how can i get my business heard of ?

Advertising is only one way of getting word about your business out there. The advice from Jared is very good, and you should check out the links he (and CareerVillage) have suggested. But one thing I would add is that because there are so many different ways of promoting your product, you should think about who your customers are and what is the best way of reaching them. And to answer that by thinking about where your customers get their information, who do they trust, what captures their attention, and where do they spend their time.

Create a blog, webpage, etc. Stay active in social media and consistently refresh the content! Ask friends and people in your professional network to help spread the word!

There are many ways to advertise your business.

I strongly suggest establishing a strong online presence:

Create a company page on LinkedIn
Create a business on Yelp

Utilize these 2 and several other online resources to showcase your business. The more content you have the better. You can promote these pages to audience members you want to target(i.e. those in your area, those who want your product etc.)

Hi Victor,

It sounds like you're asking this question because you want to be an entrepreneur. I'm an entrepreneur in Boston (and also on the CareerVillage Team), so I'll share some of my experiences with marketing and advertising a business. In general, I would say that the best way for you to advertise your business is to find the channel that allows you to get the most number of qualified customers for the least amount of money. That might be a bit general, but that's because the best marketing and advertising channel is going to be different for each market, product, and business model.

What do you mean by "channels"?

A promotional channel is a way of distributing news of your business and it's services. There are as many promotional channels as you can imagine, and more. Here are some common examples:
- Magazine advertising

- Newspaper advertising

- Online advertising (including placing ads on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, or other web platforms)

- Guerilla marketing (there's a lot that goes in here, so check this out if you want to learn more about it)

- Attending trade shows

- Cold-calling

- Public Relations (code-speak for getting journalists to write about your company so that customers hear about it)

- Making site visits to customers

- Placing Flyers

- Running a social media campaign

- Running a blog (for search-engine-optimization or for inbound marketing)

- There are hundreds of other approaches, and you can find more by following the marketing activities of your competitors or other companies you admire. You can also follow the blogs of marketing experts to stay up-to-date on what they recommend for companies like yours.

So how do I pick one?

When there are so many marketing channels to choose from, how do you pick a good one? We can't possibly know enough about your business to tell you for sure what marketing channel is going to make you the most money. In fact, since nobody knows as much about your business as you do, it's hard for anyone else to tell you what to do. In my experience, the best solution is to make some educated guesses and try out a couple of channels. With my business, the first couple of channels I tried turned out not to be that efficient, so I've had to move to other channels a few times before I found some that helped me achieve a high number of qualified customers for the least amount of money.

Other resources:

You should read the blogs of marketing experts to get an idea of what they're trying. Here are some blogs I like:

- http://blog.kissmetrics.com/

- http://blog.hubspot.com/

- http://startup-marketing.com/

- http://blog.appsumo.com/

Hi think Melissa is exactly right. People trust friends and peers above all else. Give some thought to where your customers are and who they talk to. Then make sure you engage with those folks in the best way possible- using some of the ideas that Jared shared. It depends very much on your resources and budget as to which channels to use so be sure to consider that too. You want the cheapest, biggest bang for your buck.

And if you're not sure where your customers spend their time, I would suggest testing. I work in marketing and we always test and never stop testing. Even if something worked before, people's habits and mindset change so you always need to be evolving with them. Lastly, (disclaimer: I work at LinkedIn), I think in this day and age, social media is a must have channel. It's also a great place to test messaging and advertising to see what attracts interest.