Our gift to you is 12 free ways to promote your small business in 2021!
Digital marketing is on the brink of a major shift. Can you feel it? Marketing strategies are moving back to where they should have been all along: building relationships with clients, reliable relationships and customer service, 100% client satisfaction, and a wonderful customer experience.
One of the hardest facts for small business owners to remember when promoting their businesses is that, business isn’t about YOU. In actuality, your small business is about solving a problem for YOUR CLIENTS. The sooner you realize that, the sooner your business will succeed.
Without further adieu here are our 12 free ways to promote your small business:
- Create and VERIFY your Google Business Page. The whole point of your Google Business Page is to show up higher in search rankings, show up in Maps when people add in the magic words “near me” to the end of their search string, and to optimize your chances of being seen. If your page isn’t verified, you can kiss your chances goodbye.
- Write a new blog post at least one time a month. his sort of goes without saying. Blog posts help you connect w/ your audience while helping build your website’s SEO. Win-win.
- Create, optimize, and maintain online directories. Google, Yelp, Facebook, Angi, Glassdoor, Foursquare, Thumbtack, White & Yellow Pages, Bing, etc. are all fair game. Although some of these places are dead, old, and outdated the big dogs and thousands of other sites still pull the data so it’s good to have your info there when the spiders do their crawling.
- Build relationships and trust with all of your customers and clients. Then collect as many online reviews as you can. Make sure to monitor reviews and respond to any negativity in a proper and professional way.
- Become comfortable on multiple social platforms. Use Facebook to instant message w/ clients, try out some giveaways on TikTok, post tutorials on YouTube, and take flashy product pics for IG. Eventually, you can hire out the position to someone else!
- Go LIVE! On Facebook or IG. Offer coupons, discount codes, or host giveaways during the events or sales.
- Build a loyal customer base through online communities and forums. Reddit, Small Business Bonfire, Startup Nation, and Slack are all great places to start. You can also join Facebook groups with other small business owners within the same niche.
- Collaborate w/ social media influencers. Social media influencers are influencers for a reason. Some are just starting out and are happy to be paid with the product or through affiliate links. Work your magic and hone in on those accounts.
- Email marketing campaigns. Your email lists are your best clients and the best people to reach out to. There are several online marketing sites that offer free email services.
- Aim to get the attention of the local press. Just like you build relationships w/ customers, build relationships with local newspapers and magazines in the hopes of getting featured one day; making sure to send out press releases w/ any new product launches, etc.
- Network like there’s no tomorrow. Network any chance you get. Attend any free networking event, happy hour, drop-in, social function, party, lunch, or Zoom meeting you can. Word of mouth is the best advertising you can ever get.
- Build partnerships w/ local brands. Try to find a product partnership or offering w/ an established local brand in the same niche. It will open up the doors to their clientele.