32 Ways to Advertise Your Business for Free
- Reward social media sharing
- Cultivate brand ambassadors
- Encourage positive word of mouth
- Try interactive content
- Give your customers a behind-the-scenes look
- Offer free giveaways
- Try Facebook live video
- Get visual on Instagram
- Try engaging on Snapchat
- Cultivate your Pinterest board
- Join in on Twitter chats
- Expand into LinkedIn groups
- Partner with other small businesses
- Support local charities
- Try custom stickers
- Brand your business vehicles
- Get involved in community events
- Plan a community event
- Be active in your neighborhood
- Keep active email outreach
- Start a podcast
- Feature as a guest on a podcast
- Start a blog
- Guest post on other blogs
- Host webinars
- Take advantage of public speaking opportunities
- Serve as an expert on Help a Reporter Out (HARO)
- Set up Your Yelp Page
- Get your site on industry-specific review sites
- Try low-cost Facebook advertising
- Optimize your Google+ page
- Keep up on online trends you can take advantage of
Advertising for your business doesn’t have to be expensive. In today’s digital world, there are countless ways to harness the power of the internet to your business’s advantage, along with even more old-school tactics, without running up a massive bill. In fact, you can advertise your business for free, and it can be a lot of fun!
Sometimes, the best ways to advertise your business don’t involve reinventing the wheel. Online stalwarts like Facebook, Yelp, and Twitter are simple but effective ways to get your name out there. And partnering with businesses in your area, hosting events, and even donating to charities or neighborhood initiatives are analog ways to advertise your business and support your local community.
To spark your creativity for that next perfect marketing opportunity, consult this list of 32 ways to advertise your business for free (or for cheap), both online and off.
32 No- or Low-Cost Ways to Advertise Your Business
The best marketing plans draw on a multitude of strategies: Social-media marketing, email campaigns, flash sales, in-store events, even experiential marketing—whatever your business has the resources to take on, take them! Use every opportunity you get to share your product or service with the world (and, ideally, turn them into paying customers).
Start your search with this list of mostly free, relatively low-lift, but definitely fun ways to advertise your business
1. Reward Social Media Sharing
It’s great to find new customers, but it’s also important to show your appreciation for those who are already loyal to your brand—especially if they’re willing to shout it from the proverbial rooftops.
Providing discounts to your followers who share your brand on social media rewards their customer loyalty, and gives you a boost. After all, word-of-mouth endorsements are still the best form of advertising around. Engaging with and rewarding your customers is a great way to advertise your business for free.
2. Cultivate a Cadre of Brand Ambassadors
George Clooney probably fetches a pretty penny for his work as Nespresso spokesman, but there are other, more accessible ways to advertise your business.
Focus on social media influencers who might not be Clooney-level celebrities, but who have established themselves as prominent figures in a circle that relates to your brand. Gaining an endorsement from an influencer strengthens your brand’s presence and legitimacy in that world. If you go this route, though, just make sure your social media influencer campaign is legal.
3. Look Within for Positive Word of Mouth
Your strongest advocates for your business might just be under your own roof. An employee who is willing to share positive things about the company on their personal social media accounts can grab the attention of potential new customers—so incentivizing that behavior is a savvy business move and a great way to advertise your business for free. Platforms like Dynamic Signal make it easy for businesses to encourage their employees to serve as brand advocates for their employers online.
4. Have Fun With Interactive Content
Who can resist the allure of a clever internet quiz? Putting interactive content on your website, blog, or social media platforms is both fun and informative for your customers. And quizzes and surveys that encourage users to share their results on social media expands your brand’s reach further. This has the added bonus of converting your loyal brand followers into brand ambassadors on their own social media platforms.
5. Let Your Customers Peek Behind the Scenes
Whether you use YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat, share a video! This could be an interview with a member of your staff, a tour of a manufacturing facility, or a montage of your participation in a recent trade show or industry event. Giving your customers a sneak peak into what it’s like on the inside is another creative way to advertise your business for free.
Giving customers a greater sense of what goes into making your product is a transparent way to interact with your customers, which’ll give you a credibility boost. It also lets you show off your team and your brand’s personality, and define your company’s unique point of view within your market.
6. Play Game Show Host for a Day
Who doesn’t love free things? A giveaway of your product or service can grab the attention of those who might not usually think to spend their money with your business.
Alternatively, ask those who are already loyal to your brand to participate in a contest where they generate testimonials or share positives stories about your business online under a designated hashtag. That can generate a lot of buzz in a short amount of time.
7. Put a Face to Your Company’s Name With Live Video
CEOs such as Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Steve Jobs are inextricably linked with their brands. Customers feel like they know them personally, and that is part of the fabric of the brand loyalty that Facebook, Tesla, and Apple enjoy. Using live video through Facebook or other social media channels can humanize you and your business, and make any customer even more likely to become a loyalist.
8. Trade in a Thousand Words for a Picture
If that adage is true, then Instagram lets you do a lot of talking in a very short amount of time. While Facebook dominates in terms of overall number of users, Instagram followers for certain brands—including titans like Nike and Starbucks—have surged lately. And with younger demographics turning away from television and spending more time on social media, there’s a huge benefit to focusing your marketing efforts here.
9. Share on Snapchat
No longer just for the high school set, Snapchat has done a complete about-face to become a powerful marketing tool for some of the biggest brands around.
Use Snapchat to your business’s advantage: promote upcoming events, share exclusive “behind the scenes” content, or give followers access to special deals or coupons. Leveraging Snpachat’s ephemeral nature is the key—much like a flash sale, instant opportunities generate urgency.
10. Use Pinterest to Pique Interest
In a world that is turning away from traditional print media and becoming increasingly enamored with its digital counterpart, Pinterest is essentially a curated magazine that your company should strive to grab a page in.
Beyond that, looking at other users’ Pinterest boards will help you identify trends that your customers are following and tailor your own product offerings to best fit in with, or outdo, the latest fad. Start pinning to meet new customers, drive more traffic to your website, and advertise your business for free.
11. Participate in Twitter Chats
For those unfamiliar with the concept, a Twitter chat is a moderated conversation on a specific topic. Twitter users join at a designated date and time, and respond with a designated hashtag.
Whether you’re hosting or participating, Twitter chats are an excellent way to network, share ideas, gain new social media followers, and one of the overall best ways to advertise your business. If that sounds appealing to you, consider using tools like Tweetchat and Nurph that are designed to optimize your participation.
12. Use LinkedIn Groups to Expand Your Network
The Groups function on LinkedIn is a great way to find like-minded individuals and other entrepreneurs who can provide you with advice on running your business. On the flip side, it also gives you access to a targeted group of people who you know are interested in your product or service. LinkedIn even curates a list of groups you might be interested in based on your profile and interaction with the site.
13. Partner With a Fellow Small Business Owner
Wine and cheese, movies and popcorn, high heels and gel insoles—some things are meant to go together. Reach out to other business owners whose goods and services complement yours, and see if they’re open to creating a cross-promotional deal with you. This can be a great way for you both to tap into each other’s client bases, and advertise your business for free.
14. Do Good, Feel Great
Partner with a well-respected local charity to increase brand awareness while doing good for others.
Whether you choose to launch a campaign where donations are made based on the number of users sharing a certain message on social media, ask customers to donate a dollar to a given cause when they make their purchase, or use your business’ resources to boost awareness for an important social issue, there are lots of ways for your business to give back while also gaining awareness for your brand.
15. Become a Modern-Day Picasso
Flash mobs were all the rage a few years ago, because they were a lighthearted, eye-catching, and viral-video-inspiring way to gain brand attention.
You can do something similar on a smaller scale by creating a unique storefront display that will get the locals talking, or using a service like Moo.com to print custom stickers for your business. A chalk mural can be similarly attention-grabbing, and a fun way to advertise an upcoming sale.
16. Hit the Streets
Nothing stands out on the road quite like a vehicle covered in bright, bold lettering and designs. Auto wraps are typically made of vinyl, and they let you turn your car into a four-wheeled advertisement for your company. The cost of wrapping your car varies depending on vehicle size and whether you opt for a full wrap or partial decal.
If you like the concept but don’t feel comfortable with the honks and stares, you can use a site like Carvertise.com to find drivers who are willing to let you advertise on their cars.
17. Engage With Your Local Community
For many small businesses, getting involved in community events can be a win-win. Donating your goods or services for a silent auction for a local charity, blogging about your staff’s volunteer work at a nearby soup kitchen, or sponsoring a music or arts festival in exchange for promotional material at the event will advertise your brand while supporting worthy, local initiatives.
18. Plan an Event
It’s great to connect with your customers online, but sometimes it’s nice to see them in person, too!
Hosting an event can come in many different forms. Maybe it’s a champagne and canape soiree at your store to celebrate the introduction of a new product line. Maybe it’s a Q&A with a respected thought leader in your field that your customers would love to meet. Either way, this puts you face-to-face with your brand’s loyalists, and gives you a chance to make a strong, positive impression.
19. Say “Hello, New Neighbor!”
The psychological principle called the mere-exposure effect dictates that people develop a preference for certain things merely because they’re familiar with them. This principle explains exactly why you want to be the first business someone sees when they relocate to your neighborhood.
Partnering with large businesses, realtors, or moving companies to offer discounts or participating in welcome packages for new residents will put you top of mind for your new neighbors. Then, when they drive by your storefront, they’ll be more likely to stop in—not just because of the discounts, but because of psychology!
20. Make an Appearance in Clients’ Inboxes
Email marketing is an easy, low-cost way to get your brand in front of your customers. Unlike blogging or podcasting, emails give you a way to reach out, rather than waiting for customers to come to you. And with services like MailChimp, which offers up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails monthly for free, it’s really a no-brainer.
Just be sure not to overdo it; only email your customers when you have something of real interest to share, or you might find yourself filtered into customers’ junk folders.
21. Get out on the Airwaves
The overhead cost of starting a podcast is minimal—a high-quality microphone can be found for less than $100, and free editing software like GarageBand or Audacity make creating high-quality audio a breeze. Take those two tools, throw in a quiet room for recording, and voila! A podcast is born.
Creating episodes on a consistent basis will drive clients back to your website regularly to check out your newest episode. Plus, you establish yourself as an expert in your field and build the consumer’s trust in your brand. Technically this isn’t a way to advertise your business for free, but it’s still pretty cheap once you get set up.
22. Appear as a Podcast Guest
If hosting your own podcast sounds like too much of a commitment, start by appearing on popular podcasts in your industry. Podcasts with an interview format are often looking for guests, giving you an easy opportunity to be featured in this format.
Research podcasts related to your business, and then reach out to the host with a well-organized pitch that fits with their target audience. This lets you tap into the podcast’s established audience and advertise your business at no cost at all.
23. Become a Blogger
Like podcasts, blogs give you a way to build a steady readership and drive visitors to your site on a regular basis while proving yourself to be a thought leader in your industry. Blogs are even easier to get up and running—all you need is a computer and internet connection.
With blogs and podcasts, consistency is key. Create a calendar for releasing material so that there aren’t gaps in content that cause your readers to lose interest.
24. Guest Blog for a Day
Guest blogging is an alternative for those who aren’t able to commit to maintaining a regular posting schedule for their own blog. Look for opportunities to blog for those who write about your industry. Pitching a story idea to a blogger is an opportunity to reach out and expand your network.
Even if you don’t end up blogging for them, you’ve made contact with an influencer in your field and can establish a relationship with them moving forward—and, if you’ve read item number 2 on this list, you’ll know that influencer partnerships are one of the absolute best ways to advertise your business.
25. Host a Webinar
Most business owners hear the same questions over and over from their clients. Taking these questions and turning them into topics for webinars makes you the go-to source for information within your industry, strengthening your existing relationships and helping to forge new ones. And with a high-quality camera on every person’s smartphone, creating webinars and other video content is easier today than it has ever been.
26. Conquer Your Stage Fright
Like blogging and podcasting, public speaking opportunities let you brand yourself as a thought leader in your area of expertise. It also gives your company exposure, and gives you the added benefit of business networking opportunities with those who attend the event.
Finally, public speaking gets you and your business’s name on publicity materials for the event and allows you to capitalize on their marketing efforts. In all, it’s a tried and true way to advertise your business for free.
27. Serve as an Expert Media Source
When a journalist needs a source, they often turn to Help a Reporter Out (HARO) to look for experts in a given field. Huge media outlets like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Reuters turn to HARO for sources, and connecting with journalists from these publications can get your name and your business out there in a big way.
28. Establish Your Yelp Page
Yelp is often the to-go place for consumers looking for a particular good or service. Yelp’s reach is wide—you can find everything from hair salons to hardware stores to taco trucks reviewed on the site. And with over 100 million reviews and counting, you can be sure that more than a few users will stumble across your business!
29. Target Industry-Specific Review Sites
There are lots of industry-specific review sites that you can put to work for your business. For restaurant owners, there’s the old stalwart OpenTable, plus newer platforms like Resy and Reserve. Those in the home, yard, auto, and health businesses have Angie’s List. Focusing on an industry-specific site allows you to be found by those who are searching specifically for the goods or services you offer.
30. Invest in Low-Cost Facebook Advertising
As a baseline, every company should create a Facebook page. They’re free to make, and with Facebook’s unmatched reach, it’s a vital tool in any company’s online marketing kit.
Facebook advertising is the next step. With the Ads Manager tool, you can tailor your advertising based on your target audience, budget, and objectives. Once your ads are up and running, you get access to detailed metrics that reflect the effectiveness of your campaign so that you can tweak your efforts.
31. Focus on Google+ to Maximize Search Visibility
Google is the world’s most powerful and popular search engine, so having them on your side is important.
Google+ lets you customize the URL for your page, include an SEO meta description of your business, and establish authorship to ensure that Google knows about the content you’ve created. Being smart in the creation of your Google+ page can ensure that you shoot to the top of search results and boost your business’ profile.
32. Dabble in Online Trends
Last but not least—the final way to advertise your business for free (in this article at least!) is to particpate in online trends.
The team at ZoomData participated in the Mannequin Challenge. Patrick Stewart did his part for a good cause with the Ice Bucket Challenge. We even watched Hillary Clinton learn to dab on Ellen. Taking part in online trends can be really fun way to advertise your business. And who knows? That video may go viral and give you tremendous exposure.
Keep in mind, though, that not all online trends are created equal: Think carefully before participating, and be sure to steer clear of anything that could be controversial.
***
The most important thing to remember is that finding ways to advertise your business should be an enjoyable process. If you’re having a good time and putting your best foot forward, your customers will have a good time right along with you!
The post Here Are 32 Ways to Advertise Your Business for Free (Or at a Super-Low Cost) appeared first on Fundera Ledger.
from Fundera Ledger https://www.fundera.com/blog/advertise-your-business-for-free/
No comments:
Post a Comment