Online advertising is the process of promoting a business or brand and its products or services over the internet using tools that help drive traffic, leads, and sales. Internet Marketing, also called online marketing or Internet advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the Internet to deliver promotional marketing messages to consumers.
Online Advertising is also known as Digital Marketing, Web Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Digital Advertising, etc…
What is the secret for Free and Effective Internet Marketing or Online Advertising in USA and Canada?
What and when to sell free of charge on kijiji in Canada and Craigslist in USA?
What and when to sell free of charge on Facebook Marketplace in USA and Canada?
What and when to sell free of charge instagram, reddit, Linkedin, WhatsApp?
How to sell new or used items online fast and at no cost?
The cost of Internet Marketing can be overwhelming for every day people who want to sell new or used items, but there are ways to do it at no cost and be effective.
There are various platforms and tools available for Free and effective Internet Marketing, but those platforms evolve and some fall behind as technology and users evolve.
The prerequisite for an efficient internet marketing campaign is the quality of the ad. No Tools or website will help you sell if your ad doesn’t have the following basic qualities:
- Clear Pictures or Videos of your products
- Clear and concise title
- Clear and short description
- Cost
- Location
- Category
- Hashtags
- Honesty
Once those prerequisites are satisfied, you need to know your target users and the best tools to use and I will help with some pointers in this blog.
The efficiency of your internet marketing also depends on the products or services you are selling.
Below are the tools and websites to use for an efficient internet marketing free of charge:
In October 2016, Facebook announced a new Marketplace, citing the growth of organized “buy and sell” Facebook Groups, and gave the new version a higher prominence in the main Facebook app, taking the navigation position previously held by Facebook Messenger
Facebook and Google ad platforms use machine learning and artificial intelligence to find people more prone to making the advertiser’s desired action. To achieve this, they analyze the user’s information, like their interests, demographics, and other aspects to learn and detect the best audience for their brand.
Facebook Market place is your best best to sell the following products quickly and at no advertising cost:
- Household items
- Garage sale
- Art and crafts
- Electronics and Computers
- Furniture
- Kids and baby toys
- Clothing
- Accommodation (Room, house rental)
- Auto parts
- Sport Equipment
To be efficient, you must join the local facebook groups for your neighbourhood. Post your items to Facebook marketplace and share it to groups in your neighbourhood. Don’t share your ads to vague groups or city wide groups unless it is a very rare and unique item. If you share it to city wide groups, you will waste a lot of time talking to interested users who will not show up because of the distance: So it is very important to stick to groups in your neighbourhood only.
Facebook has superior technology and artificial intelligence to show your ads to targeted users who need your products and you only create your ad once and you can post, repost, share and re-share the same ad to various target groups very easily.
II- Kijiji in Canada and Craigslist in USA
Kijiji and Craigslist used to be the best place to sell anything in USA and Canada, but they have been overtaken by facebook superior technology and artificial intelligence. Kijiji gives priority to paid ads and your ad can fall far below in a few minutes after posting it.
When i post the same ad on facebook marketplace and kijiji at the same time, I receive better response on facebook for a ration of 10 to 1.
Kijiji and Craigslist remain the best place for the following buy and sell products and services type of ads:
- Cars, Autos Sales
- local contractors (Carpenters, Basement developers, Plumbers, Electricians, etc..)
- local non corporate Jobs and Services
- Local Trades jobs and services
III- WhatsApp Groups
WhatsApp groups are very efficient and will soon become the best place to buy and sell ads and share info for free. If you are not part of a whatsApp group, i strongly suggest you join one that is closer to you and your interests. The best thing about WhatsApp group is trust. Members are usually friends or family who have met each other at least once.
WhatsApp group users share interest and people who join WhatsApp group are really motivated about the group, otherwise they will remove themselves to avoid annoying notifications on their phones.
When you are part of a whatsApp group, you always read the message posted on the group, because it pops up on your phone directly like a text message.
If you are part of a large WhatsApp group, post your items for sell there if the groups allows it and you will likely gets serious inquiries immediately. It is very important to avoid spamming. Check with the group admin privately if it is ok to post a sale ad.
What to post on WhatsApp groups?
- Local jobs and services
- Announcement
- Events
- Charity post
- Offering your service
IV- Hashtags
A hashtag is a type of metadata tag used on social networks such as Twitter and other microblogging services, allowing users to apply dynamic, user-generated tagging which makes it possible for others to easily find messages with a specific theme or content.
Whatever you are posting online, use hashtags (Example: #HairExtension) to be found for free. Even if you don’t have a lot of followers and friends, you can post your items of your twitter, linkedin, facebook, instagram feed and use hashtag to be found by thousands of people.
V- Instagram
Instagram (also known as IG or Insta) is a photo and video-sharing social networking service owned by Facebook, Inc.
Instagram is very powerful for the following visual products and services:
- Beauty (Hair Salon, Nail Salon, etc..)
- Clothing, fashion
- Shoes
- Aesthetician
- Food, Restaurants
- Fitness
VI- Facebook Pages
Efficient to promote local events with RSVP options.
VII- Reddit
Reddit is an American social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website. Registered members submit content to the site such as links, text posts, and images, which are then voted up or down by other members. Posts are organized by subject into user-created boards called “subreddits”, which cover a variety of topics including news, science, movies, video games, music, books, fitness, food, and image-sharing.
If you are developing a product (web app, tool, prototype, etc,) and want to have a feel for how it will be received, you can post it on Reddit as long as you are not spamming.
Reddit users are very clever and harsh and will bash whatever you post in most cases, but you can use the negative feedbacks to improve your product and make it better.
What to post or promote on Reddit?
- Web App
- Prototype of a product or service asking for feedback
- Link to blogs
VIII- LinkedIn
If you are looking for candidates for a job in the corporate world, if you are looking for a job in the corporate world, linkedin is your best bet if you add proper hashtags on your posts.
Linkedin is mainly used for professional networking, including employers posting jobs and job seekers posting their CVs.
IX- Twitter
According to wikipedia, Twitter is a microblogging and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as “tweets”. Tweets were originally restricted to 140 characters, but on November 7, 2017, this limit was doubled to 280 for all languages except Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Registered users can post, like, and retweet tweets, but unregistered users can only read them. Users access Twitter through its website interface, through Short Message Service (SMS) or its mobile-device application software (“app”).
You can post ads on twitter when you want to use a large audience. Even if you don’t have a large follower base, a proper hashtag of your tweets can help your post been re-tweeted and re-shared to a large audience. Efficient ads on twitter must send users to a website for actions.
What to sell on twitter for free ?
- Promote a web site or blog
- Promote an event
- Promote a product or service from a website to a large audience
Google My Business is an Internet-based service for business owners and operated by Google. The network launched in June 2014 as a way of giving business owners more control of what shows in the search results when someone searches a given business name. Google allows business owners to verify their own business data via creating a new profile or claiming an existing auto-generated profile. The Google My Business listing appears in the Google Maps section of Google as well as the “Local Pack” for qualifying search queries.
Google My Business is Free and any small business should have it. Google has full control of the digital search market and having an account with Google My Business will give your company a boost for people looking for your products and services in your area.
Any small business or company with a specific location or address should have a Google My Business account to stay relevant and be found and no cost by consumers.
Google My Business allows business owners to supply information that can show up in a Google search, such as open hours, address, phone number, and photos.
Google My Business allows businesses to create a website at no cost.
Google My Business allow customers to review businesses and business owners can respond to reviews.
Google My Business allows business owners to post updates about announcements or sales. Business owners are able to upload pictures and videos to a company’s Google My Business page.
Posts from Google My Business show up in Google search results.
XI- Ressources: