ways on how you can promote your product/service absolutely free of cost in Internet and still get high quality leads. Let us see some of the ways how you can do free Internet advertising and still get some good responses.

Use Google To The Core

Google does not charge you for the search listing it displays when somebody searches it on a particular topic or keyword.  The sponsored ad in the top and the ads in the right side are the paid ads. Rest of the results it displays in the web page are purely based on the actual search result – the page rank – based on the Google’s search algorithm.

The higher the page rank, the more chances your home page comes in the first few pages of the search results. There are tons and tons of articles and references which provides guidance on how to optimize a web page and make it search engine friendly. Search Engine Optimization or SEO as it is called  has become necessary for any web page so that it gets listed in the first page of the results for any keyword.

There is no other best form of Internet advertisement other than coming in the first page of a Google search result. All it needs is to understand how the SEO works and to identify the likely keywords that will be used by the customers. The home page and the other key pages has to be written kept this in mind and if written properly you are sure to get the due dividends.

The Google page ranking is not only based on how the page is written, but it also depends on various other factors such as number of links or references it has from other pages etc. A complete discussion on how to optimize your page for the search engine search results is beyond the scope of the current topic. But suffice to say that a default ranking in the first page during the Google search results is one of the best form of free advertisement you can get.

Promote Your Website

Apart from having your site optimized for search engines, you need to promote your sites as well. There are lots and lots of directory sites, information sites, classifieds sites, download sites etc where you need to have your presence. Depending on the type of business you are in you need to promote your product/service in these sites. A simple listing in these sites will suffice initially.

For example if you need to promote a packaged software you should have it listed in various software download sites such as download,com or tucows.com. Among the classifieds site there are national as well as local classifieds sites. Depending on the relevance and the service you can choose the suitable sites for your listing.

Use the Press Releases well

The press releases or the PR is a small news like article which is usually published in the news section of a website. The content of the article will be on any new releases, new announcements, new customer acquisition etc. Along with being available in your website, the PR has to be published in the  numerous news sites across the Internet. There are lot of free PR submission services which do this free of cost. You submit your PR in one of such sites and it gets automatically posted in hundreds of news sites and portals who has tie-up with this PR submission service.

The PR usually has the website URL of your homepage in its content and the interested user will always check your website. Crisp and interestingly written PR will generate lot of interest and can get referred in other sites, forwarded by emails, discussed in groups etc. Except for the time and effort it doesn’t cost anything to write a PR and have it published across the Internet. Of course there are paid PR services as well, but to start with one can leverage the free PR submission services effectively and get results.

Blogging And Social Media

Blogging, micro-blogging, video sharing sites, photo-sharing sites, social network sites such as facebook, myspace , professional networking sites such as linkedin have all become the new platform for exchange of information and more personalized interactions. Membership and participation in almost all of these sites are free. A good understanding of these platforms can help in leveraging these sites to promote your business.

Participation, sharing and contribution tends to generate more favorable impression rather than any overt promotion. Say, for example you have a web design company, participating in the relevant groups, contributing your insights, helping few newbies, in general posting some comments will keep you in limelight. Observing the participants behavior can give you valuable insights into the consumer behavior and  also helps you in gathering few valuable industry insights.  Remember all these social media platforms does not have an explicit costing (though they have paid advertising options).

Use Real Time collaboration tools

While technically these may not be directly related to advertising, most of the real time collaboration tools available for use today helps in much direct and personal interaction with the customer. Instant messaging tools, real time chats, online meetings, pod-casting and webinars all enhance the customer experience and should be part of the marketing arsenal of your company.

In addition to the above, your site should have the facility (the more traditional ways of promotion) to send e-zines or e-newsletters, auto-responders etc to your registered customers. Feedback forms, survey questionnaire etc also can give valuable insights into the market needs, customer experience and expectations.