A good marketing strategy is fundamental for any company or business. It does not matter what you do, nor what is the size of your business. Good ideas help but they are not enough to succeed. You have to make them known. Here are 10 ways to get free publicity for your business.
It is not necessary to invest large amounts of money in advertising. The Internet is full of free resources to publicize your product or service. The only thing you need is to know them, a little time and, yes, be patient, since we may need time to start seeing the results. How to land free publicity for your business? The following tools will allow us to get free publicity to promote our business.
1. Your business needs a web page
To advertise your business on the Internet, you need to create a web page. You may have a physical and you want to direct your customers there. But your potential customers will want to see a sample of your products before going to your store and go shopping.
On the Internet you do not have the possibility to talk face to face with your clients, so you need a web page to do it for you. Trust is not gained by exposing the products or services you sell, but it is gained little by little through different actions that you can use on your website:
- Explain who you are and what the history of your business is.
- Use testimonials from your satisfied customers.
- Guarantees you offer and return policy.
- Demonstrations of your product or service.
- Photos of your company and workers.
- Contact page with a form, telephone and location.
2. Make sure you appear in the search engines
Now you have a web page, you have worked a lot to get it started but you still do not see results. It is normal. You must make it known, make sure it appears in the most important search engines: Google and Bing, fundamentally (Bing merged with Yahoo a few years ago, so everything you do in this search engine will also appear in Yahoo). We recommend that you start with Google, since it is the most used search engine in our country by far.
The two search engines have services where you can register the location of your business so that it appears in the search results. Logically, it is a free registration. But it is not instantaneous, since these companies will want to verify that your business is real and for this they will use different methods: telephone confirmation, sending a code by ordinary mail, etc.
Google : to appear in the results of Google as a local company you must sign up in Google My Business. It is a very simple procedure, you just have to follow the steps indicated by the system and wait for the confirmation code that will be sent to you by ordinary mail.
Bing : it's pretty similar. Access Bing Places and follow the steps.
3. Register in the most famous directories
A good idea to promote a business is to enroll in company directories. There are many of them, but we recommend that you do it only in those that have some recognition. The reference website is Yellow Pages.
4. Start writing a blog
A fundamental tool of your web page should be the blog. Remember that a web is more or less static, it does not change too much. But in a blog you can talk about what you want, you just have to relate it to your business, of course. Write interesting content for your clients with certain periodicity and spread it. You will increase confidence and more people will start to know you.
5. Use social networks
Social networks like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram will help you promote your company. Everyone is in social networks, you will only have to find out where your potential customers are. You can open profiles on as many social networks as you wish, just remember to update them regularly. Having a profile is useless, if we do not publish constantly.
- Facebook is generalist and the social network that has the most users is Spain. Sure you can find customers.
- Twitter is very good to investigate new consumer trends, interact with your customers and publicize your products or services.
- Google+ is essential to improve the positioning of our website. The more active you are in this social network, the more likely you are that Google will consider you important and show your website to more users.
- Pinterest is a social network especially dedicated to crafts, fashion and interior design.
- Instagram is a great showcase to promote your products and reach a broad audience.
6. Publish videos on YouTube
YouTube is another great social network dedicated to videos. If you have the option to create fun and useful videos for your audience, do not forget to open a channel on YouTube. But if you're not going to publish more or less regularly, you can use the Facebook videos tool.
7. Participate in forums
There are many forums, there are generalists, such as Yahoo Answers , and specialized. On these platforms the guest writes questions and other users can respond. You do not need to be an expert on the subject but it helps. In addition, the more you participate, the more authority you will have and your suggestions will be better accepted by the community. So you know, get in the forums and be part of them.
8. Exchange advertising
Partner with other companies that are not your competition. You can exchange advertising, write an article on your blog with links to your website and even announce some products or services together. To do this you must contact the administrator of the website and propose an exchange that may interest you.
9. Send press releases
The media is another of the tools we have to advertise our company. There are especially attractive times to send press releases. During the summer the flow of information is low and the media are eager to fill their pages, so take advantage of the situation.
Forget about that preconceived idea that the media only talks about big companies. It has long ceased to be true. If you have something really valuable to communicate such as an event that you have created, a successful contest or a sponsorship, write a press release to send to the newspapers. But do not send it to a generic email address. Work it. Call and ask for the editor who is responsible for the subject in question.
In addition, now there are many reference bloggers that can have even more impact than traditional media. Make a search of which are those related to your profession and contact them.
10. The power of word of mouth
Who better than a satisfied customer to advertise you? You only have to do your job and worry because all customers have a personalized treatment and attention. Now there are multiple websites where people, as consumers, can give our opinion about company, products or services. So make sure you have an open profile on the most important ones like TripAdvisor.
So far the 10 best ways to get free advertising for your company. If you liked this article, share it with your entrepreneur friends 🙂You can also subscribe to our newsletter so you do not miss anything.
