TIPS ON HOW TO ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS FOR FREE

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Advertising and awareness is the oxygen which every business needs to survive. As a medium or small business owner, you may not have lots of cash to spend on marketing. And it can be frustrating when your budget dictates how many people your business can reach. Interestingly, there are a lot of ways to incorporate free advertising tactics into your business strategy, so that you can remove some nonessential costs and divert your limited budgets to other more important things.

Before the Internet, small and medium businesses only had a few means to market their products and services at cheap costs. They engaged in printing out flyers, sponsoring little local events or getting a good number of people on buses or lorries and advertising their products as the bus drives slowly. I know this method is popular in Nigeria. Although these methods, were quite effective and are still effective, they are not free and they are becoming obsolete. Now there are all kinds of opportunities out there on the internet. You just need to look in the right direction.

Regardless of your budget, here are 8 ways you can use to spread the word about your business without breaking the bank

1.       Use Google my business to claim your business

One of the most powerful free ways to advertise your business is through the 3 most popular search engines; Google, Yahoo and Bing. If you are more comfortable with Google, it has a service called ‘Google My Business’; which enables business owners and companies to manage their presence on Google Search and Google Maps. Using this tool can bolster your rankings on local search results. All you have to do is fill out the form and register, then get your business verified through their confirmation process, which can be done either with a phone call or snail mail.

Ranking high in local search shows you’re a legitimate and reliable business. When people see your business in google search, it gives them the reason to trust you since everyone believes that google can be trusted.  Plus, if you rank high in local search, more consumers will choose your business over a competitor’s. In today’s fast-paced world, once we think of going to the internet in search of a thing, the first place we go to is Google and this make Google the best site to place your free advert.

2.         Use Social media effectively

Many people use social media for various purposes including; fun, relaxation, source of information, e.t.c. As a business owner, social media shouldn’t just be used as a tool to gain exposure rather, it has now become a necessary time investment for every business. It’s free to set up a social media account for your business, post contents and engage with other users. As a business owner, create facebook page, instagram business account and twitter handle for your business and advertise from there.

In order to draw massive attention to your social media platform, you need to provide useful information, news or fun consistently. Before your start, you need to carry out very in-depth research to gather information, news and fun stuff concerning your business. If your business deals on products, research the health, financial, spiritual or aesthetic relevance of the various products you have. Carry out a deep comparison between alternative products or same product of different brands. Also, find out how different products are used and equip yourself with this information. Then post educative and informative content which you found through your research on all your social media handles.  

If your business is all about providing services, research valuable information concerning your service, alternatives to your service and what makes your service stand out from the crowd. Just research anything you can find out about your business. Start posting some of these interesting and educative contents which you have researched over time on your business page because, people need to be convinced  of the value you have to offer to them before they can buy into your idea. Then follow people and businesses and invite them to like or follow your profile or page. Thereafter, be consistent in creating contents and sharing on your page to keep your followers abreast of what your business is all about. Remember, you need to do some good work before people will look to your direction.

This was exactly how I built my facebook business page: First I wrote about different topics which I thought my audience would like. The ones which stood out for me were titled ‘The Magic of Doing It For Free’ and ‘Nobody Owes you shit’. I wrote many of such articles and posted them online. When people liked my post, I will in turn invite them to like my page, they never resisted or asked questions because they found value and fun.

Once people are hooked to your social media handles, give them value , fun and advertise. The ration should be 1:2:1

                                      Value  :  Fun  :  Advertisement

                                          1     :     2   :           1

If you bore people with your adverts, they will get tired of seeing the same thing and they will either unfollow your business page or stop reading posts from you since they know the likely content of your posts. However, if you mix your content, they will always be curious to know what you are serving them next. And as they come, your serve them more advert.

On your personal social media handles, you need to give value and value and value. You can give value by providing tips on your business which will help your friends and followers solve simple issues they have, or help them improve their current condition. These tips should be delivered weekly or twice a week. Make sure that you maintain the days and make your friends and followers anticipate the next one with endings like ‘Another fresh and interesting tip/advice/joke is coming your way same day next week’ or ‘Just as you know I am bringing another fresh and interesting tip/advice/joke next week’ or ‘Keep a date with me on Tuesday as I will be bringing new tips’. This way, your friends would be waiting eagerly for your next content.

At the end of every content you post on your personal handle, invite people to like and follow your social media business profiles. Put a link to your business accounts as well as your Whatsapp number.

If you sustain this for 3 months, your social media friends and followers would see you as an authority in that area and refer more people to you.

3.       Register on Anyservice.ng, Jiji.ng or similar platforms

There are many websites where you can just post your products for free for people that need your products. Such websites like jiji.ng, sellfast.ng, yakata.ng provide you opportunities to sell your products for free and upgrade to paid version if you wish. Seeing how difficult it is for service providers to advertise and market their services, I dug to find out platforms where service providers can advertise their services for free. Luckily, there are websites dedicated to service providers in Nigeria like Anyservice.ng and service.ng. For businesses outside Nigeria, angieslist.com is also a website where you can find/post your services for free. General, household, work and entertainment services are registered on these websites for free for people who need them. Most importantly, these websites are particularly known for services as they do not allow product sellers to register on them.

Now let us take a look at anyservice.ng for instance:

This website creates an online office for your business where you can showcase your services and describe your job for customers to find you. It allows prospective customers to checkout your past jobs through your photos, chat with you, rate your service and call your number directly.

To post your service on www.anyservice.ng, you need to first register on the platform to be granted access. Then click on ‘Add new service’ to post an advert for each of the services you render. The good thing is that you can post as many adverts as the number of different services you render. A beauty business which provides pedicure and manicure services in addition to body massage and makeup would place 3 different adverts, one for each of the three services they render.  

Comparison of anyservice.ng with Social media posting

4.       Start Writing a Blog

Starting a blog is one easy and free way to advertise your business for free. You can start a free blog on sites like Wordpress or Blogger.com and later upgrade to a paid version.

On your blog, write posts and articles that clearly explain different aspects of your business especially those aspects that worry your prospective clients. For instance, if you are an event planner, you could write posts about ‘How to find and choose a good event planner’, ‘The best season to host an event’, ‘What makes a perfect event’, ‘How I estimate the expected number of guests at a party’, ‘Wedding location and how it affects attendance’ etc. You see that the list of posts that an event planner can write is endless. Make sure that you are so detailed in your posts such that when a visitor finishes reading your post, they will be convinced that you can do the job. At the end of the post don’t forget to put down your contacts.

Some of the gains of starting a blog are as follows:

1.       It tells the world and your prospective clients that you have a very good knowledge of your business.

2.       It tells people how to reach you.

3.       Creates opportunities for you to be a consultant if you are really good at your job.

4.       Can bring you the opportunity to speak at events and conferences which enables your business gain popularity and trust in your area.

5.       You can also monetize your blog to make extra cash.

Advertising your business using a blog is closely related to how you advertise on social media. The main difference is that your contents and articles can easily be accessed by your friends and friends of your friends on social media whereas anybody can find and access your contents anywhere through your blog. Also, you cannot really write so much on social media whereas you can write and deliver as much information as you want on your blog. This is because people who visit blogs are generally open to reading long articles while on the other hand people go to social media to have fun and are not open to reading long posts. That is why long posts are often skipped on social media. Note, your blog would really not have traffic unless it is optimised for search engines.

5.       SEO Your Website

Does your business have a website or do you advertise your business through your blog? Then you must carry out an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to make your website or blog visible to millions of people that visit the website searching for contents related to your business. Without optimising your website/blog for search engines, it is as good as not having a website/blog.

You can perform an SEO for free if you know how to do it or if you have the time and patience to research about it. There are many aspects of SEO like link building, on-site SEO, off-site SEO etc. When starting off with your website/blog, you need to have SEO in mind as this will guide us in choosing proper titles for your posts or categories. Before you start a new category or writing a new post in your website/blog, carry out a keyword research of your intended topic and coin your title around the keywords with the highest traffic. 

If you do not have the time or expertise to carryout an SEO for your site or blog, then you have to outsource it. No matter what you do, make sure that your site/blog SEO is near perfect. You can find some affordable and good SEO companies in Nigeria like Crank Digital and VTNS.

6.         Create YouTube videos

Creating YouTube videos is a good way of advertising your business for free. These days people are lazy to read but quick to watch videos and you can tap into this by making quality online videos about your business. This is one of the cheapest ways of advertising your services for free because you only need a phone with a very good camera to start. After shooting the videos, download a video editing software to enable you trim and edit the videos to look good on youtube. Start a Youtube channel where you will be posting all your videos.

YouTube videos are related to giving contents by blogging just that here, you or someone else will have to sit down and explain or discuss your topic. Here, you also need to discuss your topics in details or show how it is done. A doctor, chef or baker on YouTube will need to explain and as well show the viewers how it is done. While a counsellor will only need to explain or discuss.

It is not easy to build YouTube subscribers unless you are a model or celebrity. However, if you produce regular quality content, then you will be favoured by YouTube viewers. And don’t forget to sell your business or products at some point during the video because that is the major reason why you started making the YouTube videos. As long as you give valuable and interesting contents, your viewers will always subscribe to your channel to see more of what you have in stock for them. One of the most effective ways of growing your Youtube subscribers is by cross-link posts on your Youtube channel and your social media accounts.

7.         Join relevant online communities and contribute

There are 2 ways to this one;

1.         Join relevant online communities.

2.         Contribute at relevant online communities.

As more people tilt towards the internet for information acquisition, participation in online forums and communities is surging. More people now visit forums to find and compare information from specialists concerning their needs and this makes online communities very important marketplaces. This method will pay you if you are knowledgeable in your field and willing to share your knowledge. Online communities like Quora.com and Nairaland.com are question and answer platforms where you can provide answers relevant to a person’s question. Just selling your business here will not cut it for you. But if you provide quality answers, then visitor on the forum will sought after you. When you find customers through online communities, you can charge higher than your normal price because that customer sees you as an authority in the field. Moreover, while providing information in the forums, you can subtly direct the reader to your business for more information/inquiries and this might lead to business. Now, the success of this deal solely depends on your ability to manage it as well as your knowledge base in that field.

Remember that your name (and sometimes qualification) is attached to your posts so people can attribute your quality posts to you or your business. On Nairaland you can make a name for yourself if your business is located in Nigeria while you can make name for yourself in your niche on Quora irrespective of where your business is located on the planet.  

8.         Email marketing

Do you know that it is easier to keep old customers than to find new ones? Yes, because old customers already know you and had trusted you once to patronize you. So, it will not be a hard thing to convince them to trust you again. Except if their first experience with you was terrible. And this is why email marketing works wonders.

So, email marketing is a system where businesses would deploy strategies for collecting the emails of their customers and people that have already patronized them at least once. This is more common with businesses that have websites (for small business owners who don’t own a website, you should practice message marketing… I will come to that later). If your business has website, you should include an opt-in page where customers can drop their email addresses. Then you can send them emails related to your other products and services taking into consideration the products/service they have bought from you in the past.

Ways you can use e-mail marketing

Use email marketing to inform and educate your customers.

Use it to upsell new and complimentary products to them.

Use it to felicitate with your customers in times of personal crisis, state crisis or national crisis.

Use it to inform your customers of latest developments in your business.

This way you will always be in the minds of your customers. I recommend that you do not drive your customers nuts with excess emails. Otherwise, they would unsubscribe from your email list.

Wait! I know you are thinking ‘small businesses do not gather emails’ but I will tell you how small businesses can still apply this email marketing techniques in a method I call ‘Message marketing’.

Message marketing is for small and medium businesses that do not own websites, thus they do not collect customer emails. You can do this by collecting customers’ whatsapp numbers. Convince your customers to give you their whatsapp numbers at the end of the transaction. Thereafter, send them greetings and try to create a kind of relationship with them. Send them ‘Happy new week’ wishes every Monday, advertise your business and offers to them on Wednesdays and send them jokes on Saturdays. This way, you will always remain in their minds and when you update your whatsapp status containing your business, they will see it.

You must be curious to know why I did not suggest normal phone messages but Whatsapp messages. It is because I want you to be able to show them pictures of what you are marketing. Moreover, Whatsapp messages do not have limits while normal phone messages have limits. This gives you room to express yourself in full. In addition, normal messages are not free (Whatsapp data charges are relatively less expensive). However, if you do not need to send them pictures of your services or products, you may wish to use normal phone messages.

One main reason why businesses love email marketing is that it keeps their memories fresh in your mind. All the big and great companies you know engage in email marketing. Great businesses like Jumia, Konga, Amazon, Sportsdirect and all banks engage in email marketing. They do this because it is one of the most effective and professional way of performing free advert.