Many people dream about starting their own small business, believing that it would completely alter their lives. However, few of them realize that the sense of control over what you do is closely intertwined with responsibility. Namely, you are responsible for everything, including things that have little in common with the exciting idea that made you start a business in the first place. Promotion can become an especially heavy load, as home businesses usually operate on a very tight budget, and traditional methods are completely out of their reach. Fortunately, these days you have at your disposal plenty of strategies that you can carry out at a low price or for free – and in this article we will cover some of them.
1. Create a Google My Business account
Local search has been gaining more and more importance over the last few years: Google pays more attention to it and does its best to show local results for relevant businesses before the general ones. Make use of it: create a Google My Business account and provide all the necessary information. This way you will show up not just in Google, but on Google Maps as well.
2. Guest posting
The idea is simple: you find a high-authority blog covering topics relevant for your potential customers and offer its owner to publish your article. If you manage to find a blog whose audience overlaps with your target demographics, if you successfully pitch your post idea, if you can write a blog post that impresses the webmaster and if it gains enough traction you can hope for some hefty influx of traffic to your website. That’s a lot of ifs, you may think, right? Well, yes, guest posting is a demanding strategy that takes some getting used to. Although you can find some guides on how to do it right (like this one on pitching your blog post by guest posting service Luckyposting), it will still take quite a bit of your time. Alternatively, you can delegate it to professionals – specialized agencies already have established networks of partner blogs, which allows them to start posting without a prolonged preparatory phase.
3. Share valuable information on social media
For most people, social media is a pleasant way to spend time. For you, it should become a promotion tool. Create an account for your business and use it to share information that is actually useful for your target audience – not just announcements about what your company does, but relevant info that is valuable for everyone interested in your industry. Make your account (as well as your blog and any other channels you use) a trustworthy source of news, tips and general info for those who can potentially buy from you, and they will not only come back but also recommend you to their friends.
4. Use HARO
HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is a resource helping journalists find trustworthy sources on virtually any topic. You can turn it to your advantage – create an account (it is free) and respond to media queries to which you can contribute valuable information. They will mention you as a source of information, giving you free PR.
5. Create a useful digital product
Think about a topic that your target audience is likely to be interested in (but that does not directly promote your own product, as it annoys people). Do some research and create a useful digital product dedicated to it (an e-book, an instructional video or anything else that strikes your fancy). Then look for ways to leverage it: for example, you can offer this product to all the subscribers of your mailing list.
6. Ask customers to review your business
When dealing with a business for the first time, people usually want to be sure they are not throwing their money away. Give them this assuredness by showing testimonials and reviews by previous customers. To motivate them to write them, follow up every purchase with a thank you note and ask them to review your business online (along with a link to a place where they can do it).
With enough ingenuity and readiness to apply yourself, you do not need enormous marketing budgets or a big team to successfully promote a business – in fact, your approach is only limited to your own imagination!
