How to Promote a Business Online? Marketing Strategies for New Businesses and Startups

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Before starting your own business, the first step is to define what you expect from it. Naturally, profit comes first. But how do you make your business profitable? You need to promote it to build a customer base and continuously attract potential clients for further growth. To avoid common mistakes, online business promotion must be strategic and well-structured. But let’s take it step by step.

Website Creation

Advertising is undoubtedly the driving force of progress. After all, it is advertising that helps attract customers and sell products or services. Nowadays, traditional flyers and banners are not as effective as they once were. The internet has become a powerful advertising platform for any business.

That’s why a website can serve not only as an online storefront but also as an excellent marketing tool. It deserves proper attention because potential customers won’t trust a company with a poorly designed or slow website. In most cases, businesses hire professionals to create a site that is not only visually appealing but also functional for users.

Having a website provides the following advantages:

  • First and foremost, a website serves as an online branch of the company, accessible to people from anywhere in the world.
  • It acts as a business card that presents the company in the best possible light while showcasing its products and services.
  • Advertising that promotes a business needs a foundation, and that foundation is the website. For offline advertising, the foundation is the company’s office, while online, it’s the website.
  • An excellent way to attract potential clients through all available internet marketing channels, thereby expanding the customer base.
  • A platform for interacting with customers via online chats, call-back requests, emails, comments, or reviews.
A website helps establish a company’s image, fostering trust and encouraging customers to purchase products or services. Many believe that social media alone can effectively advertise their business. While that is true, ads need a destination for further exploration. Not everyone will trust an image or a short video in social media, especially when it comes to significant purchases. Moreover, not everyone uses social networks or shops through them.

Now, let’s move on to how to promote your company online and increase sales.

Common Mistakes of New Entrepreneurs

Every business needs a well-developed strategy to achieve success and grow into a recognized national or even international brand. However, due to limited perspectives, many entrepreneurs make poor decisions and fall into common traps:

  1. “We’re too small to have a website.”

Entrepreneurs often underestimate the importance of having a website, which is half the battle for a successful start. Some simply don’t see the need for an online presence if their business operates offline. However, this is a critical mistake—because the internet can help a business take off, even in its early stages. The key is to properly promote your website.

  1. “Building a website is complicated and time-consuming.”

This is another major misconception among new business owners. When ordering website development from most web studios, specialists handle the entire process, leaving you only to provide initial details. For example, at our studio, “Bureau of the Impossible”, we need just 1-2 hours to gather information and start developing a new website.

Once the site is built, maintenance services ensure that a dedicated specialist handles updates and content management. Most web agencies have such professionals on staff.

Recommended reading: How much should website development cost?

A website for your business is neither complicated nor time-consuming, as many entrepreneurs assume. See for yourself!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)


SEO optimization has long become not just a standard practice but a necessity. If your website doesn’t appear on the first pages of search results, no one will know about you. To promote your business this way, you need to invest time and effort. A basic and cost-effective approach looks like this:

  1. Register your website with search engines.
  2. Identify relevant keywords by analyzing user queries related to your products or services.
  3. Write meta tags—special markers that tell search engines when to display your site in response to specific queries. These tags are based on keywords and should be created for each page individually.
  4. Integrate keywords into your website’s content.
Important! Your keywords should be diverse to reach a wider audience. For example, if a company sells caramel chews and only describes them as “caramels,” but a potential customer searches for “chewy candy,” they’ll never find you. Keyword selection should be broad: “caramels,” “chewy candy,” “toffees,” and even “golden key” (a well-known brand name). Expanding your keyword list significantly increases the chances that potential customers will discover your website.Bureau of the Impossible
There is a common belief that SEO does not deliver quick and effective results, but that is far from the truth. When promoting a website through SEO, it is crucial to choose the right website management platform. Additionally, you must ensure optimal page loading speed and enrich your content with valuable materials. SEO is a comprehensive process that includes both on-site optimization and off-site link-building strategies.

To achieve maximum results, working with experienced professionals is highly beneficial, as they have optimized numerous websites and know all the intricacies of the process. However, you can also learn SEO yourself! Check out our blog, where we share SEO case studies showcasing how we successfully promoted various websites.

Be cautious when building a website using website builders! Most site builders lack proper SEO capabilities, making it difficult to achieve high rankings in search engines. Always research, read reviews, and choose the right platform for your needs.
Would you like to hire SEO specialists to ensure professional promotion? We have an excellent guide that explains what goes into SEO pricing and how to choose the right contractor:
How Much Does SEO Cost?

Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)

contextual advertising in Yandex and Google

To quickly appear at the top of search engine results, you can use pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. However, PPC is only effective when managed correctly—it is a complex tool.

The advantage of this advertising method is that your website will be displayed in the top search results on Yandex or Google. The downside is that if your ads are poorly set up, you will end up paying for irrelevant clicks, wasting your budget.

To maximize the effectiveness of PPC advertising, it’s crucial to follow these key principles:

  • Properly chosen keywords and negative keywords;
  • Correctly specified target regions;
  • Well-crafted ad copies;
  • Defined conversion goals for the website;
  • Continuous ad optimization, adding new ads, and making adjustments.

Pay-per-click advertising is an effective way to promote your business, as you will start receiving targeted visitors immediately after launching your campaign.

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Social media marketing

One of the most popular and relevant methods of website promotion today is **social media marketing (SMM).** People spend a significant amount of time on social media, making it the perfect place to find potential customers interested in your products or services.

This marketing channel will never lose its effectiveness, as more and more users are engaging with social platforms daily. Let’s take a closer look at how to use SMM for business growth.
To start promoting your business through social media, you first need to analyze your company’s current position and then launch advertising campaigns. It’s crucial to consider the following factors:

  1. Selecting the right social media platform for promotion

You can run ads across all social media platforms simultaneously, but the main focus should always be on your target audience. This means dedicating more attention to the platforms that are most suitable for your business. When choosing a platform, consider not only the age of your potential customers but also the nature of your advertising content (videos, images, text, etc.).

  1. Creating content that aligns with the platform’s policies and audience mindset

Irrelevant and low-quality content on a social media platform won’t advance your business at all. To create engaging content and attract followers (potential customers), you need to analyze the platform, study successful competitors’ pages, and examine their advertising strategies.

Email Campaigns

Email marketing is a direct and personalized way to interact with both current and potential customers. Only a small percentage of recipients will completely ignore an email containing an enticing offer. Most will at least open it, and from there, the success depends on the content. The more engaging and persuasive the email, the higher the chances of converting the recipient into a buyer.

Many businesses use email marketing to notify customers about promotions or personalized offers tailored to specific individuals. Therefore, email campaigns can serve different purposes:

  • Content emails (news, announcements, and useful industry-related articles);
  • Promotional emails (brand or product promotions designed to stimulate interest in making a purchase or using company services, such as coupons, discounts, and special offers);
  • Brand-awareness emails (introducing customers to the company and its products, enhancing brand reputation in the eyes of the audience);
  • Trigger emails (event-based emails reminding customers about expiring promotions, holiday greetings, or birthday wishes);
  • Transactional emails (automated responses triggered by user actions, such as registration confirmations or purchase receipts).

Content Marketing

This business promotion strategy is based on various types of content, including articles, analytics, educational materials, research, and more. It not only helps showcase products and services but also enhances customer engagement.

For example, a bridal boutique could benefit from publishing articles on how to choose the perfect wedding dress, as many customers research extensively online before making a significant purchase.

Such content can be published on a company’s website, social media platforms, blogs, or forums. The key is to provide valuable and relevant information to potential customers, ensuring that their attention remains focused on your brand.

Crowd Marketing

The interaction between a company and its target audience across various online platforms is known as **crowd marketing**.

This type of advertising helps create an **appealing brand image** and generates interest in a company’s **products or services**.

The following types of platforms can be used for crowd marketing:

  • Industry-specific forums
  • Social media networks
  • Blogs
  • Review platforms
  • Q&A websites

This promotion method is based on **engaging in conversations with potential customers**.

For example, on a forum, a thread is created with a question related to your industry. A **specialist** then answers the query, subtly including a **link to your website**.

From an outsider’s perspective, it appears as a **genuine discussion between regular users** of the platform.

UGC Marketing

Reviews, testimonials, articles, and blogs where customers describe your products, services, or company as a whole—this is UGC (User-Generated Content). People want to be confident in quality, and **80% of potential customers read reviews first** before forming an opinion about your business.

To encourage customers to create such content, you can offer incentives like bonuses, discounts, or special promotions. This is a great way to present your brand in the best possible light, as people have always trusted public opinion—and will continue to do so.

Promoting a new business online is not just a powerful marketing tool at the start but remains crucial throughout the company’s growth. The key is to approach advertising wisely, and success will follow!
Interested in one or more ways to promote your business online? Our web studio, **“Bureau of the Impossible,”** has been specializing in digital marketing since 2013. We are ready to assist both startups and established businesses in achieving their goals.

Contact us using the details below or visit our Contact Page.

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