Small Business Marketing Ideas

Small business owners often have a tight marketing budget. Marketing can be tricky when you’re trying to promote your business. While you’re figuring out your budget, there are ways for you to market yourself to your customers without spending money.

We’ve taken the time and thought out of marketing for you. Here are 17 free marketing ideas that will give your small business marketing efforts a boost without putting a dent in your budget.

Google My Business

For local businesses, especially, a Google My Business profile has become one of the most effective free marketing strategies available. This free listing allows your business to show up on Google Maps, the local section of Google Search, and the side Knowledge panel of Google Search. To achieve increased exposure in relevant searches by customers nearby, fill out your Google profile completely, and optimize each section.

Content Marketing

The value of content marketing is too good to ignore. Content is king or queen. All businesses and the right material can increase your local SEO and get your business found online.

Create useful content on your Website, including an About Us page, Products and Services page, and blog posts.

Video Marketing

Videos are a popular free marketing tactic for small businesses. While it can cost you a lot to get a professional video shot and uploaded to YouTube, you don’t have to hire a professional. Video marketing is easy to do it yourself on social media sites like Instagram and Facebook.

Videos can help you strike that vital connection with your audience. Go behind the scenes and get creative with this free marketing tactic! Combine images and videos to good effect. Prepare a script to follow, but remember a little humor never hurts.

Add a branding message or personal message; whichever is appropriate. Finish with a strong call to action—Check out our Website! Call us to set up an appointment! Place your birthday cake order today! Distribute the video in every channel possible, including social media and video hosting sites.

Visual Marketing

Harnessing the visual medium’s power is vital to catapult your marketing success in social media sites like Pinterest and Instagram. Sadly, only a few small businesses have realized the potential of using these sites to build a broad online audience. No matter what business you are in, visual marketing is a free creative marketing idea for connecting with your target audience. Visual marketing will help you reach your marketing goals.

Email Newsletters

Email marketing through newsletters and email blasts remains a reliable way to achieve a healthy return on your investment. Customized and targeted email content should form the core of any email newsletter. For more guidance, you can find email newsletter templates online to point you in the right direction.

No matter what you say in the email, the most important thing is to make sure that you’re creating catchy subject lines for your emails. When utilizing free marketing ideas, it’s essential to make sure your efforts don’t go to waste—by coming up with creative subject lines, you can increase the number of people who open and act on your emails.

Cross Promoting On Social Media

Social media platforms are the perfect free marketing tool to promote your business. You can get more bang for your theoretical buck. If you’re not already on social media as part of your marketing plan, you need to be.

Cross promoting your posts on social media is an effective way to get your content seen by many people. Make sure that customers can find you on all social media channels by including links to your profiles in the header, footer, or About Us page of your Website. To save time, you can schedule your social media posting in advance with social media automation tools.

Industry Partnerships

A key benefit of developing industry partnerships is doubling your marketing efforts and gaining access to extra resources, such as tools and technologies, and a broader audience. There is power in numbers, and with a partner, you can accomplish marketing goals that would not be possible alone.

Industry partnerships are a great marketing tactic because it allows small business owners access to marketing know-how, technology, and customer base that they could not have achieved on their own. You need to take several steps before choosing a partner for your small business. Figure out what to expect from a partner, make inquiries, look into possible partners, assess how you can work together, and form the all-important partnership.

Social Media Engagement

Increasing social media engagement and building a community online is vital to growing your small business. It goes a long way toward increasing name awareness and brand recognition in your local market. Some businesses use sweepstakes or contests, offer coupons, and provide discounts to users on social media to drive sales. Some engage in direct dialogue to understand the sentiments of their customers.

Whatever your motivation, make sure you are active on social media—think consistency, community, collaboration, and commitment.

Tag Users On Social Media

Tagging someone on Twitter and Facebook is a useful and free marketing tool for your business. Tagging broadens your business’s organic reach to a new potential audience, helps you grow your following, and gets more clients. Incorporate tagging into your social media strategy as a free marketing tool and watch your organic reach grow.

Use Hashtags

Another free marketing idea for your small business is to incorporate hashtags into your social media and Twitter marketing strategy.

Use hashtags like #smallbiz or #SMB for resources, advice, trending topics in the small business industry. Think of hashtags like #marketing, #startups, or #entrepreneurs and seek small business specific conversations. If you are searching for tips on meeting like-minded small business owners, try #networking to find advice and relevant information on networking and making connections online.

Keep things in the spirit of the Twitter community, and share small business ideas using your hashtags.

Host a Class or Event

Share your expertise in your business area, or demonstrate the features and benefits of your small business by hosting an in-person class, event, or presentation. If your community does not have in-person events, consider Hoast a Webinar below. Free marketing tools like Eventbrite help with planning and promoting an event for your business easy to do. If you can’t host an event, attend any local events that you can find that might benefit your business. You never know where you will find your next customer or business partner!

Host a Webinar

If reaching a potential audience in person doesn’t sound like your idea of a good marketing idea, you can always host a Webinar. Webinars are a free way to promote your business by providing helpful information to potentially interested customers.

Web conferencing platforms such as Webex and GoToMeeting allow you to broadcast your Webinar with just a few button clicks. Make sure to promote your Webinar on social media or through an email newsletter one to two weeks before the event and include reminders to registrants so that they don’t miss it.

A blog for Your Business

Small businesses can use blogging to drive traffic to their Website, increase user engagement and, improve online visibility and SEO. Blogging is a proven method to promote your small business online and a fantastic way to tell tales about your business and provide useful information to potential clients. If done correctly, blogging can take your small business marketing to a whole new level.

Blogging about your business is secure, and, as an expert, you can create quality content that is useful to your audience. Blog posts don’t have to extensive and complicated—think about a blog post like a longer Facebook status message. If you’re just getting started, here are some pointers on how to write your first blog post and 130 free blog ideas for your business blog. It’s easier than you think!

Blogging is worth the time and effort. Overcome your challenges and create content that can make your readers come back, asking for more. Not sure what to information or material to put on your blog? Consider content that will be helpful and relevant to your customers. For example, a law firm may want to blog about changes in the laws that will impact their customers and audience.  

Connect with Bloggers & Influencers

Identifying and reaching out to famous bloggers and influencers gained traction a few years ago when PR agencies realized that the popularity of some blogs had outdone that of traditional media houses. It is 2015, and it is still worth reaching out to relevant bloggers and networking with them in ways that create a win-win situation. Once you begin to build trust and develop relationships with bloggers and blogging networks, you have the platform for potential strategic business partners.

Content marketing and small business blogging are two powerful tools for marketing success. Put them together, and you’ve got the perfect free marketing tools for your small business. Go to events, get introduced to a network of bloggers, and establish relationships with bloggers who can try your products or service and write about it on their blog. It’s a win-win situation. Never underestimate their value in supporting other marketing efforts.

Hold Social Media Contests

Running a social media or Instagram contest or giveaway is smart for small businesses to promote themselves for free or little cost.

If you own an interior design firm, you could host a giveaway contest like “Get a Virtual Bedroom Makeover”. And have contestants share and tag your status to get your business name out and introduce potential clients to your services. Pick a random winner and make the virtual makeover through a sequence of video episodes or interviews, where potential clients can tune to and ask questions as you makeover the winner’s room.

The winner will undoubtedly leave a strong impression in the minds of all those potential clients and, in turn, build a great sense of trust in them.

Attend Industry Events

Attending trade shows, local events, and industry conferences are smart to take your small business to the next level. These events bring together business minds from all industries who want to find new marketing strategies to grow their business. It’s also a way to network with like-minded people and develop new B2B contacts. These events have exclusive seminars designed to sharpen your skills in sales, social media, advertising, and other contemporary ways of promoting your small business. If your community does not have these in-person events check with them online to see if they are offering a zoom meeting. If not, create your own.  

Do a Business Card Drawing

An easy way to grow your email list is by collecting emails through a giveaway. By collecting business cards for a giveaway, you can get much information about your audience, which can help you market yourself to new customers. 

Knowing which part of town your customers live and work is essential when designing a small business’s promotional campaign. Likewise, identifying areas where there is a weak concentration can also help your small business devise a suitable plan of attack to get ahead of the competition. Now This is where a business card drawing comes in handy.

Set out bowls for your customers to drop in their business cards and build a database using the information collected, including email addresses for email newsletters. This simple tactic provides several critical pieces of information that you can use in executing several cross-promotional offers in the following months. Use

Employees for Word Of Mouth Marketing

For many small businesses, word of mouth is an outstanding marketing strategy that boosts sales and the right reason. Research shows that customers are more likely to buy a product or service if they know about it from their friends or family.

Make your employees your brand ambassadors and tap into the incredible potential of their networks. Your employees have a genuine interest in your business, so why not leverage their voices and social networks to reach a broader audience.

Sit down with your employees. Engage with them in a brainstorming session, and gather their ideas for improving your small business. Make them feel empowered. Think about hosting an exclusive discount sale like a “friends and family” promotion now and then. Learn how to use Facebook for your business—create an event, invite employees, and ask your employees to share it with their personal and professional contacts. Encourage them to share the status and tag people to increase the reach of your event.

Do these free marketing ideas inspire you? Try some of them out, and let us know what works for you! Email us at info@gwtwmarketing.com.

Urban Marketing Ideas

Living in an area where "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot"? As mentioned in the Joni Mitchell song Big Yellow Taxi? If so, It allows for some pretty creative concepts. It is time to think outside the box.

Step out on the streets – In an online age, there's something to be said for going au naturel and exercising a little IRL (In Real Life) marketing. Go old school with flyers and posters in local cafes, do some sidewalk chalk writing. This strategy is most useful for locally oriented businesses, but it can work for anyone. Make sure you include your social media handles so you can gain a few more followers.

Commission a mural – Try getting permission to decorate the side of a prominent building with a large wall painting. A great place to paint your logo and your mission statement. In turn, you will also be supporting a local artist, win-win.

Use your surroundings – Get a little imaginative and think about how you can use your urban surroundings for potential marketing magic. For example, if you have a bbq join, use block stencils to paint your business name and contact info with a tag like Hungry for some bbq? In front of a sewer grate.  

Unusual sponsorships – Urban living results in some unique marketing opportunities you won't find elsewhere. The secret is, you need to think creatively to capitalize on these opportunities. Try old school ads at the bus stop or your logo on the rentable bikes around town.

Success Tip; if you and your community are being affected by social distancing, no worries, just make sure you post pictures of your efforts and post them on your social media channels. Your creativity will get notices.

5 of 5 Effective Ways to Market Your Company

5. Commit to email marketing. Marketing through email is flexible, cost-effective, easy to measure (assuming you put the right tracking in place), and high impact. It allows you to quickly drive traffic to your Website, reach a broad geographic audience, and stay in frequent contact with your customers and prospects. Email marketing will enable you to market your services and establish your expertise with your audience.

Use it for newsletters, new product announcements, or to share your publicity success-the the ideas are endless. But know that this flexibility and ease-of-use can cause problems. Remember, this is a marketing campaign. So be sure to think it through, develop an appropriate message, create a piece that reflects your brand, know your objectives, and make sure the information is valuable for your market, or people will quickly unsubscribe. Creating an email campaign using a website development platform is the best way to create impactful messages, and it also gives you the ability to measure its success. We recommend using Squarespace as a web development tool. The marketing option in the dashboard will provide stats on email opens and click-through rates, which in turn measures the success of the information or update you offered.  

Keys to success: Don't be seen as a "spammer"! Send emails only to those people who have given permission. Be sure to have an unsubscribe option at the bottom of your message.

4 of 5 Effective Ways to Market Your Company

4. Leverage existing relationships. Most people know at least 200 people. Do the math: If you know 200 people and they each know 200 people, that's 40,000 potential contacts! Spend time developing relationships with the people you already know-clients, colleagues, people you meet through professional networking organizations, friends, and even family. It's like the Breck Shampoo commercial, okay I am dating myself, one person tells two friends, and they tell two friends, etc.

Start by making a list of all the people you know. Next, prioritize your list into As, Bs, and Cs. A's are your advocates. These are the people who feel strongly about you. They're the "cheerleaders" who would refer business to you right now. B's could become advocates if they knew more about you, so you need to spend time with them to educate them. C's are those people you don't communicate with often enough. You may keep them in the loop, but they need more time and nurturing before they'd refer any business your way. If any names remain, delete them.

Keys to success: Educate, don't sell. The key here is to build relationships. These develop over time as you create credibility and trust. To be truly useful, you must always be on the lookout to help your network. Start from the perspective of giving more than you ask, and your network will become your most valuable marketing tool. As they say in networking communities, "Givers Gain."

3 of 5 Effective Ways to Market Your Company

3. Get YOUR word out with publicity. Think you can't do PR or publicity without employing the services of a high-priced firm? You can! Although the right firm brings tremendous contacts and experience, most small companies can do enough PR to spark the public's interest. There are many credible Do it yourself PR products available. The various products offered can deliver templates, tips, and step-by-step instructions on how to prepare releases and pitch stories that will intrigue the media.

Keys to success: In a word, leverage. Though it does happen, don't expect one story placement to generate thousands in revenue. Your success depends on leveraging each press release, each article, and each published mention. Put it all on your Website: Create a news page and add a What's New area on your home page. Add it to your marketing kit and send the piece to clients, colleagues, and professional organizations. Include a note in your newsletter that says 'Recently Seen In...' And remember: PR is more cost-effective and more credible than advertising.

2 of 5 Effective Ways to Market Your Company

2. Creatively package your marketing campaigns. A postcard is one way to market your business. But how about putting a small box together with a fork, knife, spoon, and a custom printed napkin that invites your prospect to "have lunch on us?" Think outside the box, and your marketing strategies and campaigns will have more impact.

Don't be afraid to see what other people in other industries are doing and adapt it to your company. Think about the little details that will get attention. I once did a marketing campaign for a real estate settlement group that included providing new home buyers with gift bags that contained everything they will need for their first night in their new home. I purchased items like pasta and sauce, wine, wine glasses for their dinner, coffee and coffee cups for their breakfast, organic instant oatmeal, and of course, something sweet, something salty, and the staples of toilet paper and paper towels. I packaged it all in a reusable shopping bag from a local supermarket close to their new home. The gift bag was very well received, and clients never forgot about their experience. Follow-up surveys are a great tool to send to every client, and 85% or better mentioned the gift bag's thoughtfulness and agreed to refer the settlement company to friends and family.

Keys to success: Set a clear objective for your marketing campaign, and identify how you'll measure its success. Then follow up to measure the results and adjust the program if necessary.

1 of 5 Effective Ways to Market Your Company

Think you can't afford to implement any effective marketing tactics? Think again. Here is one of five ways to make a splash on a shoestring budget. We will continue to share the remainder in future posts.

Are you motivated to expand your client base and spread the word about your products and services? Consider this, are you wondering if you should even bother with marketing programs if you don't have thousands of dollars to spend? With the majority of the country getting ready to open up, now is the time to Getty UP! The answer, of course, is yes. It's financially riskier for companies not to market. And there are hundreds of cost-effective ideas you can use to increase your revenue. Here are five high-impact approaches to market your company that doesn't cost a bundle, and that can work for virtually every company.

1. Talk to your clients. Yes, we said it, talk to your clients. It's incredible how much money businesses spend to gather market information and attract new clients when they have a wealth of opportunity and information in their existing client base. One of the best ways to increase revenue is to talk to existing clients. Ideally, this should be done by someone outside your company, so clients are willing to be honest, and open. We can do this for you. BTW.

When you assess perceptions, you don't need to talk to hundreds of individuals; choose 5 to ten clients and contact them to ask if they'd participate in a phone interview. Here's how it works:

1. Please send a letter or email asking for permission to have someone contact them about your company.

2. Have the interviewer call and ask value-based questions such as:

• What problems were you trying to solve, or what challenges were you facing when considering the services of YOUR COMPANY?

• How vital were YOUR COMPANY'S services in solving your problems or addressing your challenges?

• What did you value most about this company's work?

• What other products or services do you wish they offered that could help you with different problems?

3. After all the interviews, compile the information to discover trends and themes.

4. Send a thank-you letter or note to every client who participated. Include critical lessons from the interviews and explain the specific changes you plan to make to your company based on this information.

The critical part here is to use what you learn. If you don't make changes to your company, then you've wasted everyone's time. One company that we recently did this for tripled its business in one year-the the owners learned what people wanted, how their solution made a difference, how to present it, and how to price it and then proceeded to make changes that improved those areas.

Keys to success: The conversation with your customers is just that, a conversation. Don't fire questions at them; instead, have the interviewer engage in an interview and gather as valuable data as possible. Remember, it's not about how satisfied they are-it's about how much they valued your product or service. Please stay tuned for more effective ways to market your company.