It may be difficult for you to afford to invest heavily in marketing when you’re just starting, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t effective methods to promote your business.
Before the Internet, small businesses had just a few options when marketing their products, such as printouts or sponsoring small local activities. Now there are all sorts of online options available for free – you need to know where to go.
You can learn how to market your business by following these 18 marketing tactics.
18 Ways to Market Your Business
1. Capture Email Data
Make sure you have a way of collecting visitor emails so you can add them to your customer database. You may want to integrate an online signup form into your website.
Using this data, you can create different types of emails, including ones that contain offers or promotions. Make sure you’re GDPR compliant before doing so!
Related: How To Become A Professional Email Copywriter
2. Email Marketing
After collecting the data, you want to start doing something worthwhile. So set up an email list with MailChimp and distribute those emails.
Don’t be too promotional, and don’t spam them. Always provide genuine value to the recipients. If they receive too many emails, they may unsubscribe faster than you can say “digital marketing.”
Related: 9 Reasons Why Email Marketing Is So Important
3. Video Marketing
Video has become increasingly popular over the past few years, so jump on the bandwagon and get started!
Start by creating an account on YouTube. Then upload videos and start sharing them. Please ensure they’re high quality so people can see and enjoy them. Once you’ve built up a following, promote your own YouTube channel.
Related: Why Are Videos Important On Social Media?
4. Post to Facebook
Social networking websites can be an effective tool for promoting your brand. But they’re also a great place to find potential customers. So make sure you know what platforms work best for your industry before signing up.
Facebook is an excellent tool for almost any business. Unfortunately, the latest update has made it harder to get your posts seen by people who matter. But you can do better. Post regularly, be entertaining and exciting, don’t spam, and be genuinely interesting!
Related: How To Create A Facebook Ad That Gets Results
5. Interact with Industry Experts on Twitter
Twitter is not for everyone, but it has a lot of advantages. It’s an excellent way to engage with people who know their stuff and connect with others.
Respond to user comments, share the best user-generated posts, and provide genuine input into industry conversations.
Related: 8 Ways To Promote Your Blog Post Using On Social Media Platform
6. Create an Instagram
With its growing popularity, Instagram has become one of the most used social media platforms.
If your business would be better off with a more robust social media following, then spend some time making sure your Instagram account looks good. Remember that it’s a visual platform, which means that well-curated images that look nice are essential.
Related: 7 Effective Ways To Promote Your Blog On Social Media
7. Use Pinterest for website traffic generation
Pinterest doesn’t suit every business, but it can be effective for some. It has one of the highest conversions from visitors to buyers.
You can also generate lots of website visitors and learn more about what people want from your business.
Related: Social Commerce-How Social Media Can Help You Drive Sales For Your Business
8. Use LinkedIn to Connect with Professionals
If your business is B2B, then be sure to have a solid LinkedIn profile. It’s an excellent way to connect with relevant professionals and gain valuable insights into their professional lives.
Related: The Anatomy Of Effective Social Media Algorithms
9. Run Social Media Giveaways
Giving away free stuff is a good idea because it helps increase engagement and generate new followers. It can help thank existing fans and reach out to potential new ones.
It may not be completely free, but you don’t need to spend anything extra on giveaways. Just be sure to adhere to all the best practices when running one.
Related: 12 Inspiring Strategies For Content Creation On Social Media
10. Engage with social influencers
Influencers have large followings on social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, and others. They can help businesses gain exposure through sharing sponsored posts. Influencers often receive compensation for promoting brands they love.
Influencer marketing has become increasingly popular because of its ability to reach a large audience at an affordable price point. However, some influencer marketing campaigns can be expensive.
Related: 13 Types Of Influencer Marketing Campaigns To Complement Your Digital Marketing Strategy
11. Setup MSBing Webmaster & Google Search Console (GSC) Tools
You don’t need to have done so yet; however, if you haven’t already, go ahead and set up Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. These tools allow you to see helpful information regarding the keywords people use when looking for your site.
You can also add new pages to your site, which means they will appear sooner in the search engine result pages. Also, create XML sitemaps – it makes the search engines better at crawling your site.
Related: 12 Best SEO Tools To Boost Organic Traffic
12. Up to date your Google My Business
Make sure everything is up to date on your Google My Business page. Organize the photos to showcase only your best features.
Also, work on your local listings for both Bing and Yahoo. They’re also worth boosting your Google ratings.
Related: 6 Timely SEO Strategies And Resources For Voice Search
13. Ask Your Customers for Reviews
Make sure to generate as many positive customer testimonials and (review) ratings as possible for the review section.
If you want to get good customer reviews, you need to ask them for them. A simple “How did you enjoy using our product/service?” question will usually suffice.
14. Google Analytics
You need to link Google Analytics to your site to see where people are coming from and which pages they visit.
You need to see how people use your site, identify the pains they experience, and learn which parts of your site are the most popular. Then you can consider making changes and improvements to your website.
Related: Eight Things To Consider When Redesigning Your Website
15. Participate in Online Communities
By marketing your business online, you establish yourself as an authoritative source for your field. You can contribute to relevant forums, blogging, and social media discussions.
Provide genuine help and answers to questions people are asking. They will appreciate your input and hopefully become a customer.
Related: What Are Ways To Improve Website Traffic?
15. Content Creation
Content creation should be an integral part of any digital marketing campaign. But if you’re not creating content, you’re missing out on one of the most significant opportunities to grow your business.
You may have seen an alarming number of blogs online. Don’t just follow the crowd; be unique, helpful, and relevant.
Related: 12 Inspiring Strategies For Content Creation On Social Media
16. Guest Post
Guest posting is one of the essential parts of any online marketing campaign. However, only target relevant and high-quality websites, preferably ones with high domain authorities and no spam scores.
It’s an effective strategy for building awareness and securing backlink opportunities.
Related: 10 Proven Ways To Increase Website Traffic
17. Use blogging platforms
If your website has a blog, even though it may look pretty, it could be frustrating if your lovably written articles aren’t getting the exposure they deserve. Especially if you’re beginning, it can be crushing when you spend countless times writing an excellent post, only for two people (your mum and your best friend) to read it.
Blogging platforms, like Medium, offer ways to get your content out there. Follow their best practices when publishing content.
Related: Why Blogs Are Important For Websites?
18. Optimize your metadata
Write an SEO title and meta descriptions for each page and post you create. Make sure they’re as enticing and relevant as you possibly can.
Related: How To Write Meta Descriptions Correctly To Increase And Improve Rankings
The Bottom Line
So there you go. There’s plenty of information here to get you started. You should consider investing in a budget, though. That’ll help you out a lot. Have fun!
Get Started Today With Appledew US:
If you’re looking for digital marketers to help you improve your business’s online presence, we’d be happy to discuss our services with you. Contact us now for digital marketing consultation and to see how you can get started.