The use of online marketing, by advertising businesses for sale on the Internet, has greatly expanded the marketing of businesses. With the use of search engines, like Google, a buyer located anywhere in the United States or the world can find out about a business for sale. The problem with the Internet is that there is so much information on it that a buyer might not find a business available for sale. Being able to market a business for sale is effective only if buyers can find the business for sale.
Listed below are all the ways that we, a business broker, advertise businesses for sale online. Some of these methods are available to anyone wanting to sell their own business;
some, such as our website, take time to make effective. Although most, but not all, business brokers advertise the businesses they have for sale online, the methods used, and their success, vary greatly. Some may not use online marketing at all. Others may limit it to a few Internet for sale websites. The methods we use, listed below, are very effective in marketing businesses online.
The first marketing that we use are Internet business for sale websites, such as BizBuySell. We advertise businesses for sale on several leading business for sale websites.Some of these websites offer business brokers the opportunity, at a cost, to “Showcase” their businesses for sale. This features the business and generates more buyer views. We pay for this extra advertising.
Our website includes a list of, and information about, our businesses for sale. We use paid advertising as well as search engine optimization and other methods to be ranked high by Google. We spend a lot of time and money to have visitors, most of whom are buyers, find our website and the businesses we are selling. Our efforts pay off. Our website, and the businesses listed on it, are viewed by more potential buyers than our competitors’ websites. If you are evaluating a business broker and want to find out the number of visitors that visit a business broker’s website, go to www.alexa.com. If the business broker is part of a franchise, be sure to check the individual business broker’s page, not the franchise website homepage.
One of the other methods we use to market businesses is co-brokering. We are one of the founding members of BBANE, a group of New England business brokers that co-broke business sales. This has dual benefits to the sale of businesses. First, there are many other business brokers who are working to sell the businesses we have for sale. In addition, our businesses for sale are listed on each of their websites, thereby exposing the businesses to more buyers.
Another way that we market our businesses for sale online is on the websites of organizations that we are members of. There are two of these – the International Business Brokers Association, www.ibba.org, and the New England Business Brokers Association, www.nebba.com.
We also use social media to promote the businesses we sell. Information about our businesses for sale is posted on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. We also have a Google+ page. All of these also promote our website and drive more buyers to it.
If you are a business owner evaluating business brokers, look into how they are using the Internet to advertise businesses online. Ask the business broker for details on their online marketing. Conduct your own search for a business to buy as if you were a potential buyer for your business.
Online marketing is a very good way to market businesses if it is done well. In today’s market, it is the primary way buyers find businesses for sale. When you sell your business, make sure that the online marketing is effective.
