10 best ways to promote your business at any budget
If you're a small business owner, you're no doubt looking for ways to grow your business. And if you want to grow your business, one of the best things you can do is market yourself.
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As an entrepreneur, it's important to remember that marketing isn't just about spending money. There are plenty of low-cost or even free options out there for promoting your business—so long as you know where to look!
1. Recruit customers to create reviews on Yelp
Yelp is a great way to get reviews, but sometimes you won’t be able to attract them on your own. The easiest way to get a review on Yelp is by offering an incentive for customers to do so. For example, if someone buys something from you and leaves a review within 48 hours of the purchase, give them 10% off their next purchase or something like that. You can also encourage employees and family members to leave reviews as well (after all they have first-hand experience with your business).
2. Optimize your website for local search
You’ve probably heard the term “local SEO,” which refers to optimizing your website for local search. While it might not seem like a huge deal at first glance, local SEO can be extremely beneficial for your business—in fact, according to Moz (a top search engine optimization company), a single page on Google Maps listing can boost conversion rates by up to 80 percent!
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO involves optimizing one's website or blog for online searches related to specific geographic locations (e.g., “carpet cleaning service near me”). By creating content about topics relevant to these searches, businesses are able to attract more people who are already looking for their products or services.
Creating a Google My Business page is the most popular way to attract customers. This allows you to create an image-rich profile that will appear in search results for your business, along with a link back to your website. By adding descriptive text and uploading photos of your products or services, you can make sure that potential clients know exactly what they're getting into before reaching out.
3. Optimize your Google Business page
This is the easiest way to get more customers, and it's free. A Google Business page will let you add information about your business and its location, photos, videos, and customer reviews. When people search for your type of business in Google (or click on one of the local pack results), they'll see that information first.
It's also easy to set up—just go to https://business.google.com/. You don't need any fancy analytics software or an IT department to get started!
4. Use social media to promote your business
Social media is a free way to connect with your customers and promote your brand.
- Offer a discount on social media. If you know that most of your customers are on Facebook, offer a discount if they like the page or follow you on Twitter. Make sure that it's obvious where the promo code can be found to get the discount, whether in an image or displayed at checkout.
- Share content relevant to your business. If you're running a restaurant, share photos of mouthwatering meals, fun pictures from inside the restaurant, or behind-the-scenes videos like how food is prepared or what goes into each dish (and don't forget about desserts!). If you're selling clothing online, show off how those outfits look when worn by real people rather than models alone in front of a camera—nothing sells better than seeing something as it would appear on yourself! Don't just post pictures either--try adding some text descriptions along with them so people know exactly what they're getting themselves into before making any purchases; otherwise, there may turn out to be no sale made (or worse yet: bad reviews).
- Use social media as a customer service tool: Do not hesitate to ask questions via Facebook/Twitter/etc., but don't expect immediate responses during peak hours which could lead to frustrated sentiments towards them being left behind only seconds later due
5. Write a blog
This is a no-brainer. Blogging is one of the most effective ways to promote your business, and it's also free. The only cost is your time, which you can invest in writing engaging blog posts that are relevant to your industry or niche.
It's important to create content that is authentic and engaging. Don't just rehash old ideas; instead, try offering new information with some type of "takeaway" for readers at the end of each post. We recommend using keywords related to your business in order to attract more search engine traffic (SEO). And remember: If you're going to link back on social media or elsewhere online, make sure it's from an original source—no reposting other people's stuff!
Post regularly so that people know when they should come back and check out something new from you!
6. Turn your blog into an e-book or guide
One of the best ways to turn content you've already written into a product is by creating an e-book.
E-books are easy to share, easy to read on mobile devices, and they're not limited by page count. You can sell your e-book on your site or through Amazon's Kindle store (with their Kindle Direct Publishing platform).
The most basic way of creating an e-book is simply writing out all the information you want in one document and then uploading it as a PDF file. You can also use tools like Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Word that allow for more customization with templates and layouts if you want something nicer looking than just plain text.
7. Create video tutorials
Video tutorials are a great way to share information with your audience. A video tutorial can be used to share any information, from how to do something, how to fix something that’s broken, or even just a simple recipe for dinner.
Videos are also easy to create and can be shared on social media. You don’t have to have fancy equipment either—a smartphone will work just fine! This is another reason why so many people love YouTube videos: they can watch them anywhere at any time without having any special equipment or software installed on their computer.
Video tutorials offer businesses several advantages over traditional written content:
- They are easier than writing an article because you don’t need as much research beforehand; all you need is an idea and some basic knowledge about the topic at hand (which could come from previous articles).
- It doesn’t take long before viewers feel comfortable with watching videos instead of reading text because there isn't much effort involved compared with reading long paragraphs which may require scrolling down multiple times per page (especially if it's not formatted properly).
8. Host webinars or events in your community
Hosting webinars and events in your local community is another great way to connect with your audience. You can host them online or in person at your office or a venue. They're also generally free if you are using an existing platform like Zoom or Google Hangouts.
9. Create e-books, guides, and videos to share with prospects and clients
You don't need a big budget to promote your business; you can use e-books, guides, and videos to share information with prospects or clients. E-books, guides, and videos are easy to share because they can be shared via email, social media, or downloaded directly from your website. They're also easy for people to consume because they take less time than reading an article or blog post.
E-books, guides, and videos are great tools for educating customers about what you do as an entrepreneur so that they feel confident in hiring you once they've decided that it's the right fit for them. These types of content pieces also allow you to collect leads (and even money) while educating people at the same time! Plus if someone shares their experience with others who might be interested in what you have offered then all those new leads will come directly back into the marketing funnel through word-of-mouth referrals which means more sales = more profit!
10. Host webinars or events in your community
Hosting events is a great way to get your name out there, but it can be expensive. If you’re going to host an event, make sure you research the costs and benefits before committing. You might also want to consider hiring a marketing agency to help with your event planning so that you don’t have to worry about all of the minutiae while still getting all of the benefits of holding an event. Events like webinars are great because they encourage interaction between attendees and speakers as well as between attendees themselves—which can lead to more opportunities for collaboration and referrals down the road.
Small businesses have more marketing options than ever before, but it's important to choose ones that make sense for you, not just those that sound trendy or exciting.
As a small business, you have more marketing options than ever before. That might seem like a good thing, but it can also be overwhelming. It's important to choose the right methods for your business so that they make sense for your target market and your budget.
If you're wondering how to get started with marketing, here are some things to keep in mind:
- Think about what makes sense for your product or service—and then narrow it down from there by asking some key questions: What do people want? What do people need? How will my product or service solve their problems? Is there an existing audience who will be interested in this? Who is already buying something similar?
- Look at what competitors are doing and consider whether those strategies would work well with your company’s goals and resources. If not, figure out where they've fallen short—and fix those mistakes!
- Ask yourself if there's any way of measuring success (or failure) before going ahead with any particular campaign idea — otherwise it'll be hard to tell if anything worked at all!
Conclusion
We hope this list has given you some ideas for how to promote your business. The important thing is that you take action and test out a few different options so that you can find what works best for your company and budget. It may seem overwhelming at first, but don't worry—we've all been there!