We all know how important marketing is to improving our brand recognition and boosting sales, but when you’re on a small-business budget it can be difficult to afford quality marketing strategies.
Internet marketing offers some relief, though, with dozens of free or inexpensive options to help promote your business. Here we list the best ways to get your name, products or services in front of potential customers, without breaking the bank.
1. Social Media
Nothing is better than free exposure, and social network sites provide just that. It’s free to make a profile on all major social networks, including Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram.
You don’t have to join every social network, but remember that the more social media profiles you have, the more likely you are to be found and followed. If your business lends itself well to photography, for instance, you may want to focus your energies on Pinterest or Instagram, where as if you plan to share mostly written content, Twitter or Facebook may be more appropriate.
Social media is good for more than just posting promotional content; it also provides the perfect platform for open communication with customers. Respond to comments and queries, and develop posts which encourage feedback and participation.
2. Email Marketing
Once you have a solid website and profiles on top social networks, you will need a strong automation service to manage email marketing. In addition to automating your business emails, like transactional and customer service emails, such software also gives you the tools to make professional promotional emails.
Promotional emails are used to keep your customers up-to-date with your company’s latest products, sales, and events. Believe it or not, the majority of consumers like getting promotional emails from their favorite brands. Still, keep promo emails need to be relevant and pleasurable to read.
While email marketing software is not free, it is extremely affordable, especially for those with only a few hundred or a few thousand contacts.
3. Blog Outreach
Successful blogs can be read by hundreds of thousands of people a week. Wouldn’t it be great to get your product or brand mentioned in one of these blogs? It’s not as difficult as you may think.
The first step is to research bloggers who write for your industry, or whose audience profile matches your customer profile. Once you’ve developed a shortlist of the most a.) relevant and b.) popular bloggers, it’s time to contact them with an offer.
From here, there are two options. First, you can offer the blogger a sample of your product or service, in exchange for a review or mention of your product in one of their upcoming posts. This is pretty straight-forward and popular bloggers are used to getting such offers.
Alternatively, you may request a guest writing spot on their blog, which means writing an original content piece to appear on their blog. You could also ask them to write a piece for your website or social media. Both parties usually benefit with this type of influencer marketing.
4. Use Online Directories
Just like paper directories (of which you should also be listed in), online directories are the leading resources for people to find your business. You should be in as many as are relevant to your industry. Popular, universal choices include:
- Google Business
- Angie’s List
- Yelp
- Yellow Pages
- BBB
Again, there may be other directories, like GrubHub, which may be specific to your industry, so be sure to do your research. Most are free to sign up with and offer extremely affordable premium perks.
Search engines are actually a type of directory, as your customer’s first query will usually go through Google or Bing before any specific business directory. For this reason, you should also make sure your website is SEO, or Search Engine Optimized, so that customers see your website first.
5. Capitalize on Social Proof
Using the positive reviews and testimonies from satisfied customers or trusted industry representatives is a great marketing strategy. People look to others to help them make decisions, but don’t always trust companies to present themselves honestly. Third-party approval of your brand will always seem more sincere than tooting your own horn.
This strategy is called social proof, and it is a powerful way to drive sales and interest. Collecting honest social proof to use in your product pages, emails, and social media also happens to be free!
Always let customers review your products, and make the reviews clearly visible to other shoppers. If people aren’t leaving reviews by themselves, start offering incentives, or sending reminders a few days after their purchase. Most people are happy to leave a great review for great service.
Use quotes from happy customers and any glowing press you receive. These quotes are perfect for use in copy where it may otherwise appear too self-promotional.
6. Free Press
The difficult way to get free press is to send cold-call appeals to any reporter willing to listen. Best case scenario, the reporter is so enamored with your story idea or draft that they stay up all night writing the perfect pitch for publication. At the very least, there’s the hope that it will be a slow news day and your story will suffice in a pinch.
The chances of either of those things happening are slim, and trying to get reporters’ attention as a business is time consuming. Make life easier by using HARO (Help a Reporter Out). This helpful site connects reporters with sources, so reporters can spend more time writing and businesses like yours can spend more time on what’s important.
After signing up as a source, source requests will be sent to your email inbox 3 times a day. When you find a relevant source request, just send your proposal to the reporter, being sure to sell yourself as the best fit for their needs. You can see how much more effective this is than sending cold-call emails to random reporters.
Successful Marketing Doesn’t Have To Be Expensive
Marketing is all about your return on investment, not just monetarily, but for the longevity of your business as a whole. Will your company remain in the consciousness of consumers as a result of your clever, cost-effective marketing? Only time will tell, but now you don’t have any excuses. Go out there and get your business some free exposure!