Trying to market your business, but think it’s too early to issue press releases and make social media worthwhile?  Think about it – is it ever too early to start generating interest and gathering information from prospects?  Of course not!  With a little creativity and the techniques outlined below, you can learn a ton, and create some valuable assets that will help you market your business now and well into the future.

But let’s get specific – what can you do?

Build up interest and audience.

Maybe you’ve seen some of these “coming soon” pages for products or apps that are not yet widely available?  This is a great way to generate interest for your product or service, and stock your email contact list and social audiences with early adopters (who tend to be willing to accept a product with a few rough spots in exchange for being the first to have access!).  Check out the example below.

This type of page lets you accomplish a few things:

• Quick and easy development cycle: Build a website landing page using tools like Unbounce or Optimizely to quickly create multiple versions of your “Coming Soon” page from a single template (you can create your own, or use one of the templates provided).  Keep it clean and simple; you want to create enough interest that visitors give you permission to engage with them again via email or social media.
• Test your marketing message: Use those “Coming Soon” landing pages to try out a variety of messages, tag lines, calls to action, lead capture forms, etc.. Determine if there are specific messages that are more effective at engaging the folks that will ultimately become your customers.
• Build up your social audience: Start signaling what type of product this is and who it is for. Worried you won’t have anything “worthwhile” to tweet or post about your business yet? No worries – follow and “like” other people or companies that are in your general area of interest, and share items from those sources with your audience.  Be sure to add a novel comment or perspective; don’t just pass on random items without showing how you add value!

Do social media via your personal network.

Share updates about your business via your LinkedIn status (not on LinkedIn?  You should be!). If you blog, use the apps on LinkedIn to display your blog feed on your profile. Participate in discussions on question and answer sites like Quora. Have lots of coffee meetings. Get honest, constructive feedback from your network, and listen to the questions people have after you tell them about your business. Ask people to tell you why it won’t work. Would they recommend it to a friend? Why wouldn’t they use it? How would they describe your business to their colleagues? Value and take to heart feedback that indicates you may not have it quite right yet. If you can’t get the people who find YOU interesting and worthwhile to engage with your business, how in the world will you capture the interest of busy, distracted strangers?

Lighten up about press releases!

It’s not the daily briefing at the White House, and you don’t have to have earth-shattering news to do a press release. Did you sign a new partner? Make a key hire? Attend an industry event? Write a new eBook? Expand your service offerings? All of these are worthwhile subjects for a press release, as they give you a chance to put your key messages into context, and hand feed them to social media and search engines. Press releases get extremely favorable treatment by Google, and are a great way for a your fledgling business to “own” Page 1 of search results for your key phrases.

One other note on press releases: you don’t need to hire a PR firm to do a press release (though there are lots of really great firms that can help when the time is right). Use one of the services on our Best Free and Affordable Press Release Services list  - they’re easy to use, and will often throw in some free SEO advice on your press release to help you get the maximum bang for your buck.

Looking for help with other online marketing, advertising, and social media questions?  Then check out the online marketing and advertising resources section of the Leadtail website. We’ve compiled lots of helpful information to help you market and grow your business.

And let us know how we can help. Ask your question on Facebook, tweet us @Leadtail on Twitter, drop us a line – or just give us a call at 888.330.3236

[Editor's Note: Special thanks to Karri Carlson for this guest post.  Karri leads Marketing & Customer Development at Leadtail.]

Just started your blog? Or maybe you’ve had one for awhile but now it’s time to get serious. In any case, we probably don’t need to convince you of the benefits of having a blog. For example, creating more awareness for your business and developing a relationship with prospects… maybe generating leads too!

But how do you get more people to read your blog?

Exposure is critical to building readership… which will eventually result in sales. It really will. So let’s start with the basics. You need to get your blog to show up in search engine results. You also want prospects to stumble upon your blog. What’s an easy and cost effective way of doing this? List your blog with the best blog directories.

Listing with blog directories creates links to your blog. Google and other search engines really like these links because it says your blog is important. The more important your blog the higher up it will show in search results. Not to mention, the best blog directories have tens of thousands and even millions of visitors every month… some of which are potential readers (prospects!) for your blog.

Here are three blog directories that we recommend:

• BlogCatalog is a blogger community and directory which makes it easy for visitors to find, save, and organize favorite blogs… and it attracts millions of visitors every month.

• Blogs.com has a team of editors on the lookout for the best blogs and posts to feature on their site. Maybe your blog will get featured too!

• Blogged is a blog social network and directory with 100+ plus categories to choose from. Its editors will rate your blog and users can “follow” your posts with the click of a button.

Other blog directories to submit to include: Best of the Web Blogs, BlogFlux, Bloggeries, EatonWeb, and BlogTopList.

It only takes a few minutes to submit your blog. You’ll register with the blog directory, type in your blog’s URL, choose categories that your blog fits, and provide helpful keyword tags to make it easy for directory searchers to find you. That’s it.

Best of all, most blog directories offer free blog submission.

In a few cases, you may be asked to pay a fee but even then it’s affordable (e.g., $35 per year)… and some offer advertising opportunities that may make sense for you to consider.  But don’t be surprised if the blog directories ask that you link your blog back to them. Why not as they need promotion too.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s start marketing your blog!

The truth is blogging takes time… a lot of time. You need to start your blog, consistently and frequently update it, and then have the time and money to promote it. And what if you have a business to run in the meantime? Not to mention, you may not even be a good writer!

Don’t get me wrong, there are many benefits to writing a blog. Namely, you can establish yourself as an expert, educate prospects on your business, and create a dialogue with your customers. Plus, the search engines will love all that blog content… so it can help drive traffic to your website.

But there’s that time commitment again. Figure you’ll put in eight to ten hours a week if you want a successful blog that keeps readers coming back for more. And you may not have much interesting stuff to write about (this is more common than not). Why not take a better approach which offers many of the benefits of blogging without the big time commitment.

Become a blog commenter instead of a blogger.

What’s the difference? You let someone else do the heavy lifting of writing and promoting their blog while you just comment on what they’ve written.

Here’s how to get started:

• Find blogs that your customers read. Target three to five blogs that cater to your customers… and which you’ll enjoy reading and commenting on. Where to begin? Go to blog search engine: www.technorati.com and search keywords you care about.

• Sign up with your real name and URL. Register for each blog using your real name and website URL so readers can get to know you. And guess what? They’ll read your comments and also check out your website.

• Create value for your audience. That’s right. You now have an audience of prospects willing to read your comments. So please make a good impression by writing smart and helpful comments… go ahead and show off your expertise!

• Comment often. Post comments at least once or twice per week (or more!) for each blog you read. Sure, you’ll spend a couple hours every week reading blogs and posting comments… but remember that’s a lot less time than writing your own blog!

• Build relationships with your favorite bloggers. They’ll appreciate your comments and be open to learning about you and your business. So make friends by offering them blog post ideas, feedback, and encouragement (c’mon we all need it!)

Are you ready for the added bonus? Bloggers who get to know you will write about your business… especially when you have interesting news to share. Or said another way… what a wonderful source of free advertising for your business!

So don’t worrying about blogging and start commenting instead.