There are many ways to market your small business for free or for cheap. However, not all are effective enough to bring you desired results in good time.
And since you do not have all the time in the world to experiment with every marketing channel available, it'll be wise and worth your time to invest it instead in marketing channels with established track record and proven profit potentials.
In this post, we'll be looking at five such proven ways and places to market your small business for free so you can increase sales and revenue, but first here are
Some Important Factors to Consider
ReachSpread
Engagement
Access
User Base
Competition
Revenue
Mobile friendliness
Payments
Messaging
UI and UX (user friendliness)
4 Ideal Ways to Market Your Small Business for Free
With over 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the behemoth of social media. Not only is it the biggest, it also takes up 22% of the total time Americans spend online on mobile devices, with users spending an average of 20 minutes a day on the site.
Imagine the enormous potential of this huge market! While you're imagining, over 60 million businesses now own active Facebook Pages plus over 6 million of them advertise on the platform, generating billions in ad revenue..
Whereas ads cost money, there are many free ways to promote or create awareness about your brand, product or services. These include:
Facebook stories
Status updates
Profile photo updates
Facebook headers
Facebook live
Facebook messenger
Post shares
@ mentions, etc
These and more, are all ways of promoting your business, brand, product or services on Facebook to get you more exposure and hopefully more customers.
With over 1 billion monthly active users and counting, Instagram is another keen social network to watch. Recently, Search Engine Journal referred to IG as the fastest growing social network.
Originally a photo sharing platform Instagram has come a long way and now allows users use video and other forms of multimedia content to get their message across.
Reports indicate that over 500 million users view Instagram Stories daily. Also, over 80% of users follow at least one brand, millions of which now use Instagram. Another 57% of users say they discovered new products via Instagram through:
Instagram stories
Status updates
Instagram bio
Link in bio
Instagram headers
IGTV
Instagram messenger
Hashtags
@ mentions, etc
By being active, brands can build a good Instagram following which can build loyalty and customers.
YouTube
YouTube is much more than videos of teens twerking or people teaching DIY tricks. Businesses like yours are already gaining traction on YouTube.
YouTube is the biggest video platform there is, with an estimated 1.9 billion always logged in users. This platform also doubles as the second largest search engine after Google.
Businesses like yours are using the platform to create awareness. You too can do the same via
Introductory videos
Explainer videos
Product overview videos
Customer testimonial videos
How to videos
Exclusive product videos
Behind the scenes videos
Top ten product videos, etc
While at it, pay close attention to small but important things like your YouTube thumbnails, video objectives, topic, length, depth, tone, etc.
Content Marketing
This is another very powerful way to create awareness around your business, product or services. Content marketing is basically marketing your business using content as the main driver.
This content can be in the form of blog posts, infographics, interviews, features, podcasts, etc. By creating value and helping readers solve their problems, you win their hearts and can be rewarded with business in the process.
One of the most effective way to use content marketing to spread the word about your business is via guest blogging. It involves creating and publishing blog posts on different authority blogs. Because such blogs receive a ton of daily and monthly visitors plus loyal subscribers, your content will enjoy visibility.
By contributing to several such important publications, you stamp yourself as an authority and influencer within that niche.
Conclusion
It is a good goal to aim to try all these channels to generate publicity and promote your business, however, it is also a good idea to start with or approach them one at a time so as not to be overwhelmed.
With practice you can get better at using all to promote your business for free.
Author
Olu Bunmi is a freelance copywriter who loves to write Business, Ecommerce, and Entrepreneurship content.