When a small business first starts up, money can be tight. Capital can be used up for things like salaries, office space, taxes, and production. And that’s if you’re lucky enough to already have some money saved up.
If you’re like a lot of business owners, you’re not worried about investors. Instead, you’re running your business on very little money. You don’t have $100,000 lying around to run a direct mail campaign, which is usually how much it costs.
What options exist to reach millions of people
Advertisements in newspapers, over the phone, on billboards, and on TV can all cost more than $100,000 each. Even worse, websites, cell phones, and streaming video are replacing newspapers, landlines, and traditional TV. Even activities that don’t cost much but raise awareness can cost $15,000 and $75,000 of your annual budget. That’s a lot of money for a small business.
In this situation, marketing or advertising might not get the attention it deserves. But what if there was a way to advertise without spending much (or any) money? And what if that method worked better than outbound marketing as we know it?
The good news is that there are many ways to advertise your business for little or no money, according to AJ Ignacio of Baden Bower, the top tech PR firm globally.
- Use SEO
Some internet marketing organisations operate as if SEO is a mystical tool only they can use, and you should pay them a lot to use it for your company. False. When you have money, hire a professional SEO agency, but for now, use common sense and initiative.
Create a website using keywords in the text and photos, update it often, and link to relevant sites. Blogging, making videos, using social media, and receiving positive online reviews can increase your results.
Publicity also acts as a sort of turbo charged version of SEO, especially if your feature offers a followed backlink.
- Send emails
Email marketing is effective. That’s fantastic. Free! Customers that opt into your email list are interested in your product or service, want to learn more, and think you can help. Why not help them? MailChimp can enable you to perform free bulk email campaigns and offer you statistics on your customers’ email trends.
- Enjoy Facebook
You should be on Facebook if you aren’t. Instead of having a personal page, make a business page. Use an identifiable photo. Update your page often and focus on business. Get favourable comments from customers. All done. You’re marketing on Facebook for free.
- Tweet It
Twitter makes customer service easy for small businesses. Responding to platform users is quick, easy, and free. You may also use Twitter to create relationships with influencers, employ popular hashtags, and engage your followers.
- Do the ‘Gram
Instagram may surpass Facebook in popularity. Millennials adore posting photos for friends to see. If you offer products, include images. You can promote your brand, share stories, and link to your blog.
- Google My Business
Register your business to use this free service. Being on the site helps SEO and provides your phone number and address. You can link to social media. This free, easy-to-use tool works well.
- Get positive reviews
Word-of-mouth marketing has always been the most effective way to reach customers. Most people trust their friends. The problem with word-of-mouth marketing is that it doesn’t scale well. With the Internet, however, you can help your customers tell their friends about your business in a big way. Sites like Yelp! offer a place for users and customers to rate your business. Facebook and Google do the same thing. Ask your customers to give you some love on these sites.
LinkedIn used to be a social media site where people just posted their resumes and left, but it has recently undergone a major update. It has become the best place to meet business leaders, top professionals, writers, thinkers, industry leaders, and potential clients. Don’t be afraid to post a lot on the site, as long as the quality of what you post is good.
- Make guest appearances on industry podcasts
Podcasts are becoming more and more popular and important. About 22% of Americans say they listen to a podcast every week. Even if the podcast you’re listening to doesn’t have a lot of listeners, you can still get something out of it if the right people are listening. You can also put links to the podcast on your website, blog, and all your social media sites.
- YouTube yourself
YouTube is now the second largest search engine in the world, right behind Google. It’s used by about 1.3 billion people. A great way to promote your business is to make simple videos and put them on YouTube. You can make them short or long, funny or serious, helpful or inspiring. You can get a natural following on YouTube with any style and content that works for your brand. There’s no need to hire a videographer or buy expensive software. You and your phone are all you need to do the job.
- Write a blog
Blogging is probably the second-oldest way to get people to visit your website after email.
If your blog is interesting, well-written, full of useful information, and set up to be easy to read, you will get the right kind of readers. What you have to say will be important to those people. In the end, they’ll think of you as the expert and they’ll buy what you are selling.
- Get published in a leading magazine or journal
One of the most effective ways to create influence as a leader is to publish your work in a top publication. That could be a journal specific to your industry, or it could be a business magazine such as Forbes, CEO Weekly, The Ritz Herald, or Madison Graph.
- Build your own WordPress site
You don’t need a $20,000 website for your small business. Most likely, the sites you can make yourself on WordPress or Wix for free or at a low cost will be fine for your business. These sites look nice, can be optimised for SEO, have a lot of room for both images and text, and are easy for a beginner to use.
- Offer outstanding customer service
Lastly, doing a good job is the best way to market your business. Make a good product, set a fair price for it, and treat the people who buy it with fairness and respect. A great product sold by nice people at a fair price can beat any clever billboard or expensive advertising campaign.
