13 Ways to Promote Your Small Business for Free

Working with a limited budget is a regular theme many small businesses have to live with.

As such, there’s a real struggle by such business owners to put their products or services in front of their potential customers.

However, it’s not that easy trying to promote small businesses. This is because many ways of advertising cost money, not to mention what was put in to get the startup running.

It’s not all bad though. There are still ways to successfully promote your small business for free or next to nothing.

This article has come up with convenient ways to help your products reach the market.

What’s more, the ways stated here won’t put a dent in your pocket with the time and effort you spend the most necessary factor.

Start Blogging

Blogging is great. You get to produce content people will most likely come across. Also, many customers use the internet for a variety of things including locating local businesses.

So if you run a small business, this is a prime opportunity to take advantage of. However, you have to understand the basic principles that come with SEO.

With them, you get to have your business content ranked at the top of search results.

Statistics show that about 80% of local searches result in conversions.

This means they have the power to help you earn as long as you adopt a good SEO strategy.

You gain more traffic, increase followers, and generate more leads that ultimately translate to more profits for your business.

Think of it this way, you have a target market you want to reach with the content you create.

Keep Contents Rich and Fresh

With every new post you publish, your website will be constantly updated.

Churn out quality content regularly in your bid to not only rank higher but also to reach out to more potential customers.

The benefits are simply worth it. For example, your blog post can contain keywords related to the products or services you offer.

That means customers are easily directed to them when surfing the web.

Further, with research showing that ‘near me’ searches have increased by more than 500%, there’s no better target than your immediate community.

With more visits to your website, you gain more exposure and subsequent converting of audiences.

Use Google My Business

This is a tool that’s free to help you promote your business profile and website on Google Search and Google Maps.

With Google My Business account, it’s easier to see and connect with your customers as well as post updates to your Business Profile.

This is the first place to advertise your business for free.

What it offers is a reward for all the time you spend, the efforts you make, and the plans used to make your business more visible to potential customers.

Further, your small business will have the potential of being found since there are about 8 billion searches online every day.

Also, you can link your phone number, physical location, and more to smartphone app users.

As a result, they can navigate and find you. It also allows you to connect to other social media channels.

How to effectively run Google My Business

The first thing you have to do is register your business so that you can take advantage of Google’s top-ranked directory.

You’ll get exposed to free business advertising and more. These tips will help too:

• As with anything you market, ensure the information you provide is accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date.
• Ask for review and make the effort to respond to them.
• You’re on Google My Business so you should speak directly to customers through the platform’s message board.
• You can add posts to share and promote your business updates.

Launch a free GoFundMe

GoFundMe is crowdfunding at its best and is a practice that can be a viable funding option for small business owners.

Using GoFundMe, small businesses have been able to raise more money to help promote their businesses.

For example, during the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than $120 million was realized for campaigns related to COVID-19 relief.

Customers stuck at home did contribute to small businesses that had several challenges.

What you can do with a GoFundMe is have a specific purpose for your fundraising campaign.

With that, you gain more visibility for your business. Also, the GoFundMe platform is free.

The only catch is that you have to pay a certain fee per donation received and not to get started. That fee goes to the payment processor.

Tips to help you

• Use images that are clear and capture your business well. What you don’t want are blurry or low-quality images.
• A great fundraiser title is important. It should be descriptive, action-driven, and contain other necessary details that showcase and promote your small business.

Take Advantage of Local Listings and Review Sites

Taking a small business to great heights is a challenge no matter the market. Whether you run a restaurant, store, or sell some products, there are sites to help you grow.

These are reviews and listing sites that attract potential customers. There are good options for you too.

For example, for merchant cycles like hotels and travel businesses, TripAdvisor will suffice.

With it, users can see what you have to offer. Positive reviews will help you to gain traction and increase revenue.

Foursquare is another popular online directory customers can leave their thoughts on.

They get to state what their favorite businesses are as well as provide tips to other potential users.

More than 50% of reviewers have taken up some options based on the information they see on such sites.

Other free listing sites and pages that improve organic SEO include yellow pages sites like Yellowbook, Superpages Whitepages, and CitySearch.

Even if some of them have partnerships to use some tools, you won’t pay to get the results your business needs.

Join a Gift Card Campaign

This will help you gain a lot of support particularly if you operate within a local community.

Offering gift cards and listing your small business in directories will help customers find you.

Further, the gift cards can be redeemed on days you’re comfortable with.

Initiatives like Operation Main Street and Support Local are good examples seeing that you won’t pay a dime to be listed on either of them.

Answer Questions and Provide Solutions

When starting up your business, you probably had many questions about what to do and what not to do.

It’s the same thing with people who are stuck and looking for answers to burning questions.

As such, they take to forums and platforms on the Internet to get solutions. Some of them also make use of Google to find solutions.

For this reason, platforms like Quora, LinkedIn Groups, and Yahoo Answers were created.

These are sites that encourage users to post their questions. This is where you come in.

Set up accounts on these sites and start searching for products and services you offer.

For example, you can search for kiddies stuff to create awareness about the toys you sell.

With that, you get many questions related to your products.

People will want to know which brands offer the best, how durable they are, price-related questions, and where they can get the toys.

Also, you can draw comparisons with what you offer and your competition.

Pick on the Easy Stuff First

Start with easy questions. Chances are you know more about them and have just the perfect answers to offer.

You can then work your way up to more complex questions.

Remember, providing quality solutions mean you get to put your products and services out there.

Through sites like Yahoo Answers, you get to generate a good amount of conversion-leading traffic.

Advertise on Yelp for Free!

It’s tough trying to breakeven and it’s tougher without some finances. That is why platforms like Yelp were created to help you promote your business for free.

The fact is millions of consumers use this service every day to make purchase decisions.

For example, the Yelp Ads feature your business should consumers make searches for businesses like yours.

Targeted Local Advertising

Consumers who live nearby and want to get your products will often use this platform.

The stats show that 82% of Yelp users visit intending to buy a product or service. A further 89% of those who buy do so within a week too.

You can join the conversation with your customers and even respond to review.

Other things like photos and links to your business can be added.

Also, using the business analytics on Yelp Business Page. It will help you track visitor engagement and customer leads.

Attend Networking Events or Meetups

You don’t have to be always at your business location. There are tons of events and meetups you can catch up on.

They present great opportunities to expand your network in your bid to find more customers.

All you have to do is search for ‘business events in my (your) city. You’ll get several results from Google about the upcoming events.

Also, there are other websites to help you meet potential customers, consultants, and other professionals.

Not to mention you also get to learn from those you’re competing with.

Interactions

The fact is people go to these events to meet and interact with other people. Keep an open mind because you just might be discussing with a customer.

Startups love interactive sites like Meetup.com to help them learn about gatherings. As a small business owner, you’ll get a lot of value for free attending such meetings.

You might even strike up partnerships that lead to opportunities for growth.

Again, you get to stay updated with the latest industry and market trends.

Run contests

Want people excited about the prospect of your business? Promote it with contests.

Contests are a great way to get people to learn more about your business and gain some rewards.

Online platforms are the best places to help you run contests. With them, you can leverage your social media strategies.

Further, let your contests encourage user-generated content. Information, photos, videos, etc. can be used.

Contests will help you grow your social media following for free.

There’s enough for exposure when you post promotional content that leads to conversions.

Getting to Know your Base

User-Generated Content contests help you draw out the competitive nature of customers.

Also, the rewards don’t have to put a dent in your pocket. It could be a gift card or a voucher for a redeemable product.

The fact is most users will appreciate the fame they get after winning.

Contests are also a great source of data. Users are willing to share their information with you.

As such, it should be plain-sailing and fair without barriers.

Insert Calls To Action In Your Business’s Emails

Emails alone provide a great way to promote your business.

However, you have to spice things up, not just with a signature but with a clear call to action.

In many scenarios, potential customers have their attention grabbed by a CTA that stands out.

To that end, insert a button to serve as a marketing tool to introduce your business to potential customers.

What you want is to bank on the CTAs to offer the kind of lead magnet to your business.

Also, a freely available offer is a good step to get the interest of your target audience.

That will push them forward in your funnel

Free Landing Page With Mailchimp

Heard about Mailchimp? Many businesses have and use them to gain more customers.

Sure, it’s an email marketing strategy but it is also a great tool to promote your small business.

Some statistics point to figures showing that emails generate $38 for every $1 spent. That is a 3,800% ROI.

Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing tools for this.

It offers free standard services to nonprofits, local governments, schools, and healthcare providers for three months.

Further, small businesses like yours, get to have a free website builder for up to three months along with a free .com domain for up to five years.

Want to take advantage of these free offers?

You can set up a free e-store or landing page quickly to promote and advertise your business.

YouTube can Promote Your Business

Videos are a great way to differentiate your business and beat out the competition. YouTube is one such tool you can use.

It’s no longer perceived as just another entertainment site and has grown into an invaluable business resource.

All you need is time and creativity so your videos can open new opportunities for your small business.

According to some reports, more than 4 billion videos are played on this platform every single day.

Expect that figure to keep rising with many businesses recognizing its potency to increase visibility and generate conversions.

Advertise Free Content

YouTube is free to use unlike traditional methods of advertising like radio and TV ads.

What’s more, it’s a medium that can be leveraged so a small business has the same potential to go viral as its recognized competitors.

Videos and images on YouTube get the much-needed attention quicker than most.

Get Things Started

What you can do is decide what hat you want to create. However, your video should be short or standard and to the point.

Well, unless it’s something that needs a lot of time like explainer videos.

YouTube will also provide some basic tools to help you edit videos before uploading them. For example, you can add some narration, music, etc.

Just like written content, ensure you make use of your product names and related keywords in the title.

Further, having multiple videos on the platform means you get to create a channel showcasing all your product tutorials.

Quality videos will most likely see your content go viral which will only bode well for your small business.

Press Releases

Press releases are a great way to showcase your brand story and get it out online and to the press.

So each time your business does something newsworthy, don’t hesitate to shoot off a press release and have people go through them.

They’re usually open to the general public with a network for free distribution.

Also, there are tons of websites fit for such purposes including PRLog and 24/7 Press Release.

Press releases help you stay ahead of the competition. It’s also a powerful tool for small business owners who include them in their marketing strategy.

It creates a lot of brand and traffic awareness for free.

Conclusion

These are awesome ways to promote and advertise your business for free.

You should plan and figure out which is the most creative and works well for your business.

Also, some of the ways explained above will quickly yield results. Others might take a considerable amount of time to manifest.

Either way, they will help your small business grow without spending any money. That’s great if you have no budget to market your business with.