In this era, pretty much every person wants to run his or her own business. But the problem with that is there is too much competition in the market and every day people come with new techniques to market their business. Some work out, some don’t.
Either way, it is becoming increasingly important to be clever about the way you market your business. However, it can become really overwhelming at times especially if you have a limited amount to spend. So if your budget is tighter than the crack James Franco fell in the movie 127 hours, then here are some tips on how you can market your business without having to spend too much money.
Post amazing content on your blog
The value you provide your potential customers determines how many leads you get. So working on your site’s blog is always a great place to start because then your potential customers will start seeing you as someone credible and worthy of their time. Your blog can be termed as the foundation of all of your marketing efforts. This is how visitors are directed to rest of the areas on your site.
Create a Google My Business account
By creating a Google My Business account, you will ensure that your business shows up on Google maps and on Google+, which makes it way easier for your potential customers to reach out to you. The likelihood of getting customers at your doorstep increases significantly when you have your business on Google Maps.
Get free publicity with HARO
By signing up for HARO you can respond to media queries related to your business and get free publicity. This may sound like a lot of work but this is perhaps the easiest way of getting free publicity.
Get an email list
Email lists although usually come for a price, there are free ones you can get as well. Usually, the free ones are not as big as the paid ones but if you do have to go for the paid ones then there are cheap options available as well to get you started. Email lists are proactive and they allow you to get in touch with prospective customers which are willing to listen to you.
Contribute articles to industry magazines
Contributing articles is a great way to get the right exposure. While advertising in magazines may cost you a lot of money, contributing an article is absolutely free, which makes it even more important for you to consider contributing an article to an industry magazine.
Go to networking events
Networking events are a great way to make connections. You are there to market your business yourself which is a huge plus because it is all dependent upon you how you talk about your business which reflects upon your business. So search on different websites which have a list of relevant events and add them to your calendar because they will do your business a huge favor.
Host a contest
Hosting contests is a great way to reach out to your target market because when a prize is involved, people take way more interest in an event. So if you do it then there is a high chance that you will get a lot of people to participate. If you can’t afford to hold a contest alone then you can reach out to a relevant business and co-host a contest which would give you a really great networking opportunity as well.
For digital products set an affiliate program
Affiliate programs are great ways to ensure that your digital products get sold. Once you successfully sell a product you just have to give a percentage of the total amount to the person through which you get the buyer. The amount is usually not that high so you can’t go wrong with this.
Guest post on high ranking sites
Guest posting is a great way to optimize your site for search engines as well as market your business. You can provide valuable articles for sites and at the end, you can mention a little bit about your firm. But make sure to not make the whole article about yourself as such posts neither get accepted nor get read. So create high-quality articles and contact high authority sites to publish your content.
Comment on other articles
A thoughtful yet effective way of marketing your own business is through leaving comments on other people’s blogs. Not only will you get noticed but you will also be able to make connections and expand your network.
Conduct webinars on your site
While webinars can be expensive, for starters you can host your webinar on Google Hangouts which is free. Once you get a hang of it and many people start attending your webinars, you can move to the other better options.
Create a Facebook group
Unlike Facebook pages in the past, the trends have shifted towards Facebook groups these days. The benefits of Facebook groups are enormous, from notifying the members whenever someone posts something to creating a community. Therefore you should consider harnessing the power of Facebook groups for your business.
Create infographics
Infographics are cheap to create but fun to read so it’s a win-win for you and your prospective customers. To create an infographic, you can use a variety of tools which are available online. Creating an infographic is not difficult anymore.
Host a local class or lesson
A great way to attract locals is to host a class or a lesson. You can easily get people to sign up for it and then just select a venue to conduct it. You can also conduct it on the internet if it would be hard for you to do it at a specific location.
Author Bio: This post was written by Rida Maqbool. She is an avid writer and she curates content at IntCore.com.
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