The Secret to Getting Free Promotion for Your Small Business
byline: Penelope Vaughan
The best things in life are often said to be free, and luckily for small business owners, that can often include promotion. Sure, you can spend lots of money on advertising and marketing, but if you know where to look (especially with the internet), you can get a surprising amount of promotion for entirely free. Want to know the secret? Keep reading.
Get On Social Media
The number one way to get free marketing for your business is to get on social media. It might seem straightforward, but social media provides an incredible potential audience for no money. Sure, paid advertising can get you in front of more people quicker, but you can still create a free business profile on several platforms and post content.
Know Your Audience
To avoid wasting your time maintaining ten different social media accounts, you should know your target market and use the platforms they're most likely to use. If you're aiming for Gen Z, for instance, Facebook probably isn't the best way to go. They're much more likely to use Instagram, so you'll get the most out of your time by creating profiles on those apps instead.
Once you've determined the best platforms for your time (and you should select at least three platforms to vary your audience), you have to know what information your target market needs out of your posts. Are they more inclined to watch videos? Focus your social media campaign on creating video content. Will they visit a blog? It might be time to create your own business blog.
The key to your social media marketing is to avoid straight-up promotional content all the time. Think about your own social media feed. If you've got a business that's just constantly feeding you advertisements all the time, are you likely to unfollow them? You probably are. Instead, you're more likely to follow businesses that deliver some value to you, whether it's in the form of entertainment or education.
Tips for Creating an Awesome Social Media Page
Now that you know why you need to have your business on social media, it's time for some tips on just how to create a great social media page for your business:
Design a good logo. An essential part of your brand development plan should be a really great-looking logo. If you don't have one yet, head to a logo creator app, where you can design one on your own for free.
Establish your brand's voice. The brands with some of the best social media pages have a distinctive voice. Wendy's, for instance, is well-known for trolling other fast-food companies on Twitter. Your social media voice should match other company communications, like email newsletters, for consistency.
Build a company website. Your social media should have some sort of website where your posts can take interested customers. This website should be optimized for viewing on mobile devices and should make any purchasing options quick and seamless. Here are some good tips for how to create a business website designed to sell on social media.
Experiment with your content. Before you jump into paid advertising, you should figure out what works for your target audience, which means you'll be doing some experimenting. Use organic posts to build your audience, and include multiple types of content in each post to figure out what does very well. For instance, if you include a video, an infographic, and an article in a post, the video might capture a larger audience than the article does. Figure out what works and repackage content to save yourself time and energy.