Top 10 Tips to Promote Your Small Business for Free
When you start your business, you know you need marketing. It’s likely that you won’t start with a massive marketing budget right away. So what’s the best way to promote your business? There are many ways to promote your business through low-cost and no-cost strategies that can boost your business.
Free Marketing Tips to Promote Your Organization
In today’s digital world, it’s easier and more affordable than ever to advertise your business. If you’re ready and willing to invest time and effort, you can easily promote your business’s products and services without blowing your budget. Learn more about how to grow your business through these marketing tips that cost you nothing to get started.
Create Local Listings
Why create local listings for your business on the internet? You want your business to be visible online. Every single individual listing you have for your business online increases your chance of being found. There are many local business directories online that include all the basics about your business: your business name, phone number, physical address, and website. Some include additional information, like your owners and staff listings, social media profile links, and photos.
You can explore what types of directories you want to add your business to. For example, you should want to be listed in your local community development organization’s online directory or various directories for your specific industry. Creating local listings online is also an opportunity to expand your business into other markets and niches that fit your goals for business growth. The best part? Most online directories are totally free!
Utilize Social Media
If your business is online, you’re likely already on social media. Check out all of the free social media platforms and find your audience on the platform(s). You want to be active on the social media platforms that work best to reach them. For example, your best bet to reach the 60+ age demographic is more likely to be Facebook rather than Snapchat.
Consistently sharing valuable content is the best way to promote your business. Your audience is looking to be educated and entertained. Finding the right voice for your brand and producing the best content to showcase on social media is critical to keeping your audience engaged. Stay active, keep relevant, and keep growing your audience.
Optimize Your Website for SEO
While there is no one perfect way to build your website for SEO, there are a few things that are incredibly important to remember when optimizing your website:
- Consistently publish relevant, authoritative content (and get serious about your keywords!)
- Publish new content regularly
- Develop strong metadata, like titles and descriptions
- Build your web pages to attract links
- Optimize your website design for mobile users
Want to dive a little deeper into SEO for your website? Google has published a free SEO Starter Guide that we highly recommend at Idea Queen Marketing. If you’re still struggling with where to start with your SEO marketing strategy, send us a message, and we’ll be happy to help.
Create Engaging Visuals
Your visuals are an extension of your brand. You’re able to create visuals that reflect your message’s theme, evoke the emotion of your audience, and create a lasting impression of your brand. This can be through infographics, photos, videos, and other multimedia pieces that pertain to the messages you want to convey.
PRO TIP: Be sure to consider the platform on which you publish your visuals. For example, if you’re posting an infographic on your Instagram Story vs. your website, the size of the infographic definitely matters.
Volunteer
Volunteering and giving back to the community is an oftentimes overlooked marketing strategy! Through volunteering in your community, your business has the opportunity to build relationships with community members and make connections to find where you can best serve your customers.
Many small businesses develop community partnerships with nonprofit organizations that directly align with the products or services they provide. Other small businesses empower their employees to find connections to nonprofits that serve them and their interests individually. If your business cannot dedicate time to volunteer, consider what talents or treasures (AKA money) you are able to contribute to nonprofit organizations in your community. There is no one “right way” to volunteer, but it is an opportunity to promote your business that is truly a win-win for everyone involved.
Offer a Workshop or Webinar
If your business can teach others valuable information, offering a workshop or webinar may be a simple way to promote your business. This can be presented either online or in person in your market. If you’re able to provide knowledge to prospective customers, you can make connections with prospective customers and gather information from attendees through this sharing opportunity.
Create a Community
Community is everything – especially when everyone in the community is a fan of the same thing! Take advantage of the love your customers show you either online or in person. Provide your best customers with perks through exclusive online connections, like a Facebook Group or Instagram broadcast channel. Provide special meet-ups at your storefront for community members. Give away free marketing swag or create a rewards program. Do something that works for you to connect with your business’s evangelists and make them feel special and connected to your business.
Building and sustaining a community that advocates for your business’s growth and long-term success is everything! It’s an avenue of trust that will grow as long as you continue to provide the great product and service your customers expect.
Participate in Networking Opportunities
Networking is a huge part of growing any business of any size. From trade shows to conferences to LinkedIn, there are ample networking opportunities that are low-cost or no-cost in any and all industries. One of the best places to start is your local Chamber of Commerce. You can also explore local trade associations or development organizations that are relevant to your organization. Additionally, global networking organizations like Women in Business, SCORE, JCI, and Rotary are valuable to different members of your organization.
Create Valuable Video Content
With video holding strong as the king of all content online, you can add video content to your marketing strategy to connect with your audience. You can tap into TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook with videos easily. Video SEO is on the rise, so now is a great opportunity to answer questions your audience has online through video.
You can invest in short-form (under 10 minutes) or long-form (over 10 minutes) video content that serves your audience. Depending on what you’re doing with your video content, one format may be more valuable to your marketing strategy than the other. Ultimately, you know your audience best! Serve them up with the video content they want and need to improve your brand recall, so they know to get in touch with you the second they realize they need you.
Nuture Leads Through Email Marketing
Connecting with your leads through email is a valuable, cost-effective way to grow interest in your services. Email marketing is an easy, scalable way to communicate with both new and existing customers. There are a plethora of email marketing tools out there (many are free!). You can try sending promotions and newsletters to draw them into your business. Email marketing can drive strong results for businesses of all sizes.
Start Building Your Marketing Strategies Today
As you focus on growing your business, don’t worry about spending every penny you have on marketing. Utilize free and low-cost marketing strategies that work for your business goals. You have to start somewhere, so start today. Get busy building your promotions with time and effort! If you’re interested in strategizing your marketing goals for your brand, connect with Idea Queen Marketing for a free marketing consultation. We’ll take time to audit your business online and review your business goals with you to help build a marketing plan that works for you.