7 Free Advertising Ideas To Help Promote Your Small Business

Struggling to find ways to advertise your business for free? Here are 13 free advertising ideas to help you promote your small business!

Companies will spend almost $200 billion on advertising this year.

That’s an enormous amount of money!

Clearly, advertising plays a major role in business success. If it didn’t, then there’s no way companies would spend such vast amounts of cash.

What happens if your small business can’t afford to advertise with the big boys in the industry?

Is advertising (and the potential financial reward on offer) suddenly off-limits?

Not at all! Indeed, sometimes the best things in life cost nothing at all. As it happens, there is a multitude of free advertising opportunities out there. Interested in learning more?

Keep reading to discover 7 of the best ways to advertise your small business for free.

1. Get a Google My Business Profile

Google is the king of search engines.

Every man and his dog uses it every day to solve their problems.

Having a presence on it is an important boon for business! Nicely, you can do this in about 5 minutes by setting yourself up a Google My Business profile.

Input your details and you’re good to go. However, you will need to verify your business address first. With that done though, and a few good reviews in the bag, your business stands to gain easy attention online.

And it doesn’t cost a dime.

2. Get Active on Online Forums

There are all sorts of opportunities to grow your business online.

Community forums and Q&A sites present an easy way to become better known.

Free websites like Reddit and Quora provide a space to ask questions, find answers, and discuss all manner of topics. People from all over the world come together to help each other out.

Try interacting in these forums. Providing useful answers to people’s problems, in areas that relate to your business. Build up a presence and reputation. Over time, you’ll have a following that can lead to more business.

Indeed, you can often link directly to your website too.

This sends traffic and leads your way.

3. Start a Blog

Content is king.

First off, your business absolutely needs a website. Nicely, you can get started on a basic site for free these days (though any bonafide business should absolutely fork out the money for a proper one).

With the site set up, try writing a blog too.

It’s all about content marketing. You write an epic blog post on a useful topic (around keywords that people are searching for online). You earn backlinks to it and, eventually, get it ranking up high on search engines.

People click through to your website to read the blog.

Once there, they have a chance to convert on a particular offer.

Blogging is a fantastic free way to drive traffic, generate revenue and become an authority in your industry.

Likewise, other forms of free content help as well. For instance, this useful post highlights how voicemail recordings can boost your business too.

4. Leverage Social Media

Social media advertising is another top form of free advertising.

Literally billions of people around the world are using social media every day. That offer immense free marketing potential.

If you aren’t set up on any platform, then get started now!

We recommend sticking with one platform to begin (such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter). Master it first before expanding to new ones. It’s important to pick one that lends itself to your business.

For example, Instagram is a great bet for businesses with a strong visual element. You can showcase your products and ethos in image form.

It takes time to develop a following and sometimes ad spend can make a difference. However, it isn’t essential. You can absolutely see success from social media for free.

5. Get on YouTube

Video content is now more popular than ever before.

People love to watch it and share it online and on social media.

YouTube is one platform on which people watch countless hours of it every day. And it doesn’t cost a single cent to get set up on!

Your business could benefit hugely from creating its own videos. Put together well-made videos with a strong story-line and that are emotive in nature. Of course, they should relate in some way to your business!

Promote it for free on your website and social media platforms (again, a bit of as spend may help!).

If it catches on, people will see it, share it and be drawn to your business. Viral videos can skyrocket your business literally overnight.

6. Master SEO

Search engine optimization is crucial to your website’s success.

We’ve already noted the popularity of search engines such as Google. There are countless websites on the internet. Search engines have to find a way to showcase the best options for their users.

One way to help them find your website is with SEO. A properly optimized website stands a far better chance of ranking highly. It’s one of the only ways to draw large crowds of eager eyes to your blog and website, without paying for the privilege.

Take the time to learn how to do it!

7. Build an Email List

Email marketing is nothing new.

It’s been a priority for large and small businesses alike since the start of the internet.

Draw people to your website and encourage them (with great offers, content, and calls to action) to subscribe. Over time, you develop a solid list of email addresses from people who want to hear from you!

It’s gold dust for your advertising. You get to send out emails to advertise promotions, sales and so on. Done properly, and you have a way to spike sales at the click of a button!

Start building your email list today.

Time to Get Free Advertising

There you have it: 7 epic forms of free advertising to promote your small business.

Businesses in the US (and around the world) spend billions of dollars on their advertising every year. However, smaller companies may not have the luxury of large marketing budgets.

Thankfully, by virtue of the online world we live in, there are now many free ways to do it too.

Hopefully, this post has highlighted the best ones to get started with.

Want more advertising advice? Search ‘advertising’ on the blog now for all advertising-related articles.