You’ve mashed open your doors and launched your website, but how do you let people know you’re ready for business? What strategies are best for driving new traffic your way? Here are six easy ways to increase your customer base when you’re fresh out of the gate.

Get Yourself Listed

When someone searches an online directory for your kind of business, you want your name to appear at the top of the list. Make sure you’ve added your company to places like Google, Yahoo and Yelp, and work on your search engine optimization (SEO) so you’ll be on the first page of search engine results, too.

Sponsor Local Events

One of the easiest promo marketing ideas is to use your own community to increase brand awareness. Buy branded t-shirts for the little league team; offer customized bottled water at the next marathon; host a fund raising event or fund a soup drive. These are the kinds of investments that will get your business noticed.

Hop on Social Media

It’s absolutely critical for modern businesses to embrace the new age and utilize social media as part of their marketing campaigns. Get yourself on Facebook and Twitter at the very least; depending on your services and customer demographics, you may also want to expand to YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.

Cross-Promote With Other Businesses

Scratch someone’s back and then ask them to return the favor. You might, for example, advertise the Christmas sales of a card business in exchange for their doing the same for your cupcake company on Valentine’s Day. You might also feature an upcoming graphic artist on your website in exchange for free web design.

Hand Out Freebies

The next time you’re at a professional mixer or networking event, take the opportunity to pass around customized gifts bearing your company’s name or logo. Promotional products like these act as walking billboards, ensuring that you gain repeated marketing exposure every time they are used by recipients. Everyone loves a freebie, and promotional marketing with bags, custom mugs and logo pens is a subtle but effective way to get the word out about your new business.

Do Some thing That will Make the News

In today’s technological world, there’s no greater fortune than your company going viral. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box with bold, inventive advertising campaigns that will get your business noticed. Fun customer service interactions make good headlines as well.

When promoting a new business, omnipresence is key. Be everywhere, never stop campaigning and apply these useful strategies to increase word-of-mouth buzz about your products or services.