Oh, the ever popular “free” business concept. No matter what way you look at it, nothing is ever entirely “free”. You are going to have to give up either cash or time. But if you are cash strapped (or don’t like spending a lot of money) you do some creative marketing that will require little to no money as long as you are up for spending some time, energy and creative effort.
Of course there are a lot more free or inexpensive ways to advertise other than the list I’m going to give you if you do a little research, but here are some that will get you started!
1) Email Marketing
Creating a solid email database may take time, energy and money but once you have your list, it’s relatively inexpensive to drive business from them using email marketing. Create a compelling offer in every email signature you use (try testing different offers to see which one out performs).
Make sure your emails aren’t just a giant sales pitch. Each email sent should be short, conversational, one to one and offer something of value. Long overblown emails get deleted and don’t get you a sale. So remember to keep it to the point.
2) Business Cards
With the cost of business cards these days, its practically free. I use a company called www.ePrintFast.com for my business cards and post cards and they are very inexpensive to get done.
Here is a tip… Don’t just be like everyone else with their cards that showcase your name, photo and website. Use your business cards to educate or promote a special offer. Get creative with your cards and get them into people’s hands. I have heard a ton of people ask “What makes a good business card?” My reply is always “One that you give out!”
3) Reciprocal Links
If you have a solid group of preferred businesses you work with, (if you haven’t already) ask to link back to each other’s websites. The more traffic you can send to each other the more effective it will be. Make sure the sites you are linking to and are linking to you are appropriate websites. Sure, you may get a lot of traffic from a website, but if it’s the wrong type of traffic, or inappropriate for your business, it’s not going to help much.
4) Blogs
Another great way to advertise yourself and your business is through a blog. (Kinda like this one…) If you have great content and have a lot of information you would like to share, then do it in a blog. Not only will it help you get organic traffic, it will also set you up to become the “expert” in your industry. You can create a blog for no cost and have it up and running within minutes.
A few tips you may want to consider:
– Have guest bloggers help create content (It makes it more dynamic and worth sharing)
– Blog consistently (you will lose traffic and momentum if you just haphazardly blog whenever you “feel like it”)
– It’s better to blog less often and provide your readers with great content than blog more often and pump out crap. (No one wants to read crap!)
– If you aren’t ready to commit to your own full time blog, try being a guest blogger for someone else’s blog in a complimentary industry.
5) Facebook Groups/Pages
There are literally millions of facebook pages and groups created in almost every niche imaginable. Some people have realized the value in being part of these groups/pages.
One thing to note, if you plan on just going into these groups and pages and are just there to promote yourself or your business, you won’t be there long, or won’t be liked for very long.
Join in on discussions. Answer questions. Provide feedback. EDUCATE the consumers but don’t try and sell. Once you get a reputation that you are helpful and know your industry, people will seek you out and you won’t need to “sell” anything.
Conclusion
Getting visitors to your site is only half the battle. You can create great content to get them there, but you still have to have great content once they get there. You need to keep your customers on your site, engaged and ready to take the next step. I don’t care what your site is about, your site needs to have great articles or useful information that is up-to-date and relevant to your consumers. Content will be what makes or breaks your site. (Not just how pretty it is!)
So now you are ready to start marketing yourself and your business for little to no money. Focus on a few strategies at a time and master them. Don’t become a jack of all trades when it comes to your marketing. (Paid or not!)
To you and your success,
Ryan Smith – Chief Content Creator