{Marketing under $50} Grow Your Biz Online Tip

It all started with…

“What sort of tip can you give me to grow my business online and on a dime?”

The answer: Support Other Businesses Online!

When you support other businesses, they tend to support you back.

Here’s one of my own examples.

I wrote a blog post on the topic of crafting an overall image that gets you noticed, is MEMORABLE, and makes you lots of money.

Guess what I did in this post?!

I supported and showcased another small business – Bijou Salon and Day Spa – and they helped me spread the word about my business to all of their followers.

Let’s pull back the curtain and look at what happened here (and why you should be doing it too!):

1. Bijou was a great biz to spotlight and validate my post topic, as well as, provide inspiration to my readers. This was free promotion for Bijou Salon and Day Spa.
2. After the post was live, I did a SHOUT OUT along with a link to the post on Bijou’s Facebook Wall. Why? This promoted my business to all of their FB FOLLOWERS, helping me to SPREAD THE WORD about my business for FREE!

I attached the link url for this particular post here and probably wrote something like this on their wall, “Congrats to @BijouSkaneateles! You were featured in our latest blog post. Read it here:”

3. Because of the content connecting YourMarketingBFF and Bijou, my blog site now shows up on the Google Search when someone does a search for Bijou! How cool is that!

Want to know something even cooler?

I have never physically met the owner of Bijou Salon and Day Spa – but we are ‘friends’ with one another now (thanks to my blog post).

BTW: she just shared a little secret with me…she just got a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE award in her industry and when this award announcement hits the magazine stands (in January 2012), people are going to be searching for her biz online and my biz is going to POP UP right along next to hers on the front search page!  Congrats Kim – I am sooooo excited for you!

Here’s another example…and just in time to give you some extra holiday inspiration too.

1 Mantel, 2 Stylists, 3 Magical Makeovers you can do!

Heather of The Restyle Group www.therestylegroup.com recently teamed up with Destiny from A Place for Us for a little Christmas decorating challenge.

These oh-so-talented ladies swapped, fluffed and spruced up Heather’s mantel until they had 3 different (yet simple) looks—they are GORGEOUS!

Sorry, got off track, where was I? Oh yea, they wrote about the makeovers and mentioned larger businesses such as; HomeGoods, Pottery Barn, and Target, and also mentioned smaller, local businesses like MonMell Designs and Sassy Talk.

Heather and Destiny supported other businesses and provided extra value to their audience by sharing where to buy these items! A win for consumers and a win for the businesses featured in the post.

FYI: You don’t need to have a blog to do this same tip.  You can tag and link names in a post on your FB biz wall (how-to instructions below). This is how you get the name with the blue underline seen in this image.

How-to tag and link a biz name in a FB post.

To tag a business, type the “@” symbol. Then pick the business you want to tag from the dropdown menu that appears.  (Name not showing up in dropdown menu? Make sure you’ve LIKED their page and sometimes you just need to start typing the biz name for it to dropdown).

So there you have it.

Another great tip to expand your marketing reach efforts and grow your business online!

Now get out there and promote another business TODAY!

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Mantle Makeover Photos courtesy of Destiny from A Place for Us.