Getting your businesses’ name and what it does out there is obviously essential for making any money. People need to be aware of your existence before they can come and spend their money on your services. The thing is advertising can be very expensive. Even in smallish magazines and decent bit of space can take up a lot of the budget of a small business. Luckily there are a few ways to market yourself for free to start bringing customers in.
Social Media
This should, admittedly, be a pretty obvious one to most. If you haven’t set up any social accounts for your business, you should get on it straight away. People look for these to contact you. Everyone knows that sending a letter or email can take an age for a response, whereas there is more urgency in social media. If people are interested in your company they will follow you, but it will act as a bookmark. They might not want to buy straight away, but they’re filing you away for future reference. It is then up to you to post useful and interesting updates (don’t spam or you’ll lose followers) to keep them reminded that you exist. You can also use it to announce new offers or competitions to help up your sales. You don’t need to join every social site, but do some research and figure out which ones are best for your business.
Web Design
Creating an effective online presence begins with a well-designed website, and fortunately, there are ways to enhance your site without breaking the bank. A user-friendly interface, intuitive navigation, and visually appealing layout can significantly impact your visitors’ experience. Optimize your website for search engines by incorporating relevant keywords into your content and meta tags. Additionally, consider the power of a well-crafted exit-intent pop-up to capture the attention of potential customers before they leave your site. To delve deeper into this strategy, check out this opencart article and similar resources about well-crafted exit-intent pop-ups. It provides valuable insights into leveraging this tool effectively, helping you engage your audience and drive conversions without draining your marketing budget. Remember, a thoughtfully designed website is a powerful tool that can contribute to your business’s success, even when marketing on a budget.
Guest Posting
Getting to your target market can sometimes be difficult. Advertising can often be a bit of spraying and hoping it gets to the right people. One way of ensuring you’re talking to the people you want is to get involved in guest blogging. This essentially means finding blogs linked to your business and offering to write for them. Plenty of blogs openly ask for submissions so don’t feel like you’re bugging them. If they accept you can proffer some excellent knowledge and you’ll get a little bio at the bottom with a link to your website. Be sure to only submit original and genuinely useful posts as you’ll need to stand out above all the other people using the same tactic.
Search Engine Optimisation
Depending on the time or interest you have, this can either be incredibly in-depth or just some simple tinkering of your website. In this post, we’ll just talk about the basics. Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is essentially the method used to ensure your website comes as high up in Google as possible for certain search terms. For example, if you’re an online accountant, and if you have a WordPress website, you’ll want your site to come top on Google when “online accountant” is searched. To do this, you can either seek the help of WordPress SEO service providers like Victorious, who can unlock the true potential of your website with data-driven SEO strategies, or you can learn how to go about it on your own.
If you prefer the latter option, then there are a couple of things you need to do. First of all, work out what your top 5 search terms. Once you have them make sure they’re on every page of your site, but written down in a natural way. Also make sure your site’s title also includes your top keyword. On top of that, keep a blog updated. By doing this you are telling Google your site is active and therefore more worthy of being further up in the search rankings.
Joshua Danton Boyd is a copywriter based in Brighton and a regular contributor to Freelance Advisor who offer everything from free invoice templates to tax advice.