For small and medium business owners, who can’t compete against their bigger competitors when it comes to advertising budget, there are other ways to advertise their products without spending a dime and still emerge victorious in their respective market competition. When we don’t have enough cash in the bank or in our pocket to spend in the promotion of our products, we should use this asset that we always have since we were born – our precious time.
Time is gold. That is why we should use and invest it on our business. We have to spend time for learning and discovering how we can succeed and accomplish our business and marketing goals even if we only have limited bucks.
Be resourceful. Here are 48 ways to advertise your business for free online and offline.
Blogging
1. Set up a blog for your business using free online blogging software, like WordPress.com, Blogger.com, TypePad.com or Tumblr.
2. Update your blog regularly by publishing interesting and useful blog posts that are related to your business or to your audience.
3. Comment on other related blogs to connect with other bloggers and also promote your own blog.
4. Answer comments and queries on your blog.
5. Learn SEO (search engine optimization) and rank your business blog pages on search engines, like Google, Yahoo and Bing.
6. Write guest post for blogs that are relevant to your business.
7. Place an email subscription widget on your blog to invite your readers to subscribe to your blog’s updates and newsletter.
8. Submit your blog listing to various blog directories.
9. Submit your blog’s RSS feed to various RSS directories.
10. Bookmark your blogs posts on Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon and other social bookmarking sites.
Social media
11. Create a Facebook business page and share updates about your business.
12. Share your Facebook page updates in your personal profile/timeline so that they can be shared to your personal friends. Make sure to share only what you believe will catch their interest.
13. Indicate on your Facebook personal profile/timeline’s about page that you work at your business.
14. Join Facebook groups that are related to your business. Promote your business on the group in conformity to the group’s rules and policies.
15. Create a Twitter profile for your business and tweet updates about your brand and products.
16. Create a Google+ business page and share your business updates.
17. Create a LinkedIn profile for your business and share your company news and updates.
18. Claim your business listing on Google Places.
19. Claim your business venue on Foursquare.
20. Create Squidoo lens for your business.
21. Post content related to your business at Hubpages.
Document sharing
22. Create an account and share useful presentation at Slideshare.net. Give a credit to your company.
23. Create accounts and upload useful PDF documents at Scribd and Docstoc. Give a credit link to your company.
Image sharing
24. Create a Pinterest account for your business and pin images of your products and other business deals.
25. Create accounts on Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa and Instagr.am and publish images about your business, brand and products.
26. Create an interesting photo that will become viral. Put a credit to your brand.
Video Sharing
27. Create a Youtube Channel for your business and publish videos about your products.
28. Create profiles on other video sharing sites, like MetaCafe, Vimeo and DailyMotion.
29. Create a viral video and upload it on the video sites above, including Facebook.
Other Internet marketing techniques
30. Join online forums where potential customers are gathering. Put your business phrase or link on your forum signature. Help people on the online community.
31. Put your business, brand and blog link on your email signature.
32. Post a free ad on Craiglist and other free classified sites on the Internet.
33. Create your personal profile at About.me and include your business in your profile information.
34. Submit your business listing to various free business directories online.
35. Write a useful eBook that targets readers who are potential customers. Give credit to your company or business.
Offline marketing
36. Tell your friends and relatives about your business.
37. Ask your friends to tell their friends about your business.
38. Ask your employees to advertise your business to their friends and relatives. Learn how to make your employees love you.
39. Ask your suppliers to make referrals to you. Create good and lasting relationship with your suppliers.
40. Ask your loyal customers to advertise your business to their friends and relatives.
41. Gather positive testimonials from clients.
42. Nominate your blog or business for an award.
43. Submit proposals or accept invitations for speakership. Put your business or brand on your slide show presentations and other training materials.
44. Write columns for magazines and newspaper.
45. Accept interview invitations on radio stations and TV channels.
46. Join contests and have some fun.
47. Attend free events that are related to your business or profession. Make friends and exchange business cards.
48. Create a quality product that advertises itself.
The list above can be done without spending money, but only with your precious time and attention. However, if we have some money to invest, we can also mix it up with some wise spending to optimize our business. For example, instead of creating a free blog, we can opt to invest on a self-hosted website or blog using WordPress for an affordable cost, which actually have a favorable return of investment. Remember that small businesses should not just rely on free business promotion. Check out our previous post on how to make your small business look big.
There are still other free ways to advertise your business that are not included in the list above. Thus, we need to continue exploring the world to discover new business and marketing opportunities. So don’t stop learning and be a better business person, marketer, and entrepreneur, especially in this times where information can already be accessed in one click anytime and anywhere.
Victorino Q. Abrugar is a marketing strategist and business consultant from Tacloban City, Philippines. Vic has been in the online marketing industry for more than 7 years, practicing problogging, web development, content marketing, SEO, social media marketing, and consulting.
Lots of great ideas. Thanks for sharing on Bizsugar.com
Your welcome and thank your for visiting our blog. 🙂
Hi Victorino,
Nice article!!! I look forward to reading more from you. I would like to add another site I came across biznessquest.com. You can get free advertising with them by posting your company profile and articles.
It will no longer be hard to market your brand or yourself because of the world wide web. But of course, offline marketing will always be as effective as it is. Great post Mr. Victorino =)
Wow! a great site with good tips. And I would have to 110% agree with your tip no. 3 above. It is my pleasure to search and make things alive through blog commenting. It is just one of my ways to spread value to others. Keep up bro!
Learned a lot about advertising for this article, thanks for sharing!
Great ideas! I work for Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in Phoenix, AZ USA. I’m wondering how to let the musicians in that part of the world know about us. We’ve had students from many countries attend our school, but with the amount of good musicians over there, we should have more students coming to our guitar-making school from the Philippines.