How you promote your business affects the leads and sales generated. Today, anyone serious about running a business should have a website. The Internet gives small businesses access to a larger market without the need for millions of dollars in advertising spend.

However, having a website is not enough. You need to get prospective customers to the website, show them your offer and make them buy. A simple but effective way of getting people to your website is through online marketing.

Online marketing is all about creating high quality content that is targeted to your market. The content should be engaging, entertaining and informative.

However, online marketing is not just about creating great content, but also promoting it. You have to go out of your way to promote the content so that it can be ranked high on search engine results and your prospects can find it.

Here are some tips on small business promotion through content marketing

1.       Create interesting and compelling content

Produce engaging content that will encourage your audience to continue visiting your blog. Your content should always add value to the reader or entertain them. No one will share your content, let alone read, if it is boring or does not make sense.

2.       Distribute your content

Increase your website’s exposure by submitting any new content you develop to article directories and social bookmarking sites. When submitting the content, always link back to your site or blog. Examples of article directories and social bookmarking sites are Ezine Articles and Digg respectively.

3.       Connect with your readers

Increase your audience by reaching out to your loyal readers to see what they think of your content. Ask them for their feedback and opinions on the type of content they want from you. Give them some sort of VIP treatment such as access to your limited courses to make them feel special.

4.       Connect with industry influencers

Find influencers in your industry on social media and connect with them. You can comment on their blogs, send them emails, share their content, and so on to build a relationship with them. Once they have noticed your participation, they can promote your content too.

5.       Allow easy sharing of your content

Allow your readers to easily promote your content by including social media share and like buttons. Once your content lands on social media, you can be sure of reaching a wider audience. There is nothing wrong with asking people to share your content. For example, you can say something like “share this video”, “post your comments here”, etc. at the end of your content.

6.       Syndicate your content across various channels

Promote your content across various channels. You can also link to various channels within the same content. For example, you can include your social media icon links at header and footer of your content. Make content a part of your everyday communication. Social media is a good way of promoting content but you should not rely on it alone. Consider other channels of distributing content such as emails and/or newsletters.

7.      Promote content through forums

Participate in online forums where you can share related information. Look for a number of forums that are closely related to your industry and actively engage in discussions there, helping members with their problems as well as sharing your content.

Remember, small business promotion means promoting content. If you do not promote your content, your brand will suffer. Content is where inbound marketing starts. The above simple but effective ideas for small business promotion will help you generate leads and improve your sales.