How To Get Free Advertising For Your Business

When you work for a small business with a limited budget, we know that it’s not really possible to start shelling out thousands of pounds for a 30-second television commercial or an email marketing campaign.

It can become very frustrating when your budget starts to dictate just how many people your business can reach.

Surprisingly, there are a lot of different ways to supplement your paid efforts in advertising and by incorporating free advertising tactics into your strategy, you can start removing the non-essential costs and be able to dedicate your budget too much deeper, more longterm plays.

Here is a list of methods for advertising which you can start thinking about implementing regardless of your budget.

1. Use Google My Business to Optimise For Local Search
2. Check Out Text
3. Start Writing Guest Posts For Other Blogs
4. Answer Quora Questions
5. Publish Content on LinkedIn
6. Offering To Do Interviews With Other Businesses Podcasts
7. Promote Your Website On Your Email Signatures
8. Sending Email Newsletters
9. Network at In-Person Events
10. Be a Speaker at an Event
11. Do a Free Product Giveaway or Contest
12. Create Online Video Content e.g YouTube
13. Take Advantage Of Your Partnerships

Now we know what the methods are, we can now look into more depth at each of these and discuss just how you can achieve the most out of each technique.

1. Use Google My Business to Optimize for Local Search

One of the most powerful free ways to advertise your business is through Google My Business, which enables companies to manage their presence on Google Search and Google Maps. The tool can boost your rankings in local search results. Ranking high in local search shows you a legitimate and relevant company: you wouldn’t rank number 1 in Google for “best pizza places near me” if you had been closed down for 6 months. Plus, if you rank high in local search, more consumers will choose your business over a competitor’s. In today’s very fast-paced world, convenience is pretty much key here.

2. Check Out Yext

Now, the more places that your business is listed online, the better your chances are of actually showing up in search results, and in return the easier it is for potential customers to find you. To ensure great local SEO, the details of your listings on every website and online directory need to match up. For instance, if your site lists your company’s new number, but Yelp is currently listing your old one, it could do some major damage to your SEO. Yext scans the web to find every place your business is listed, so you are able to start tweaking your listings to guarantee accuracy.

3. Writing Guest Posts for Other Blogs

There are a few major advantages to guest posting for a well-established blog. You can benefit from connecting to that blog’s audience, and you can also start establishing yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Since guest posting on a popular blog allows you access to an established audience and also high domain authority, this practice can sometimes be more beneficial than actually posting on your own blog. Plus, you can link back to your own site from the article, giving you an inbound link that boosts your domain authority and can increase your own websites ranking in search engines.

4. Answer Quora Questions

Writing content for Quora can expose your business to a large audience: TechCrunch reported that some of Quora’s active contributors receive more than 30,000 monthly views. Besides the very large built-in audience, your business can answer direct questions from prospective customers. Doing this will let you interact with high-quality potential leads and establish yourself as an expert on the subject that matters the most to your industry.

5. Publish Content on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is basically a platform to connect with other professionals, which is why it’s also a great place to share business-related content. LinkedIn blogging platform allows you to demonstrate your expertise within your industry. Your connections and other LinkedIn members will more than likely engage with your posts and share them, doing the free promotion for you. With almost half of all social media traffic coming to B2B company sites from LinkedIn, it’s a missed opportunity if you don’t publish and promote content on the platform.

6. Offering To Do Interviews With Other Businesses Podcasts

To figure out which platforms your team should ideally prioritize, it’s important to diversify your promotion platforms to discover where your audience is already consuming content. Some of your audience may even prefer listening to a podcast over reading articles. In order to reach these kinds of people, it’s a good idea to get in contact with a few businesses who already releasing podcasts and to pitch any interview ideas you may have with to them.

7. Promote Your Website in Your Email Signature

Think about how many emails you send every day. This is why it’s a great idea to start taking advantage of the promotional potential of your email signatures. Your email signature can also be unexpected property to promote a sale, contest, event, or even a new blog post. Add a link to your business’ website on all your social platforms as well to increase maximum exposure.

8. Send Email Newsletters

Emailing a newsletter can be a very useful vehicle in order to promote content, share business-related news, and to build deeper and more meaningful relationships with both potential and already existing customers. There are plenty of free tools already out there that can assist you in designing, sending and optimising your newsletter. With the right investment, an email newsletter can really be the perfect place to share quality content that will hopefully lead to potential customers, establishing your brand as helpful and informative.

9. Networking In-Person

Connecting with fellow professionals at industry networking events is the best opportunity to meet any potential consumers in one place, especially at a networking event where they will be keen to talk all things business. The niche topics of networking events pretty much ensure you’re meeting leads who are already highly qualified. For example, an event such as “Best Technology Startups of 2018” event will primarily be filled with participants who are interested mainly in technology startups. These types of events are particularly good for smaller businesses who are looking to start making connections. Networking is a chance to get your name out there, meet potential partners, and find opportunities for growth. Plus, it’ll keep you up to date on trends in your industry.

10. Speaking at an Event

On a similar level to networking, speaking at an event about a topic related to your industry is another great way to exhibit your expertise and knowledge. Giving a thought-provoking and powerful speech will draw attention to you and, by association, also your business, which will increase brand awareness and prove to people that your business is actually qualified to tackle consumer’s challenges. To start, try and brainstorm different topics and also volunteer at various upcoming networking events and trade association conventions.

11. Do a Free Product Giveaway or Contest

A product giveaway is a super easy way to incentivize new viewers to check out and subscribe to your social media channels or website. Handing out inexpensive branded products is a great way to spread your brand’s name. Word of mouth is very much alive and just a little bit of swag can go a long way.

12. Creating Youtube Videos

Youtube has more than over a billion users, which accounts for pretty much a third of everyone online. In addition to this, in a recent study, it shows that 59% of executives ( the decision makers ) go to videos before written content. Creating engaging and informative YouTube videos is one of the most efficient ways to sell your brand. If done right, your YouTube videos will entertain viewers enough to then seek out your site.

13. Take Advantage of Partnerships

Partnerships are an opportunity to offer supplementary services that you may no provide. A good example of this, a web design company and a copywriting agency may choose to partner together, if so when a client requires written content for their web pages, the web design company will be able to offer a copywriting service from their partnerships. This will increase consumer satisfaction, and it also provides exceptional advertising opportunities. When your partner’s consumers need your services, your partner will then point them in your direction.