Why Is Advertising Your Business Online Crucial?
Back in the day, companies didn't have too many advertising options to choose from. Flyers, brochures, conferences, TV and newspaper ads, and postcards were among the few SaaS advertising tactics. Now, you can't easily decide how to advertise your business and which tactics will assist your SaaS growth strategies. Since 95% of buyers aren't actively looking to purchase a solution at all times, keeping your name out there is crucial for brand awareness and lead generation. When you know who your ideal buyer persona is, you can use precise targeting methods to reach out at their preferred space.
Lead generation advertising is cost-efficient and gives you all the flexibility you need to track, optimize, and improve your ad campaigns. Did you just publish a sponsored post on Facebook but it's not performing well? You can instantly make all the necessary changes, which you would never be able to do with TV ads. Additionally, attracting targeted leads all year long is a healthy way to build your sales pipeline, never allowing your brand to dry out of potential buyers.
Let's see how you can promote your business online and how eLearning Industry can help you.
In This Guide, You Will Find...
- How To Build A Digital Advertising Strategy
- How To Advertise Your Business On Various Channels
- How To Advertise Your Business On eLearning Industry’s Platform
- What Successful Vendors Are Doing
- Budgeting And ROI: How Much Should You Spend?
How To Build A Digital Advertising Strategy
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Assess Your Competition
Most B2B marketing strategies begin with an in-depth analysis of your own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) and a market intelligence report. Both are equally crucial in preparing your company to enter the competitive landscape. You check what your competitors do, how they succeed, and what problems they've encountered. Then, you can lean on your strong aspects and use them to climb to the top.
Regarding the SWOT analysis, it's pivotal that you know which internal practices work well and which underperform, external opportunities you can leverage to grow, and external threats that could weaken you.
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Create A Buyer Persona
You will never know exactly how to advertise your business if you don't know who you're addressing. So, create profiles of potential buyers, including their demographics (age, gender), psychographics (beliefs, lifestyle), firmographics (industry, budget, number of employees), behavioral characteristics, and location. Once you define each buyer persona, you can start creating messaging that appeals to their interests, needs, and challenges.
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Choose Your Marketing Channels
To promote online training software, you must first choose which marketing avenues you'll follow. This is affected by your buyer personas' preferred online spaces and interests. For example, eLearning and HR tech vendors are more likely to find buyers on LinkedIn via organic posts and paid ads, through B2B newsletters, Google Ads, and community engagement. Choosing a marketing mix is probably your best course of action, so you don't rely solely on one marketing solution.
Many marketers have difficulty choosing between SEO vs. PPC, but we firmly believe that it's not one over the other; it's a friendly alliance.
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Understand Your Buyer Journey
Advertising a business requires a clear understanding of what your typical customer journey looks like. What and how many steps does it take your buyers to get from one point to the other? Check which channels and content are popular at every stage. For example, eBooks may be wonderful for generating high-quality business leads, but webinar signups might be more successful in booking meetings. Create a map highlighting the course of action most people take before booking a demo and finally purchasing your tool.
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Identify Your Resources
When you organize how to advertise your business, you have to account for all resources used during the entire marketing process. Which projects will be handled in-house, and where will you need external partners? For example, you may need an SEO agency to perform an SEO audit and then help you plan your content marketing plan and your link building strategy. Knowing all these details early on helps you organize your budget and not overspend.
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Set Your KPIs
Knowing which metrics to follow and what ROI to anticipate is essential. Why? Because you must realize whether your investment is worth the projected outcome. This is where you remain realistic and don't shoot for the stars. A few key metrics you should always track are cost per lead, conversion rates, page views, returning visitors, engaged visits, click-through rates, and customer lifetime value. Monitoring all these gives a holistic image of your strategy and helps you make appropriate changes.
How To Advertise Your Business On Various Channels
1. Email Marketing
There are so many different ways to advertise your business online, with email marketing being one of the best. With billions of emails being sent daily, it's easy to reach your target audience and provide them with valuable resources. But how do you even receive people's email addresses in the first place? Lead generation techniques, including gated eBooks, whitepapers, webinars, and guides, easily convince prospects to hand out their contact information. Once you feel like you have a satisfactory base of emails, you can start sending them educational content, case studies, promotional codes, and anything else you think is worthy.
With newsletter marketing, you can personalize your email marketing for SaaS depending on each buyer persona's preferences. If you want to reach new audiences in your niche, you may also collaborate with an industry expert and purchase a placement in their newsletter. It's guaranteed that you'll be exposed to thousands of new potential buyers.
2. SEO And Content Syndication
For anyone to discover your website on Google or AI search engines, you must invest in solid Search Engine Optimization and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) strategies. This may not feel like a direct answer to the question of how to advertise your business, but it plays a role in making your website visible and credible. There is no better advertisement than Google's free promotion of your pages. And the only way to achieve this is by creating long-form content that includes high-intent, long-tail keywords that your target audience uses. Choose conversational queries that focus on those actively searching to buy.
You may also choose to publish content via content syndication platforms and gain valuable backlinks. For example, eLearning Industry's republished article option helps you expose your knowledge and business in front of thousands of eLearning and HR tech monthly visitors.
3. Online Events
Back in the day, event marketing meant attending conferences in person and traveling thousands of miles away from your base, spending your company's budget. However, you don't need that to promote your eLearning platform in the digital world. While conferences are still popular, webinar marketing has also skyrocketed. Why? It's much easier for people to attend without spending a fortune. This way, you get to know new prospects who may be actively searching for a solution you can provide. A webinar is also your chance to showcase thought leadership and industry expertise to convince buyers that you are the right person for the job.
To promote your webinar and increase the number of attendees, you may collaborate with an eLearning marketing expert. You may opt for a pre-recorded demonar, a pre-recorded webinar, a premium webinar, or even a sponsored podcast. A podcast, specifically, can build long-term trust between your brand and your audience.
4. Ad Placements On Social Media
More than 5 billion people use social media on a daily basis, meaning you can reach a large portion with your lead generation advertising. But not all these people are potential customers. In fact, only a small portion could be your buyers. Therefore, you must get really specific with your targeting and your channel use. B2B and SaaS companies often prefer LinkedIn, Facebook, and X for their advertising needs. While Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok are okay options, you must check if your audience is active there.
When social media ads for B2B are done right, they are cost-effective, as they are shown only to the most appropriate audiences. Impressions are good, but if you don't get enough clicks, what's the point? Also, your SaaS display ads should always be accompanied by high-quality content. Why would anyone click on your ad if there is nothing of value for them?
5. Reviews
Are you wondering how to advertise your business using online reviews? As the competition grows and ad fatigue sets in, buyers are thirsty for real, honest feedback and experiences. This is one of the best forms of cost-free advertising. All you have to do is list your business not only on Google but also on other industry-relevant review sites like TrustRadius and eLearning Industry. Keep monitoring these sites so you can reply to new reviews quickly, whether positive or negative.
Show extra care to negative customer testimonials because they are your opportunity to demonstrate how much you appreciate feedback and that you are willing to use it to improve.
6. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing for software isn't the same as the typical influencer posts we see on Instagram pushing supplements and gym clothes. Your goal is to collaborate with niche influencers who are respected in the eLearning and HR tech fields. Also, you don't want them to lie about your software. Their feedback should be genuine. Otherwise, customers who come from their posts will be dissatisfied. So, search your industry to identify the top figures that can help you dive into social media influencer marketing.
Then, start engaging with their posts by liking and commenting before contacting them. What should you offer them? If you are an eLearning provider, you can offer them free courses in exchange for a couple of posts about their experiences. Or you might write a valuable blog post on their website while also including your own backlink.
7. Communities
How can you advertise your business without making it obvious you're advertising it? You can join some of the top professional networking sites and online communities, including Quora, Reddit, and Source of Sources. While you can create paid ads, it's not the best way to utilize these sites. To achieve brand visibility in eLearning, you should start engaging in relevant spaces and answering questions in depth, showcasing your knowledge. It's best to create accounts using your leader's profile, as users prefer to engage with specific figures instead of companies that may be only interested in selling things to them.
Slowly, you'll start gaining attention and more followers, and you might be able to book meetings and sell products by sending personal messages.
8. Press Attention
How can you advertise your business without making it obvious you're advertising it? You can join some of the top professional networking sites and online communities. There are two ways you can achieve press coverage. You can either buy press releases or send them out to relevant sites and hope they pick them up for publication. You can certainly choose the second avenue, but for a news site to pick up a press release, you have to offer them something truly groundbreaking and valuable. Sometimes, though, all you want to do is announce a new CEO joining your company or your latest eLI Top List Award. In that case, a paid press release to a niche website might be exactly what you need.
How To Advertise Your Business On eLearning Industry's Platform
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Publish eBooks
eLI has a library with over 700 eBook titles, covering a wide range of eLearning, L&D, EdTech, AI, and HR-related content. It welcomes businesses to promote their eBooks on its platform and leverage its industry-specific audience. We have plenty of choices to pick from, including republished eBooks, premium eBooks, and templates and checklists. We receive 3400+ downloads and 30,000+ visits per month, and 350+ downloads per eBook.
Remember that eBooks are among the best lead magnets. They serve as ideal gated assets that encourage users to provide their contact information to download your content.
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Newsletter Placements
Newsletter sponsorships are a genius way to increase your website visits. As marketing experts, among the top email marketing strategy tips we can offer you is that brands should always search for ways to expand their reach. To achieve this through email, we allow you to get featured in our existing newsletters or get your very own exclusive email blast under our name. With over 50,000 niche subscribers, a 15% open rate, and an 18% CTR for each campaign, this is definitely a worthy option for your journey on how to advertise your business.
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Banner Ads
You are always looking for the best places to advertise your business online, and banner ads are usually among most businesses' top choices. While Google Ads are wildly popular in the eLearning and HR tech niches, you may want to opt for an industry-specific publication like eLI. We offer various ad types, including RoS, pop-up banners, sticky ad bars, and video pop-ups. Most ads deliver between 33,000 and 100K impressions, with sticky ad bars reaching even 250K impressions.
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Niche Directories
Top directory submission sites are another way to advertise your business online without spending a fortune. Our PPC directories feature various categories, including LMS, authoring tools, content providers, payroll software, employee engagement software, employee onboarding software, and many more. We've run successful campaigns with up to 12% conversion rates and offer you the opportunity to jump ahead of your competition with upgraded listings.
What Successful Vendors Are Doing
- A/B testing lead forms to improve conversion
- Using templates and checklists to shorten the sales cycle
- Leveraging reviews and testimonials for ad copy and social proof
- Multichannel retargeting to stay on top of mind
- Implement account-based marketing (ABM)
- Balance brand awareness with demand generation
Budgeting And ROI: How Much Should You Spend?
For B2B tech companies, ad spend benchmarks often fall between 5–10% of annual revenue, with fast-growing firms leaning higher to drive visibility and pipeline growth. Digital channels typically capture the largest portion of the budget, as they offer precise targeting and measurable outcomes. Exploring creative ways to market your business can enhance results, while the right allocation depends on growth goals, sales cycle length, and the competitive environment, ensuring marketing spend aligns with business priorities.
A balanced mix of brand and demand campaigns is critical. Demand efforts generate demo requests, MQLs, business opportunity leads, and immediate pipeline value, while brand initiatives build trust and recognition that fuel long-term success.
Key Takeaway
In the current B2B tech and SaaS setting, knowing how to advertise your business is essential for both short-term performance and long-term growth. Strategies like PPC lead generation allow brands to target audiences with precision, optimize spend in real time, and generate a steady flow of qualified leads. By combining creative approaches with measurable tactics, businesses can strengthen visibility, nurture prospects, and ensure their pipeline is consistently growing.
At the same time, channels such as LinkedIn campaigns for software brands help vendors connect directly with decision-makers in their niche. Pairing these efforts with brand-building initiatives, thoughtful content, and strong attribution models creates a powerful mix. Ultimately, the most successful companies are those that balance innovation with strategy, making every ad dollar work toward sustainable ROI.
