One of the fastest ways to boost your business in terms of sales and popularity is to advertise yourself. And the internet has made this even easier due to the large number of people being reached in such a short time. But truth be told, digital advertising and traditional print advertising can be quite expensive for startups.  Most of them view marketing as something pricey and with expensive expenditure. This should however not be the case since there are plenty of free and inexpensive ways to market your business.

In this article we get to look at a bunch of ways to market your business for little or no cost.

1. Get active on social media

Social media, that is, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, etc. have become one of the best ways to market your business online. And if you haven’t used it to promote your business yet, then you are missing on an opportunity to potentially have your business go viral. You can start by creating complete business profiles and pages then working on gaining followers by regularly posting interesting and informative content to make your business well-known and keep your audience satisfied. This is super great for public relations and brand awareness.

2. Start a website or a blog

Most people and businesses believe that you need to hire a professional web design company to help develop a website for their business. However, this isn’t the case since you can do it on your own unless you want a tailored look or special features then you might need to hire a company. There are plenty of free platforms where you can create an interesting fully-functional site without spending a penny. This will help you build a good home base for promoting your business. Once you create the website you also need to ensure you post and share very high-quality content which adds an exceeding high amount of value on a regular basis.

3. Create an email list

Email marketing is something that every business owner should be engaged in. Create an email list by using the signup form on your website to gather the names and email addresses of people who are interested in your products or services. You could also add names and email addresses from business cards of prospects that you have gathered or any other list of people interested in your business. Frequently mailing these lists of people is very important and effective since they have already shown interest in your business. In your mail include things that the business has to offer such as special deals, discounts or sales that you might have ongoing. You could also take time to create a free report or ebook that will help people in your industry or niche.

4. Offer deals or giveaways

Everybody loves a good discount, sale or giveaway. I mean free stuff? Count me in. Doing a giveaway on your social media page could help gain more popularity as add more interest to your business. You could also have small discounts and offers like free delivery or a percentage off on an order. For whatever you offer, be sure to secure the customer’s contact details so you can get in touch with them later.  

5. Join some online communities

There are plenty of online communities which means no matter what your business niche might be, you will definitely get a community that relates with you. These communities help provide you with many great opportunities to promote your business through the forums to social media groups and more. When interacting with these communities it is advisable to contribute on useful information without overly promoting your business. However, you can share links or information related with your business every once in a while to help you gather a nice network of connections.