20 FREE Ways to Market Your Small Business Online

We won't sugarcoat it... 2020 was a rough year for small businesses! With everyone forced to stay home, online (digital) marketing became much more important. If your business wants to compete in this new world, developing and executing a savvy digital marketing strategy will be essential! But, it doesn't have to be expensive. 

This article was written for small business owners who want to compete online without spending any money! Thankfully, there are quite a few relatively easy things you can do. We want to share our top favorites with you. Here is our list of 20 Ways That You Can Market your Small Business Online for FREE!

1. CONTENT MARKETING

​Content marketing can broadly be defined as “creating, publishing and distributing content online to a targeted audience”. Content marketing occupies the first spot on our list for good reason; The long-term value of creating relevant, high-quality content should not be underestimated.

​The best content for your business will depend on what products and services you offer. It may include writing blog posts or articles, producing short videos, or creating infographics and images. Regardless which type of content you focus on, it should do one (or more) of these four things: Inspire, Educate, Entertain, or Convince. It must also include a clear call to action so your audience knows what to do next. 

2. ONLINE DIRECTORIES 

Listing your business in online directories is crucial for getting found online. All major search engines have their own directory (Google’s is Google My Business; Bing’s is Bing Places), and there are also several smaller industry- and area-specific directories that may be relevant to your business (such as TripAdvisor for vacation rentals and local attractions). Listing your business in these directories will help you appear in search engine results pages when people search for the products or services you offer. Best of all, it is 100% FREE to do. 

3. POSTING ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media offers a great way for you to connect with your existing customers and reach new audiences. Your social media pages are the perfect place to use the content we previously discussed. Establishing social media pages and posting your content is FREE to do. Using social media effectively needs an article of its own, but we will summarize six key points for you to remember: 

1. Focus on platforms that are well-suited to your business. Your business does not need a presence on every social media platform. Each platform is better suited to different purposes and has its own user demographics, so it's best to focus your effort on platforms that appeal to your target customers. If you're not sure which social media platforms your small business should be using, you can read the article we wrote on this topic here. 
2. Only share high-quality content that is of value to your audience. It is helpful to ask yourself “what’s in it for them?” Social media users don't want to be fed one-way sales pitches, they want to be engaged in a two-way dialogue. 
3. Create a content calendar. Life gets busy and it's easy to forget about posting to social media. To keep yourself on track, set aside some time to plan out your content for the next few months (or even the next year). 
4. Optimize your post frequency. You will need to establish a post frequency that works best for you and your business. Posting too little can cause a disconnect between you and your followers, but posting too much can cause people to snooze or unfollow you. 
5. Schedule your posts. There are few options available for scheduling your social media posts. Our personal favorite is using FREE automation tools such as Hootsuite or Facebook's Business Suite. However, if you prefer to do things manually, you can also just write yourself reminders to post content in your day planner. 
6. Engage with your audience. Like we said before, social media users want to engaged in a two-way dialogue. After you post content to social media, don't forget to check back regularly (at least once per day) to see how your posts are performing. It is best to respond to questions and comments within 24 business hours. 

4. EMAIL MARKETING

If you don't already use a third-party service to collect your customers email addresses, the time to start is NOW! When used effectively, email marketing offers an outstanding return on investment. There are a few services (such as MailChimp) that can automate this process for you and are 100% FREE to use. Once you begin collecting email addresses, you can send your subscribers newsletters to stay in touch with them. 
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A Word of Caution: In Canada, there are anti-spam laws requiring you to obtain consent from people before you can add them to your email list. Services like MailChimp understand these laws and make it very easy for you to comply with them. 

5. INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS

Regardless of which industry you operate in, joining forces with a complimentary (but non-competing) business can be very beneficial. Industry partnerships effectively allow you to share your audiences with one another and double your reach. An easy way to establish partnerships is by brainstorming a few ideas that would be mutually beneficial, and then reaching out to some targeted businesses to gauge their interest in collaborating with you. There are many FREE ways to collaborate with your industry partners. One of the easiest methods is swapping links (you put a link to their website on your website, and vice versa), but a better (albeit more time consuming) method would be creating webinars or online events that appeal to both of your target audiences.

6. ANSWER QUESTIONS

Online forums like Quora present great opportunities for you to showcase your expertise. A good place to begin is by researching niche forums related to your business  to find questions that your customers would want the answer to. From there, you can answer the questions on the site or use the questions as inspiration for your own blog posts. Answering on the site has the advantage of reaching a broader audience and getting your name some FREE publicity. You can also include a link to your website in your answer. Responding to questions online may seem like a waste of time, but you never know who may see your answers and hire you later on because of them! 

7. REFERRAL PROGRAMS

A great way to get new customers is through your existing customers! People tend to associate with people who are "like them", which means that your existing customers' may have friends and family members who are interested in your products or services. Referral programs are a proven method for getting more business and are FREE to implement. 

​The best way to incentivize your customers to tell their contacts about you is by rewarding them for doing so. Rewards don't have to cost you money, but they do have to be valuable (such as one free hour of your services). The more valuable the reward is, the more likely people are to start talking. You can promote your referral program on your website and social media pages, or by sending an email newsletter to your customers. 

8. APPLY FOR BUSINESS AWARDS

Most cities, industries and professional associations offer various types of business awards each year. While some of these will require you to have a paid membership in order to nominate yourself, others are FREE and are open to anyone. It is worth researching the different types of awards that might be available to your business (try Googling "business awards in [your city]"). If you win, you can post the awards on your website to impress your customers and increase confidence in your expertise. 

9. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

Like social media, search engine optimization (SEO) requires an article of its own. SEO is a complicated topic that cannot be condensed into a few paragraphs... However, SEO must be included in this list because of the important role it plays in online marketing. Search engines are instrumental in helping customers find your business online. 

If you're a little savvy when it comes to digital marketing, there are many FREE things you can do to help your website rank higher in search engine results. Some of the things you will want to check are:

• Page Titles, Page Descriptions & Page Content. It is important that your page titles, page descriptions, and page content are relevant, consistent with one other, and free from spelling errors.
• Page Visibility. Ensure your pages are visible to search engines so they can crawl and index them. 
• Site Responsiveness. Responsive web design is a fancy way of saying "mobile friendly". It is imperative that your website functions well on all devices (desktops, cellphones and tablets). 

Want more tips about SEO? We have written an entire article devoted to search marketing here.

10. GET VISUAL

The moment we go online, we are bombarded by ads and content from businesses who are competing for our attention. With the overwhelming amount of noise online, it can be difficult to get your target audience to notice you. The best way to stand out from the crowd is to ensure your content has a strong visual component. This is especially true on social media. People are less likely to pass over your post if it has an eye-catching image or video to draw in their attention. 

While short videos are great for getting noticed, they must be engaging and high-quality. So, if you're not very skilled in video production, you may want to stick with images and infographics. There are a number of free online tools (such as Canva) that can help you put together beautiful, professional-looking images. 

11. HOST AN ONLINE EVENT OR CLASS

One benefit that came out of 2020 is that many people were forced to learn how to use online meeting platforms such as Zoom. Digital meetings and online events have become much more acceptable (perhaps even preferable) than they were before. This change has created new opportunities for small businesses to capitalize on!

Depending on the nature of your business, you may want to consider putting together an online event or class. You can use Zoom to facilitate this type of event. With Zoom's FREE plan, you can host up to 100 participants in a single session for up to 40-minutes. Online events have the benefit to you of being less expensive to host (you don't need to rent a physical space), and the benefit of convenience for your attendees (they can attend your event from their living room with a glass of wine in hand!).

12. ASK FOR TESTIMONIALS

Customers trust other customers more than they trust you! If you want to convince new customers to give your business a try, consider asking your current customers to write testimonials or reviews. This is FREE to do and can work wonders for increasing new customers' confidence. 

There are a few different options for where your customers can post their reviews. If you have a Google My Business listing established, your customers can post their reviews directly to your listing. Their reviews will be visible to the public, so it's essential that they are positive! If you do not use Google My Business (or any other online review sites), you can simply have your customers email you testimonials and then upload them to your website. 

13. ONLINE CONTESTS & GIVE-AWAYS

People LOVE free stuff! Conducting an online contest that gives people the chance to win something free is an excellent way to get people talking about your business and sharing your posts. Social media is the perfect place to host such a contest because it has a large audience and it's FREE to do. Your prize doesn't have to be expensive, but it should be something that people value.

You have control over how your contest is structured, which allows you to align your marketing goals with how people enter your contest. For example, if you want to increase the number of people who Like your Facebook page, you might say "Like our Facebook page to be entered to win"; If you want to increase the number of subscribers to your email newsletter, you could say "subscribe to our newsletter to be entered to win".

14. BUSINESS CARD DRAWS

This is an extension of online contests and give-aways. Most of us have visited a business that has a fishbowl on the counter requesting you "leave your business card to be entered to win something". There is no reason why this strategy can't be implemented online! Consider creating a post on your social media page asking your followers to "leave their business card in the comments" (in other words, leave a link to their website or social media page in the comments). This is a fantastic was to engage your audience and get to know them! Best of all, it's FREE!

15. SOCIAL INFLUENCERS

Social influencers can be likened to a modern version of celebrity endorsements. Depending on what products or services you offer, this may be an avenue worth looking into. Essentially, anyone who exceeds a certain number of followers (usually several thousand) on social media is considered an "influencer" because when they post, thousands of people listen. 

Just like celebrities, certain influencers will be better suited to certain products and services than others. If you think a particular influencer would be a good fit for promoting your brand, consider reaching out to them with a proposal to "collaborate". Collaboration usually means you give the influencer free products or services, in exchange for them posting about it on their social media pages.

Some influencers will expect monetary payment, but others may be willing to work for free products or services alone. If you can manage to strike a trade agreement, this is a fantastic form of FREE advertising. 

16. YOUR EMAIL SIGNATURE

Every time you send an email, it is an opportunity to promote your business. Most email service providers (such as Outlook and Gmail) allow you to customize your email signature to include images, text and links. This is 100% FREE to do. You don't want to include too much information, but you should definitely include your logo, contact information, and a link to your website and/or social media pages. Your email signature is also an opportunity to ask people to subscribe to your e-mail list. 

17. PRESS RELEASES 

Press releases are brief (max. 400 words) written reports on something newsworthy about your business. After you have written your report, you submit it to local news outlets in the hopes that one of them will either publish it or contact you for more information. It is FREE to write press releases and to submit them; and if you manage to get published, it is awesome FREE publicity!

The downside is that press releases are hit or miss. News outlets get hundreds (if not thousands) of releases from businesses every day and must decide who makes the cut. To increase your chances of getting published, remember these Four Tips: 1) research journalists who might be interested, 2) make sure your press release is actually newsworthy, 2) triple check your spelling and grammar, and 3) follow-up with your contacts if you don't hear back from them within a week. 

18. COMMUNITY NEWS WEBSITES 

Every community has its own local news websites and some of them offer free marketing opportunities for local businesses. It is worth exploring some popular community news websites in your area to see if they offer free any types of free classified ads, business directory listings, or even feature 'spotlight' articles. 

19. EDUCATE YOURSELF

Every small business owner faces a constant battle between time and money... If you're not willing (or able) to perform an essential task yourself, you must pay someone else to do it for you. If you are D.I.Y. entrepreneur who is inclined to learn more about digital marketing, you may want to check out the many FREE educational resources available online. 

We highly recommend Google's Digital Garage. This is a FREE, self-paced online course that anyone can take. You have the option of learning only specific topics, or taking the entire (40-hour) course to learn a broad range of digital marketing skills. Aside from Google's resources, you can also find YouTube videos, blogs and articles on just about anything!

20. LEARN ANALYTICS

If you complete Google's Digital Garage course and are still thirsty for digital marketing knowledge, consider taking a course at Google's Analytics Academy. These are FREE, self-paced courses that teach you how to install and use Google Analytics to collect data about your website's activity. This data can tell you where your site visitors are coming from, the type of devices they're using, and which pages are most popular. These insights can help you take your online presence to the next level!

SUMMARY

To summarize, here are our 20 FREE ways to market your small business online: 
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1. Content Marketing 
2. Online Directories 
3. Posting on Social Media 
4. Email Marketing 
5. Industry Partnerships 
6. Answer Questions 
7. Referral Programs 
8. Apply for Business Awards 
9. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 
10. Get Visual
11. Host an Online Event or Class 
12. Ask for Testimonials 
13. Online Contests & Give-Aways 
14. Business Card Draws 
15. Social Influencers 
16. Your Email Signature 
17. Press Releases 
18. Community News Websites 
19. Educate Yourself 
20. Learn Analytics 

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