Dear Business Builders
Every business requires an effective marketing strategy to achieve the online visibility needed for profitability and sustenance. If you are reading this you most likely have a website and in search of small business online marketing strategies you can use to market your business without spending too much money.
The following is a list of absolutely free online marketing tactics for business builders that we use ourselves at Get X Media. Ensure to read to the end and take appropriate actions to help grow your business smarter. If there is something that we may have missed, please take the time to leave a comment at the end and we will update this post, It is written to be an actionable resource for businesses that have just launched a website.
I hope this brings you some value. Let me know what you think in the comments at the end.
1. Setup Social Profiles and Business Pages for Marketing Strategies
According to statista.com, no fewer than 29.5 billion people were using social media as of 2019. Setting up a social profile across popular social media platforms is free exposure for your business, helps to boost Google rankings, and opens up incredible digital advertising opportunities.
Creating social media profiles on most platforms is free, your business will benefit from the massive traffic on these platforms. Even if your profile is online and sits idle, this is better than not having a page at all. However, your goal should be to create engaging and attractive profiles along with consistent content for your customers across all the popular social media platforms.
The Leading 4 Social Media Platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter)
Of course, there are several social media platforms available. However, the most popular and relevant ones that will have a significant impact on your business growth and open up advertising opportunities include Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
According to statistics from statista.com 2019,
- Facebook has about 2.5 billion monthly active users.
- Instagram has about 600 million daily active users.
- LinkedIn has about 303 million monthly active users.
- Twitter has about 330 million active users.
When you are building social media profiles, use the same profile picture, branding, business logo, and username to help enable brand clarity. Always include a link back to your website.
Designing Graphics for Social Media: Canva is a Free Design Tool for Creating Graphics
Creating amazing graphics is one of the ways to engage followers on social networks. For basic graphics, check out this free mobile app and web service that allows you to create stunning graphics using stock designs for free. With Canva, you can have your graphics designed without hiring a professional graphic designer, saving you a bundle of cash. Canva is a free design tool for creating graphics across multiple platforms without hassles. The application has an extensive collection of images, fonts, and templates to help you get your message to your followers and fans.
Download the Free App Here: https://www.canva.com/
2. Post on Social Media Networks
Another free marketing tactic is simply taking the time to post on social media networks regularly. The benefits of posting on social networks can be immense. Yes, you get the exposure that can potentially grab you some new business but, more importantly, the investment of your time into creating content for your business will actually help you get to know what your customers engage with. From there, you can repurpose your content and focus more on creating media that your customers love.
Since this particular article is about marketing strategies your new website for free, hear me out. Your new website should be filled with content and media right? If you are having a hard time thinking about what to post you can start by going through your website and repurposing these assets into smaller bite-sized social media posts to get you started.
While you are at it, post about your experience with the website design company that built it for you. If we are the company that built it, you can rest assured that we will be posting about the work we have done for you on our social media accounts. Tag us @getxmedia on almost any platform.
Social Media Management: Automation and Scheduling
There are many tools that are free and paid available to use around the internet to help make the process of managing your social media accounts easier and save you an incredible amount of time. A new company on the rise is not free but I personally love is Planable.io. They seem to have the cleanest and easiest to use dashboard and their software is packed with everything you would need to run social media across all the popular networks.
For a free social media management tool that will publish across multiple platforms check out buffer. The reason that I like buffer is because it allows you to connect 3 social accounts and schedule 10 posts for free. As a business owner, you can publish content simultaneously across your top 3 social channels and queue up posts to go out according to a schedule you set. You gain the ability to schedule 10 posts over 10 days and then just keep adding to your queue.
On my own personal accounts I have managed to post every single day for 30 days by only investing 5 hours for the entire month. Mostly done while sitting on my couch watching TV. The app is incredibly simple to use once it is setup.
3. Setup Google News Updates for Your Industry and Company Name
As a business owner, you want to stay up-to-date with the trends in your industry. Take a minute to set up Google News updates and you will be notified when there is news about your industry. This way, you will be able to make crucial decisions relative to developments in your industry and protect your business, grow smarter, and better satisfy your customers.
To receive updates in your industry or when your company is mentioned across the internet, set up Google News alerts to receive email notifications by visiting www.google.com/alerts. Input the keywords or keyword phrase you want to receive updates about according to your industry and set the frequency of receiving updates to daily, weekly, or as it happens. This will enable you to keep tabs on your company and on new developments in your industry. There could be some great ideas here to use for your social media posting.
4. Update Email Signatures
To some this may sound simple but it’s extremely important. Ensure to update your email signatures to create brand awareness for your business and provide your company contact information. Email signatures are a part of brand image promotion.
Update your email signature by providing your name, your company and position, your contact details, and a link to your website. You may even want to go as far as including a tag line or link to a recent blog post you have written. This simple step will help to drive traffic to your website, make it easy for people to get ahold of you, and promote your products, services, or other offers.
WiseStamp is a premium service company that we use and offers a very simple way to set up media-rich email signatures with call to actions and whatever else you would like to add. Check them out here: https://www.wisestamp.com/
5. Claim Directory Listings
You must provide accurate information about your business to your potential customers so they know you exist and can find you online. There are several directory listings that appear to customers looking for products and services. Google My Business is one of them. Claiming directory listings like this helps gain exposure, improve local search rankings, and provide a place to get reviews.
Google My Business is the most Dominant Directory Listing
To claim directory listings on Google My Business, search for your business name on Google. Google Maps will provide you with search results pinpointing the exact locations. When asked, “Is this your business?” click it and complete the verification process to take ownership of the business.
If nothing appears, you can set up a new Google My Business account here: Google My Business.
There are thousands of other directory websites on the internet that you can submit your information to. Remember that the most important thing when setting these directories listing up is that you follow NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) consistency. You will also want to ensure that you submit full and complete business listings that include optimized photos, written content, proper business categorization.
The average number of directory listings that the top 3 ranking websites have on Google has is 83. Google My Business is one of them. Ask us about our Local SEO Services and for help settings these directories up to boost your Google search rankings.
6. Send an Email to Your Mailing List
If you have collected potential clients’ emails through a landing page or invoicing software, this is the best time to notify them that your website is live. Email marketing still holds some of the highest returns on investment of any marketing strategies available online. Sending an email to a large number of people at the same time may not be possible with your traditional email provider. As a result, you have to consider other options.
MailChimp is Free to Email Contact Lists
MailChimp is a popular email marketing application that offers to send bulk emails to subscribers or email list. As an existing or new business with not more than 2,000 contacts, you can use MailChimp free of charge. No matter where your current list of emails is it is typically a very simple process to export your list of contacts and MailChimp makes it really easy to upload them into their software. You can now send personalized emails to your list of contacts absolutely free of charge.
Sign up for a Free MailChimp Account and email your contact list.
7. Update Print Materials
It is crucial to update previously printed materials to indicate new developments like your new website, email address, phone number, etc. Ask your graphics designer to update the information on your business cards, brochures, flyers, souvenirs, etc.
Contact us about graphics design services, printing, custom clothing, and promotional products.
8. Start Creating Content and Media
Creating content for your business will help to engage your audience and drive traffic to your website. You can relate to your audience and connect with them better, which will give your business a human face.
Personally, we have found that the act of writing content about your business for your customers is a process that helps you clarify your business goals in great detail and articulate your goals to your customers.
A simple tactic that that can help stockpile media is to simply document all of the work that you do. Take pictures and write case studies about your work. In the digital marketing strategies world, every piece of content and media is an asset.
Stock piling your content will help to grow your business online through the direct benefits of search engine optimization, showcase your work to customers, and pave the road ahead by setting you up as an authority in your industry.
Write Content and Create Media for your Customers
Explore providing your customers with high-quality content. Get copywriting done to provide your customers with solutions to issues bordering around the services you render. Also, design interesting infographics, videos, DIY tips, etc. to help your customers through their buyers journey.
Need Content Ideas? Check out “Answer the Public”
To ensure that you provide your customers with targeted content and attract new users to your blog, you should visit “Answer The Public” to get insight into a list of questions that people are searching for in your industry. This will help you to provide your customers with content that meets their needs and expectations. You can get an incredible amount of content ideas which you can use for writing, video production, or anything else you like. Use your creativity.
9. Monitor Your Website Uptime
Not so much a marketing tactic but you will want to monitor your websites uptime if you are going to be doing any marketing efforts.
Thankfully, there is a very simple and many free website monitoring tools available that do just this. Uptime Robot is a free online tool that we use to monitor our own website and you can use for this to monitor your own. If your website goes down, you get an email automatically sent right to your inbox.
10. Start Communicating on Industry Blogs and Forums
Build relationships and links as well as drive traffic to your site. Remember to insert your website URL in your signature and inside of your profiles. Post links to pages on your website that help people with topics they are researching. However, do not spam blogs and forums! Be discreet and enjoy the benefits this process offers.
You will want to work towards building win-win partnerships with people in your industry and begin collaborations that drive your business forward. The cross-promotions of media results in not only more business but can also have a powerful impact on your search engine rankings.
Some great sites that make it easy to find industry-specific conversations are Medium, Quora, and Reddit.
Add Your Own Idea in “Comments”
If you have something that may be a nice addition to this list please leave a comment below and I will continue to add and update this periodically to help as many business owners as possible. Thank you for reading.
The digital marketing strategies listed above for small-sized companies have been tried and tested. When drafting your digital marketing strategies always think about consulting an experienced digital marketing agency at Get X Media for maximum opportunity and growth.
