Entrepreneurs are often brilliant and visionary — but they’re also amazingly stubborn. They don’t want to accept that the small business they’ve worked so hard to build won’t grow like wildfire overnight. Free marketing ideas can come in handy, helping you refine your skills and test various marketing techniques to determine what works best for your business.
If you want to get more customers, there are many ways to create marketing opportunities that won’t cost a dime. These ideas will give you a start, and you can add more ideas as they come to mind. Each idea is easy to understand and how it helps your business.
The real challenge that you face is knowing which strategies to use. If you want to do it right, you need to think of your marketing as a holistic process.
Leverage Social Media
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are great places to connect with customers, especially when you don’t have a large budget. Sometimes you need to show that you have followers to leverage your social media. Followers.io can show you how to buy Instagram followers to get you started.
Create your business’s social media pages and share information across platforms. You can also promote an event or offer discounts or new products through these mediums. Utilize Google AdWords, free for small businesses, and advertise on Google search results pages.
Use LinkedIn effectively. Access the network’s search tool and look for famous people in your industry. Join their groups and follow the conversation so you can see what topics come up repeatedly.
Write An Ebook
Many writers struggle with their income because they don’t feel their work is good enough for publication. While this might be true in some cases, many authors have succeeded through self-publishing on the internet. Writing an ebook and publishing it on Amazon or other online retailers can give people another way to find your writing and connect with you.
Word of Mouth
The most apparent form of free marketing is word-of-mouth marketing. If you have a great product or any product, people will talk about it whether you pay for it or not. If someone has good things to say about your product or service, simply point them in the direction of your website or other promotional efforts and let them do the rest.
Build Relationships
Build relationships with influencers and bloggers. To get the word out about your company, it’s best to start working with influencers who have credibility among people who buy what you’re selling. Give them something they want, such as guest posts on their blogs or interviews on their podcast, and more.
An excellent way to start is by “going where your customers are” — with blog posts and social media posts. They’re an opportunity for you to share what you’re doing, gain more exposure and connect with potential customers.
Start a Podcast
If you’re more into talking than writing, starting a podcast may be one of the best free marketing ideas. Before uploading your podcast to iTunes or other directories, you need only a small amount of equipment, such as a microphone and recording software. People can listen to it from anywhere globally, and Podcasting is popular with many audiences. Would you like to learn how to start a podcast?
Host a Free Giveaway
Hosting a free giveaway is one of the most popular free marketing ideas because it works! You can attract potential customers by offering them something for free. For example, if your company sells beauty products, you can host a giveaway for several beauty products.
There are several ways to host a giveaway. One way is to ask people to enter the contest by commenting on one of your social media posts. Another way is to create an online form where people can fill out their information and enter the contest.
Regardless of how you do it, hosting a giveaway is not only fun for participants — it’s also beneficial for your business.
Samples
Give away samples of your wares at trade shows or conventions. Don’t worry if they’re not exactly what you intended them to be — they don’t have to be perfect! Just give people interested a chance to try them out before they buy, and let them know their limitations.
Research Your Audience
You may not realize it, but your friends and family members probably have their own opinions about what they need and want in a product or service. Take advantage of these discussions by learning about your customers’ needs and interests so that when it comes time for you to present your product or service, they’ll be more likely to trust it and buy from you.
Create a Blog
A blog can be a handy tool for marketing your business, and it gives you a place to share information with prospects and customers, interact with them, sell them things, and bring them back repeatedly.
How do you get people to come back? Fresh content. And there is no better way to create new content than by blogging. If you publish 3-4 articles per week, people will have a reason to return regularly. The search engines will reward you for the effort by sending free traffic your way.
Embrace Video
But getting started with video requires thinking beyond just producing short clips for social media. Suppose you’re looking to promote your brand across multiple platforms. In that case, you’ll need to create videos that can be used across a broad range of social channels — YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram among them — and shareable posts on blog platforms like TikTok and Tumblr.
Utilize Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories are an excellent way to engage with your followers and draw in new ones. They only last 24 hours, so you should post at least once a day. Small business owners can use them to show behind-the-scenes company footage, pictures of their product in action, or even silly clips that make people laugh. The more entertaining they are, the more people will watch them and share them with others.
Email Marketing
Once you have a solid social media presence, consider building an email list. This can be used for promotional emails, educational resources, and targeted newsletters with special offers and sales. Be sure to keep your lists up-to-date by keeping an eye on the number of subscribers you have and make sure your opt-in forms are easy for people to navigate.
