https://www.searchenginewatch.

com/2018/03/05/30-ways-to-market-your-online-business-
for-free/

The Ultimate Guide to Startup Marketing | The Startup Process

A marketing plan is as important as your business model once your business is up and running.
You might have a stellar idea and product and your company might have all the funding in the
world but all of that is worthless if you do not have customers. You need a marketing plan to
win and keep customers. A great marketing plan will have all the tools and strategies to help
you achieve your goals. So let us get straight to how to create the ultimate marketing plan for
your start-up.
Perform Situation Analysis
You have to begin with a thorough analysis of the current situation your company is in.
Understanding of your target market has to be clear and precise, as only that can lead to the
correct positioning for your product. Properly understand and define your strengths and
weaknesses and analyse your opportunities and threats. You will be able to get a sense of how
you can capitalise on your product and the current market scenario.
Perform Competitor Analysis
While you need to understand the features of your product, it is sometimes even more
important to know and understand what your competitors are offering. Only then can you
differentiate your product and decide its positioning in the market. What is it that you are
offering that no one else is? Describe your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Your product can
be better in terms of pricing or quality. At the end of the day, what you are offering has to
provide better value than your competition.
Define and Research your Target Audience
In today’s world, the needs and wants of target audiences are very specific. The segments can
be sharply defined and thus researching your target audience is of utmost importance. Use
primary research methods such as telephonic surveys, emails, personal interviews and focus
groups to gather as much as information as possible about your target audience. There are tons
of secondary data sources that can be used as well. Create buyer personas that show all aspects
of your target audience.
List your Objectives
What is it that you want your company to achieve? Is it profits that you are after or is it mind-
share? Can you sacrifice profits in the short run in order to register significant growth in the
long run? Make a list of all your goals – short term and long term, and make them quantifiable
so that at the end of the day, you can measure how well you have achieved them. Your goals
should be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound).
Fix your Budget
Fix a certain part of your revenue for marketing expenses. Marketing can be the lifeline for a
new business and setting aside a decent chunk for different channels can be a wise move. Even
if you are constrained by the budget, with so many different methods available today to reach
your intended audience, adjusting your marketing tactics can do wonders for your start-up and
that too well within your budget.
Position your Product
Although conventional wisdom says that positioning follows segmentation and targeting, many
brands position themselves and their products long before they even decide who they want to
sell to. Positioning is nothing but putting yourself in the minds of the consumer. If you want
your product to stand out, you have to position your product well. Learn how to create a
winning positioning strategy for your product or brand here.
Develop Marketing Strategy
When your marketing goals, budget, target audience and positioning are all decided, it is time
to get your hands dirty and get to the essence of your marketing plan i.e. the methods and
tactics you would use to reach your prospects and achieve your objectives, be it advertising,
social media marketing, public relations etc. Since there are various stages of a sales cycle,
there should be separate strategies to address all the stages, as the requirements differ at each
stage. Fine-tune your strategy to reach your target audience most effectively i.e. when they are
at their most receptive.
Test your Ideas
Just like your product, your marketing plan needs to be tested too before you decide to execute
your strategy. If it works out well, then you roll it out else you can learn from it and improve it
without spending your entire budget on a failed attempt. Keep what works, chuck what does
not.

You should never forget you will win and keep customers only with the right marketing efforts
and effective marketing starts with a well thought out marketing plan. Your marketing plan
needs to be constantly tweaked and improved with time for you and your product to stay
relevant. While most successful companies tend to stick to the plan, you must also constantly
review what you have achieved and where you need more help, as nothing goes as smoothly in
reality as planned initially.
The Startup Process
We know how important your dream business is to you. Therefore, we’ve come up with an all
in one guide: The Startup Process to help you turn your vision into reality.

23 Amazing Online Marketing Tactics for Small Businesses

With Low Budgets

If you’re reading this, I assume you’ve heard of the Internet.

Most people have.

At the time of writing this, InternetLiveStats shows that over 3.6 billion people are using
the Internet.

That’s a lot of people!

And the user base is steadily growing.

That’s why eMarketer estimates that digital ad spending will grow from $83 billion in 2017
to $129.23 billion by 2021.
In fact, 2017 is the year digital ad spending finally overtakes TV spending.
Mobile is a big part of that.

So are social media and video.

Over half that budget is being spent on Facebook and Google.

What a waste of money!

Don’t get me wrong. Targeted Google and Facebook Ads have their place, but there are
plenty of free ways to market online.

If you’re a small business owner trying to compete in the big leagues, this blog is for you.

I’m going to share a list of all the free tools and strategies that can help you compete with
major conglomerates through content marketing.

I’ll also explain how to minimize costs and stretch budgets for things you can (or have to)
pay for.

It doesn’t take a huge corporate budget to compete online.

Let’s get started.

1. Tighten up your SEO
The first thing you need to do is analyze your current SEO situation.

I have an SEO Analyzer tool on my website because I understand how important this is.
All you have to do is enter your URL to get a deep, page-level SEO analysis.

You can also check how your site compares to the competition.

Enter 3 additional websites for a competitive analysis.

Of course, mine is just one of many SEO tools.

I don’t see SEMRush as a competitor but as a supplementary tool for checking a site’s
SEO.

These tools are free, so why not get multiple opinions?

Here’s what SEMRush has to say about NeilPatel.com.

This shows us how many keywords I rank for, along with how many backlinks I’ve earned.

You’ll notice I don’t spend any money on paid Google ads.

The $500k+ cost of my traffic was earned organically for free.

The main components you’re looking for on my SEO analyzer are which keywords you rank
for, along with their frequency of usage.
It’s also important to know if the keywords are used in the title tag, description tag, and
header tags.

Google gives more weight to these factors.

Once you have a general idea of how you’re ranking against everyone else, you can start
to improve.

2. Perform more keyword research

I can’t stress enough how important keyword research is.

Even though I’ve been in the game for a long time, I still perform fresh keyword research
several times a week.

That’s how you stay on top of search results!

If you don’t already know, Google Adwords has a great Keyword Planner Tool.

It’s the first place you should go to research relevant keywords that you can rank for.

An easy way to use Keyword Planner is to check for searches related to keywords that
show up in your Google Analytics Acquisition reports.
For every search term that already points to your website, you’ll get a handful more.

That opens up a lot of opportunities for you to rank against your competitors!

What it takes to hit all those keyword opportunities is pages with content.

You’ll need to start a blog.

3. Start a blog
According to WordPress, every month, more than 409 million people read over 23.7
billion blog posts on its platform.

That’s a lot of content, so you’re going to need a quality blog to draw attention to your
site.

Hiring a content mill to fill pages with overstuffed keywords that provide no value to
readers won’t do any good.

Blogs are the 5th most trusted online resource according to recent research.
Creating a blog should be an option within your CMS, but if it’s not, a separate blog
hosted on WordPress or Blogspot can prove just as useful.

Just be sure your contact information is readily available.

If you’re wondering how long it takes to write a quality blog post, nearly half of bloggers
say they spend 1-3 hours on each post.

A blog is the foundation of a few other tactics I’ll discuss later in this list, so get started
today.

4. Join or create a Facebook group

Facebook Groups are underrated by marketers.
These user-administrated public forums within Facebook allow like-minded people to
discuss and share ideas.
Keep in mind that most group moderators will remove overly spammy posts and people.

The trick to marketing in Facebook Groups is sharing valuable content (which is why a blog
is helpful for your website).

Many groups have memberships that range from 1,000 to 100,000, but some get even
bigger.

Search for groups using Facebook’s search bar, or scroll through its suggestions a few
times a month to expand your audience.

When you reach advanced status, you can create your own Facebook Group, which is
much more effective for audience growth than a business page or profile.

Facebook Groups are a goldmine for small businesses that are looking for an edge over
the competition without spending money.

5. Participate in forums
Of course, Facebook isn’t the only online forum where you can participate in discussions.

Getting involved in other forums is a great way to spread the word about your brand (and
sprinkle backlinks around the web).

Besides social media platforms, group discussions are held on websites

like Reddit and Tumblr.
Building your reputation on community forums like these help people see you as an
innovative thought leader in your industry.

It’s a great marketing strategy for building trust.

Quora is another platform I recently got attached to.

On Quora, you can answer questions as an expert and gain a level of credibility by
showcasing your inside knowledge.

Quora rewards visual content, so format your posts for your specific audience.

6. Comment on relevant content

Once you have some blog posts published, an effective (and free) way to get backlinks on
reputable sites is to put them there yourself.

Comment on relevant articles with valuable advice, and provide a link to your blog for
more information.

But it can’t be spammy!

Here’s a great blog comment that works for conversions.

Bloggers love generating comments, and the author of the blog post you comment on is
likely to read it.

It opens more conversation and networking opportunities.

The more you comment, the more brand awareness you generate. People will start to
recognize your name and business.

7. Build an email list

Email lists are often overlooked by startups, entrepreneurs, and small businesses.

A solid email list is worth its weight in gold!

The majority of marketers find that email marketing serves as a top channel for lead
generation.

For every $1 spent on an email marketing campaign, companies achieve an average $44 in
ROI.

It’s consistently found to be more effective than Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other
social channels.

Emails are more likely to be read than social media posts, and the clickthrough rates are
amazing!

An email automation platform like MailChimp or Constant Contact is worth the expense if
you can afford it.
These platforms provide simple templates and automated emails based on triggered
events.

It’s not necessary to start off with an email automation platform, but you’ll at least n eed a
list.

Also, be sure there’s an email subscription option on each of your web properties.

The larger your qualified email contact list, the more successful your business will
become.

8. Start an eBay store

If you sell any type of good, you need to be on eBay.

Think that it’s just an auction site for used goods?

You’ve been asleep for the last decade.

In the past few years, eBay has grown up quite a bit.

Check out Best Buy’s eBay storefront. It looks just like the company’s website.
Everybody is on eBay, and it’s easy to see why.

The gross volume of merchandise sold on the site was $21.5 billion for the second quarter
of 2017.
Not only will you benefit from visibility with eBay’s 171 million active monthly users, but
you’ll also gain access to a suite of tools from the eBay Partner Network.

The company’s own marketing and sales tools are pretty useful.

You can even have the local post office deliver free boxes to your door and pick up
shipments.

The power of eBay doesn’t stop on the site.

Rebuyers is one of many marketing automation platforms that can reach your customers.

If you’re not using eBay, you’re leaving money on the table.

There’s only one e-tailer bigger than eBay that you should target.

9. Use Amazon fulfillment

Amazon is another e-commerce platform you may not realize the marketing benefits of
joining.

You’ll have your products and brand featured on a website that’s worth two full
Walmarts!
In fact, by some estimates, Amazon’s Prime Day 2017 had a bigger impact on the retail
industry than Black Friday.
Being featured in a sale like this would be great for any business. In fact, being featured
by Amazon at all is great.

One of the best ways to increase sales is to include Prime Shipping, which is only available
for FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) sellers.
This also increases your visibility on Amazon searches.

With over 8 million Echo and Echo Dots on the market, Amazon product searches could
bypass Google entirely.
10. Post Craigslist ads
Nearly 600 million people visit Craigslist every month!
That’s a large audience you don’t want to ignore.

Whether you need new customers or employees, Craigslist is a great (free) place to
search.

There are over 50 million queries performed on the site every day.

Alexa ranks it as the 14th most popular website in the United States.
Why not use this to your advantage?

Posting a basic Craigslist ad with the right images can help drive sales. It can be renewed
after 30 days for an additional 90 days.

At that point, you can repost it.

Because of its separate geographic sites, Craigslist is especially useful for localized
marketing efforts.

Because you can anonymize yourself, it’s also a great platform to try new marketing
templates and techniques.

Sales made on Craigslist don’t carry the same fees associated with eBay and Amazon sales,
so there’s less overhead too.

11. Utilize Facebook Live

You’re already on Facebook with a profile, page, and group.
Why not add Facebook Live to the mix?

Facebook reports that 20% of its videos are live.

Live-streaming on Facebook is the latest trend that marketers can take advantage of.

Plenty of brands are winning at this, but LuLaRoe stands on top for its unique approach to
Facebook Live marketing.

The company’s sales reps use Facebook Live videos to host online parties similar to
Tupperware or PartyLite parties.

A recent partnership with Disney has sent this company’s value skyrocketing to over $1
billion.
It doesn’t take a fancy professional studio. Many Facebook Live videos are shot on
smartphones.

12. Guest post on industry blogs

Not only should you create your own blog, but once you get good at it, you should post on
other influential blogs.

This is a great way to build backlinks and gain a lot of weight with search algorithms.
I spend a lot of time guest posting for this exact reason.

Aside from specialized online marketing blogs and publications, you can find my work in
mainstream media outlets like Huffington Post.

I also regularly contribute to Forbes.

I’ve had a regular column on that platform for some time now.
Because I run my own business, I was invited to write for Entrepreneur.
That was truly an honor.
I’ve also been published in Inc.
These are just a few of my guest posting credits.
It wasn’t easy, but it was worth the effort to get my blog on the map.

You can replicate my success by getting published on prestigious platforms.

13. Sign up at HARO as a source

Even if you’re not a great writer, you can still be featured in major media outlets.

Instead of writing the article yourself, you can provide a quote by signing up as a source
at HelpAReporterOut.com.
These targeted email lists will keep you updated on the stories that are being written by
different outlets.

You can appear on platforms ranging from blogs and podcasts to television and radio
shows using HARO.

It’s called earned media, and it’s one of the best ways to pick up loyal customers.

Be sure to respond with the actual answer — not just an offer to provide one.

Journalists hate having their time wasted and are unlikely to respond to cl ick bait teasers.
If you stay persistent, HARO can pay off big.

14. Appeal to a foreign market

Just because you’re a small business doesn’t mean you have to limit your marketing
efforts to local markets.

In fact, picking up customers in foreign markets could be the secret sauce that makes your
business work.

To do it, you’ll need to start picking up foreign traffic.

To do this, you’ll need to localize your content for foreign markets.

If you wanted to reach people in Russia, for example, you would target VKontakte instead
of Facebook.

In China, you’d target RenRen.

Writing in another language helps, as well.

Google’s native translation app does a decent job with the wording, but you’ll need a
native speaker to do it right.

The Internet broke down geographic barriers. Take advantage of this fact.

15. Register on freelancing platforms

Freelance platforms like Fiverr are underrated resources for marketing your business
services.
Crowdsourcing is a popular method of task completion, and Fiverr is a great place for it.
If your digital marketing company excels at SEO analysis, for example, you can focus on
selling that specific task.

While major corporations need complicated SLAs, Fiverr is a fast and efficient
marketplace.

Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform is another great platform for a different type of
cheap digital marketing.
Amazon promotes this service as artificial intelligence.

Instead of automating marketing tasks, you can have them completed by a global
workforce of thousands.

16. Host your video content on YouTube

Video marketing is a major trend for 2017.

Nearly 75% of all Internet traffic is video these days.

If video rules, YouTube is the king of video.
It’s the second largest search engine online, lagging only behind Google.

By hosting your video content on YouTube, you’ll expose your content to a new audience.

You can also monetize your YouTube videos to open a new revenue stream.

I recently started focusing more efforts on YouTube myself.

Video on your landing page increases conversions by 80%.

Hosting video on your own servers can cripple site speed.
With site speed being a crucial element of search rankings, you can’t afford to self-host.

And remember that YouTube is only one of many social platforms.

17. Stay active on social media

The majority of social media users use their platform of choice at least daily.
These social media sites have hundreds of millions of users, too.
You can’t afford to miss out on these opportunities.
You can’t just randomly spam people, though.

To be successful on social media, you need to provide value to the conversation.

Staying active on social media builds your following and your followers’ trust in you.

That way, when you do post links, your followers will be more likely to click.

18. Automate everything

Marketing automation is the way of the future. For every task that you assign to humans,
there might be a machine that can do it faster, more accurately, and cheaper.
More than 11x more companies are using marketing automation these days than back in
2011.

There are plenty of marketing automation tools available for you to use, an d I already
mentioned a few.

MailChimp, Rebuyers, and ConstantContact are great marketing automation platforms.

They’re not the only ones.

HootSuite is a great social media post automation suite.

Using HootSuite, you can schedule and automate social media posts across multiple
platforms.

It’s an invaluable tool for any social media marketing campaign.

Keep an eye out for any repetitive and mundane tasks that can be automate d.

19. Respond to online reviews

Online reviews are a major part of business these days.
Search for an Italian restaurant on Google Maps, and you’ll see reviews front and center.
Yelp is consistently used before making purchase decisions, too.
People consistently check online reviews to learn about other people’s experiences with a
business, brand, or product.

It’s a matter of trust. We trust consumer reviews online more than any source other than
our own friends.
By responding to online reviews, you not only show the customer that you provide great
service, but everyone else who researches your company will see it, too.

It’s a win-win situation for everyone!

Just be sure not to respond nastily to negative reviews, or you’ll end up hurting your
business more than helping.

Check out my blog for more information on how to get more online reviews.
20. Send free samples to influencers
Free samples are a great way to entice more sales.

It’s used to great effect at Costco, where members are greeted with free food samples
every weekend.

It’s an even better bet online, where consumers are 71% more likely to make a purchase
based on referrals from social media influencers.

Klout is a great service to help you get your products into the hands of influencers.
Users log in and connect their social accounts and blogs to create a Klout score from 1 -
100 that shows how influential they are on particular subjects.

All you need to do as a brand is determine what Klout score you want and in which
categories. Then you can send your product samples in to be distributed.

Users who receive them are encouraged to share the love on social media, helping create
a buzz for your brand.

You don’t have to use Klout to find social influencers, though.

You can simply search for hashtags and see which posts get the most engagement.
Contact the owners of those accounts to create marketing relationships.

21. Create a referral program

Since its launch in 2007, Dropbox has quickly become a market leader in cloud storage.
The platform now has over 500 million users, 200,000 of whom actually pay to use the
service.
It achieved this milestone through its popular referral program, which offers 500MB – 1GB
of free space to anyone who refers a member.

This gamification aspect led to more customers sharing and using the service.

You can replicate this success with a customer referral program of your own.
22. Roll out an affiliate program
On the other side of a referral program is an affiliate program.

With an affiliate program, you incentivize bloggers, YouTubers, and other content creators
to post links to your site.

In exchange for posting referral links, affiliates get a percentage of sales as a commission.

Recent research on Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2016 found that affiliate merchants
had a 45.7% increase in new customers.
Amazon has a popular affiliate program.
What’s great about these affiliate links is that they create in-feed links within the content.

A recent Forrester survey found that half of American adults actively avoid web ads.
By using an affiliate program, you can still reach these discerning eyes.

It may seem difficult to give away 5-10% of profits, but smaller margins on larger volume
make more money in the long run.

Try starting your own affiliate program to encourage micro influencers and influencers to
sell your products for you.
23. Keep your business current on maps
Some people will only use a mapping program to find businesses.

This is especially true when traveling.

Wouldn’t it be a shame if they couldn’t find your business?

What if they can’t contact you? What if they show up outside of business hours?

These are the kinds of bush league mistakes that happen when you don’t keep your
business information updated on mapping platforms.

At Google My Business, you can claim your business and do exactly that!
Plenty of link aggregators and other platforms mine Google Maps for information, so
keeping this listing updated works to your advantage.

It’s the equivalent of being listed in the Yellow Pages back in the 1980s.

If you’re not listed correctly on Google Maps, Foursquare, Apple Maps, and Yelp, now’s
the time to fix it.
Conclusion
While more and more companies are spending more and more money on digital
marketing, the free methods are still incredibly effective.

Small businesses can take advantage of a ton of free tools to collaborate globally and
compete against big businesses.

Marketing buzzwords like CRO, SEO, and content marketing aren’t out of reach of the
average person.

You just need to take the time to utilize them

21 Ways to Market Your Business Online

However, today, with the evolution of Google's core search algorithms, and in the wake of

major adjustments that have gone by names like Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird, being

found on the web has become likened to obtaining a doctoral degree in physics or

mathematics.

As entrepreneurs, we all know that the best way to market any business online is to be found
organically through a search at the top of Google's search engine results pages (SERPs). It's free
and offers near-limitless traffic to those who can master this highly-convoluted field of online
search. But doing that has also become a monumental undertaking.
Related: The Difference Between External and Internal Links

On the other end of the spectrum, many of us are online-searching sleuths. We're
professionals, able to gracefully surf the world's annals of information effortlessly and with
ease. We can tap into the vast knowledge available at a moment's notice from powerful,
blazing-fast pocket computers, on cue and at any time. Yes, we most certainly know how to
conduct a search.

However, as a business owner or professional, you know quite well that this isn't the case for
being found. Appearing relevantly for highly-competitive keywords has become an ever-
increasingly difficult task. But how else are we supposed to market our businesses online if we
can't appear competitively on Google's SERPs? And how is that some people seem to dominate
Google's searches while others seem to falter and fail?

Clearly, it's not easy. That might also be the reason why the world's foremost SEO specialists
can command thousands of dollars per hour to analyze, tweak and optimize sites for specific
keywords. Surely, this is no small feat. What people don't realize is that there are fundamentals
building blocks in place that make it difficult to make considerable traction over a period of
weeks or even months.

Translation? Anyone who's interested in dominating search must know that it takes years and
years to build up the type of link profile, authority and content to rank almost effortlessly for
specific keywords. The truth of the matter? You need to do the most amount of work for the
least initial return if you're serious about gaining any traction with organic marketing online.

The problem? We're the product of an instant-gratification society. We want things, and we
want them now. This is partially born from our genetic makeup, but further fostered by media
and societal norms that highlight the hedonistic pleasures associated with enjoying life's most
primal urges to eat, earn and procreate.

Yet, in order to succeed in business or in life, you need to do the most amount of work for the
least initial return, not the other way around. You need to endure the pain if you want to
experience the pleasure. And when it comes down to marketing your business, you'll most
certainly experience tremendous amounts of pain if you don't know what you're doing.

How do you market your business online?

What does it take to market your business online? Without waiting years and years to move up
the rankings on Google's SERPs, how can an entrepreneur get the proverbial word out? There
are definitely some ways to market your business that will offer a better return on the
investment of your time than others. Some will take weeks to pan out; while others will take
months and years.

No matter what method you choose for marketing your business on the web, as long as you
ensure that you're adding value along the way, and you're implementing the proper set of
marketing habits, you'll eventually reap the rewards of your work over time. It won't happen
overnight. But then again, nothing worthwhile ever does. Below you'll find some the best
methods -- in both the short and long term -- for driving that all-important traffic to your site
and pages online.

1. Create a blog and post high-quality content regularly.

Clearly, the most important way you can market your business online is to build a blog where
you can post and share high-quality content that adds an exceeding high amount of value on a
regular basis. This is definitely a very long-term strategy, and it won't pay off overnight, but
every entrepreneur needs to understand the importance of embracing this online marketing
method.
Not only does building a noteworthy blog in any industry or niche help to drive traffic by
peaking the interest of Google, but it also leads to creating authority. If you can become an
authority in your industry, you'll garner the attention of consumers, the media and business
owners alike. That, in turn, will snowball, build more authority, and eventually, enormous
amounts of visibility and sales.

2. Market your content on Medium and Quora.

If you're looking to get some early traffic, and you have a fairly new domain -- less than 2 years
old with little authority built up -- you should work on marketing your content on sites
like Medium and Quora. How does it work? Write one high-quality piece of content on your
website. Make sure it's keyword-centric, insightful, unique and adds a lot of value. Ensure that
whatever you're talking about helps people in some way, shape or form.

Once you've done that, write another article on a site like Medium or Quora, also making sure
that it's keyword-centric, insightful, unique and adds a lot of value. Create one link from that
article using a primary or relevant keyword back to the main article on your site or blog. This is
called content marketing, and it's the most powerful method for gaining traction on Google's
SERPs, while also reaching large existing audiences through these authority sites as well.

3. Connect with others on LinkedIn groups.

LinkedIn groups are a great way for quickly connecting with others in your industry or niche to
help spread your message. You can promote your content through LinkedIn groups as long as
you don't come across as spammy. It's best to add value to a conversation or discussion before
trying to drop your links.

LInkedIn groups are also a great way of contacting people who you might not have mutual
connections with. You can message any other member in the group without being connected,
which can become a huge asset depending on the particular circumstances. Share updates
often in the group, and be sure to stay in the spotlight without oversharing.

4. Use Facebook ads and strategically-targeted landing pages.

Facebook ads, while not free, offer a great opportunity for reaching the right demographics for
your business. As long as you know your customer well, you can use metrics like interests,
geographic location, marital status, age and many others, to locate potential consumers to send
to strategically-targeted landing pages, also known as squeeze pages.

Experiment with micro-spends to see which ad copy and squeeze page receives the best
responses for dropping consumers into your sales funnel. It might take a considerable amount
of time to find the right mixture or recipe when it comes to advertising on a platform like
Facebook, but once your campaign is profitable, all you need to do is continue to scale.

5. Leverage the power of Instagram influencers.

Today, with the ever-pervading power of social media, you can instantly reach droves of people
from across the world at a moment's notice. But we also know that algorithms and visibility are
working against us, especially when we don't have the reach of hundreds of thousands or
millions of followers.

To reach those people, we need amplifiers, power users and influencers to help spread our
messages. While this won't be free, it will give you instant access to a wide audience in your
specific niche as long as you select the right Instagram influencer to help spread your message.

Related: 10 Online Marketers to Follow For Inspiration and Growth

6. Create useful video tutorials on YouTube.

YouTube offers a great resource for marketing your business on the web. While you might find
some friction at the outset for building your audience, if you focus on creating useful video
tutorials, eventually, you'll reach a vast amount of people. Again, you have to focus on adding
value without much concern for generating profit.

YouTube is a great resource for tutorials because you can teach people just about anything in
an easy-to-understand format. Whether you're screen-sharing to teach a digital skill, or you're
capturing something in the real world, just ensure that the quality of the recording and the
overall content is high. Also, be sure to drop a link inside the description back to relevant
content on your site.

7. Develop a relationship with your customers through email marketing.

Email marketing is something that every business owner should be engaged in, but it's no easy
feat. To succeed with email marketing, you need to give something away for free in exchange
for the consumer's email address. It needs to be something of value. If you are serious about
collecting emails, take the time to create a free report or ebook that will help people in your
industry or niche. Then, develop a relationship with that consumer through drip-fed campaigns
using a system like Aweber, Get Response, Constant Contact or Mailchimp. However, don't try
to sell at every corner and turn. Connect first, then focus on selling.

8. Use Angie’s List or TripAdvisor.

Sites like Angie's List and TripAdvisor offer an avenue for just about any business to reach an
enormous audience of potential consumers. These sites are a great resource for finding any
local business, giving you the opportunity to have consumers leave reviews based on their
experiences with your company.

If you're selling services, try Angie's List. If you're in a travel-related field, why not list on
TripAdvisor? Not only are these links good for SEO, but you'll also gain access to a large
audience of consumers that are looking for products or services in your industry or niche. Take
the time to create a good listing, and drive customers there to post authentic reviews based on
their experiences with you.

9. Build consumer trust on platforms like Yelp and Trust Pilot.

One of the barriers holding back business owners and professionals alike is that of trust. People
are reluctant to trust businesses that they don't have direct knowledge of or know someone
who's worked with them. Clearly, sites like Yelp can assist with that, but so can a site like Trust
Pilot.

Trust Pilot and Yelp are specifically dedicated to helping consumers find the right company to
work with, and it increases transparency by providing past customers' experiences with the
company. These sites are the largest in the world for online reviews and should be leveraged to
help build trust with potential consumers.

10. Utilize rich snippets, AMP and FBIA.

If you're looking to gain a bit of traction with your content, you can utilize rich
snippets, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) or Facebook Instant Articles (FBIA) to aid in some
early exposure. Rich snippets apply to a number of content forms including articles via the AMP
specification, local businesses, music, recipes, reviews, TV, movies and videos.

There are Wordpress plugins you can use for rich snippets via Schema.org's specifications, along
with plugins for both AMP and FBIA. Considering the recent focus on mobile by Google and
Facebook, for example, having AMP and FBIA articles will give you a small advantage over those
who don't, increasing your visibility on SERPs and in newsfeeds.

11. Collaborate with popular bloggers in your niche.

Reaching out to to popular bloggers in your niche might be an effective way to market your
business online, especially if you have something of value to add to one of their posts. If you
find a popular blogger who often writes about a particular subject that directly correlates to
your line of work, why not reach out and look for ways to collaborate?

A great way to make this happen is to offer your services as a guest blogger. Clearly, you'll have
to have a good background in writing yourself, and it might be difficult to find a popular blog
willing to allow you to do this, but it would be worth a shot if you eventually secure a guest
post.

12. Regularly contribute on industry-specific forums.

Many people have the whole forum-strategy posting for SEO all wrong. They get out there and
drop spammy links, and they wonder why they're booted off the forums. You can't do that. If
you're serious about marketing your business online, when you do find an industry-specific
forum, join conversations and add value before you try to link-drop.

No one likes a person who comes in as a new guest to a forum and begins spamming links.
Again, you have to think about doing the most amount of work for the least initial return. Add
value. Chat with others. Make suggestions. Answer questions. Just don't spam links. Add your
link to your signature after a few posts or after the rules of the forum allow you to do so, but
don't try to direct people to your site at every bend and turn. It won't work out well for you if
you do that.

13. Offer a free product or service to customers.

Studies have confirmed that people are more likely to accept something for free than they are
to pay a nominal price for it. So, why not provide a free service or product to your customers?
Maybe you offer a free 15-minute consultation or an entry-level product that you want to give
away.

Whatever you offer, be sure to secure the customer's contact details so you can get in touch
with them later. If you're giving away a service for free, you have an opportunity right then to
upsell those customers to your paid services. People are more likely to feel like they owe you
when they accept something for free as well.

14. Use business listing sites like Yahoo Local and Google Local.

If you're running a local business and looking to attract nearby customers to a brick-and-mortar
location or offering some professional service that's geographically-specific, you should list your
business on local business listing sites such as Yahoo Local and Google Local.

Google Local is an especially powerful way to list and verify your business information,
providing public details such as your company's address for Google Maps appearances, store
hours and other information related to your business. Ensure that you keep this information
accurate and up-to-date.

15. Optimize your website for SEO.

Clearly, optimization of your site for relevant keywords is an important aspect of marketing
your business online. However, the one thing to keep in mind is that if your business is new -
- less than two years old -- and you've built very little authority or content, you're going to have
a hard time ranking at the top of Google's SERPs for any keyword that's marginally competitive.

The goal is to build excellent content, but also ensure that you optimize your site's On-Page and
Off-Page SEO. While this can become a very lengthy discussion, pay attention to things like your
site's speed, mobile usability, meta descriptions, link profile, reading level, citing of
sources, content quality, insightfulness and so on. This is more likened to a marathon than a
sprint, so don't get discouraged in the short term if you don't see enormous results.

16. Co-sponsor an award or giveaway in a contest.

Find something that you can give away and co-sponsor an award or contest with another
company, group or professional in your field. Use tools like LinkedIn and Facebook to network
with others, and locate another like-minded company or professional willing to conduct an
award or giveaway with you. The whole point here is to again add value in the public eye.

17. Give a talk at a professional conference or on a webinar.

If you're an authority in your field, why not give a talk at a professional conference or webinar?
Of course, TED Talks would be the first suggestion for professional conferences, but you could
speak at a number of other kinds of conferences or even webinars conducted online.

When it comes to online marketing, webinars are one of the most powerful tools for selling
nearly anything to a highly-engaged audience. And the larger that audience, the more likely
you'll be able to sell your products or services. Long term, this would most certainly give you
exposure and allow you to build more authority over time, and it's an excellent portfolio piece
or resume item that can be used as well, especially in the case of professional speaking
engagements.

Related: Why You're Not (Yet) a Great Public Speaker (and 5 Things You Can Do About It)

18. Use press releases to communicate important company news or events.

Press releases aren't going to get you immediate media coverage. While some media
professionals will use outlets such as Help a Reporter, or even scour press release sites such
as PR Web, you're likely not going to get any type of instant news coverage by putting out a
press release.

However, a press release that's well-written and has a healthy link profile can assist you
marginally with SEO, but it can also allow you to communicate important company news or
events that you can then use to actively pursue media outlets with through the proper PR
channels.

19. Create a branded email signature.

One of the simplest ways that you can market your business online is by using a branded email
signature. Place your links and any potential accolades your company might have received
directly into your email signature. This helps to passively promote your business to people that
you're in contact with on a daily basis.

You should include social media links in your email signature too, along with any relevant links
to important company marketing pieces -- digital brochures or news pieces that feature your
company. Drop a small tagline or one-sentence catchphrase about your business and its mission
as well.

20. Implement the 80-20 rule to identify and market to high-value clients.
The 80-20 rule, or the Pareto Principle, states that 80 percent of the results come from 20
percent of the efforts. Basically, it's only a small portion of what we do that actually produces
results. However, this also applies to sales, which states that 80 percent of your revenue comes
from 20 percent of your clients.

If you can identify which clients are generating the most income for your business, you can
scale your sales out by sending them additional offers and discounts for other services and
products. You can also gear your online marketing directly to these clients if they're using a
portal system to login or if they're being tracked by cookies.

21. Post photos and videos with relevant hashtags on Pinterest, Flickr, Tumblr and Instagram.

There are a number of high-domain authority sites that you can post photos and videos on to
build a following. Pintrest, Flickr, Tumblr and Instagram come to mind first. Use relevant
hashtags and descriptions to properly categorize what you're posting about, and follow others
in your industry or niche posting with those hashtags.

This isn't an online marketing technique that will get you instant sales or even instant traffic.
It'll take time. But as long as you're adding value and you're passionate about what you're
doing, you'll build that following up over the coming months and years. Be sure to comment,
like and engage with other people's posts as much as possible in order to get yourself out there
in the beginning.

30 ways to market your online business for free

Content Local SEO Social Video 05 Mar 18 | Jessie Moore

For many people and businesses, the word ‘marketing’ conjures up visions of pricey
marketing strategies and excessive expenditure.

With a high number of businesses all vying for exposure among the vast digital landscape, it can
sometimes feel like fighting a losing battle, especially for those just starting out.

However, it doesn’t have to be expensive: there are plenty of free ways to market a business. In this
post, we share our top tips for how to market your online business for free – 30 different ways in fact.
Here goes…

1. Capture email data

Ensure that you have a method of capturing email data from website visitors. Integrate an email sign
up option onto your site and begin building a database of customer data.

WHITEPAPER

SEO for Website Redesign and Migration

Ever-Changing GoalPosts - SEO Challenges and How to Overcome Them

7 Unexpected PPC + SEO Strategies for Growth Marketing

All About Click Fraud and How You Can Block It

You can then use this data for a range of marketing incentives, such as email marketing or
creating custom audiences on Facebook for targeted advertising. (Just make sure you’re GDPR
compliant…)
2. Email marketing

You’ve got the data, now you need to do something useful with it. Start by setting up a free account
with Mailchimp, and start distributing those emails.

Avoid being overly promotional and always offer something genuinely useful to the recipients. Keep
the emails regular but never bombard, otherwise people will hit unsubscribe quicker than you can
say ‘digital marketing’.

3. Video marketing

You’d be mad to ignore the proliferation of video over the past few years. Jump on the bandwagon
and start engaging in some video marketing.

Begin by setting up a YouTube channel. You don’t have to create Hollywood-esque movies – just a
simple video blog will do. If you’ve got something useful to say, then say it on video. It also makes
for highly shareable, marketable content – plonk it on your website, push it out on social, and include
in your emails.

4. Post to Facebook

It goes without saying that social media is one of the most valuable marketing tools out there. And
it’s free. FREE. It’s best not to go signing up for every social media platform under the sun, just focus
on those most suitable to your business.

Facebook is a viable option for almost all businesses. Unfortunately, the latest algorithm
updates have made it harder than ever for businesses to gain visibility in the news feed without
paying. But, you’ve got nothing to lose. Post regular updates – be engaging and exciting, don’t be
too promotional, and be genuinely interesting.

5. Interact with industry experts on Twitter

Twitter isn’t for everyone, but it does carry a whole array of benefits. It’s a great platform for
engaging with industry experts and customers, as it’s a place where anyone can talk to anyone.
Respond to customer feedback, retweet the best user-generated content, and offer genuine input to
industry discussions.

6. Create an Instagram

A popular contender among social media platforms, Instagram has an ever-increasing user base.

If your business would benefit from a visual presence, then make sure you are dedicating time to
building a strong Instagram account. Remember that it’s a visual platform, so carefully curated
content that looks amazing is key.
7. Generate website traffic with Pinterest
Pinterest isn’t suitable for a lot of businesses, but can work really well for some. The platform has
one of the highest conversion rates in terms of converting browsers into buyers.
You can also generate significant website traffic and find out more about what your target users love.
8. Build your network on LinkedIn

If your business is a B2B company, be sure to have a strong presence on LinkedIn. It’s also a great
place for building your network. The same rules apply to LinkedIn as other social platforms – engage
with relevant people and offer genuine insight.

9. Publish to Google Plus – yes, really!

Google Plus, that strange little platform that never quite hit the big time. Yet it’s still plodding along
hoping that one day, something, anything will happen that propels it into social media stardom (not
likely).

Still, despite the failings of Google Plus, it is still worth getting into the habit of pushing out any new
content via Google Plus. After all, it’s a product of Google and if you want to climb those rankings,
we suggest keeping Google sweet.

10. Start using Google Posts

Aim to publish regular updates via Google Posts for greater visibility in the search engine results
pages. Posting to Google allows businesses to share content with people that is relevant to the
search queries being inputted. It’s a great way of gaining a little extra exposure.

11. Encourage UGC

User-generated content (UGC) is content that has been created and published by unpaid fans of
your business. It’s when someone loves your product or service so much that they take it upon
themselves to share their experience with friends and family, usually via social media.

UGC typically occurs naturally, but there is no harm in encouraging it – if you don’t ask you don’t get!
You can highlight the best posts every week on your social media channels, and even offer prizes to
customers who get featured.

And speaking of prizes…

12. Run social media giveaways

Running social media giveaways is a sure-fire way of increasing engagement and generating new
followers. Not only can it be a nice way of saying thank you to existing customers and fans, it’s also
a handy way of reaching potential new customers.

Okay, so it’s not entirely cost free, as you’ll need to give away a product, but there’s no need to
spend any money on top of that. Just be sure to follow all the best practices of running a giveaway.

13. Engage with social influencers

Influencer marketing is a huge industry. For those unfamiliar with how it all works, a business pays
or offers free products to a blogger or influencer who has a high following on social media. In return,
the influencer shares your product on their social media channels. It’s extremely effective.
The more popular influencers can charge astronomical rates, but those with smaller followings
(sometimes called “micro-influencers”) have high engagement rates and are often willing to post
something in return for a free product or trial.
14. Set up Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools
If you haven’t already, then make sure you set up Google Search Console (and also
Bing Webmaster Tools). Using these tools, you can view valuable information about the search
terms people are using to find your website.
You can also index new pages, meaning they will show up in the search engine results pages
quicker. Plus, be sure to submit an XML sitemap – it helps the search engines crawl your site.
15. Update your Google My Business listing
Update your Google My Business listing and check that all information is accurate. Reorganize the
images to ensure that only your best side is showing.
Do the same with your local listings for Bing and Yahoo. It’s also worth working on building
your Google reviews, as they will help boost your rankings.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE

RELATED ARTICLES

Four steps to create an engagement-based conversion channel

11 Deadly SEO mistakes to avoid in 2020

The silent killers of loading time and how to fix them

Google’s average position sunset: Are you set up for the transition?

16. Ask your customers for testimonials

On the topic of reviews, be sure to generate as many testimonials and (positive) reviews as possible.

Whether it’s via Google, TrustPilot or for a dedicated testimonials section on your website, people
trust other people. You’ll have to ask your customers for these, as people don’t very often give them
naturally. Just a gentle prompt will do the trick.

17. Google Analytics

Make sure that you have Google Analytics linked up to your site. It’s a treasure trove of handy data
and be sure to spend some time getting your head around it all.

See how people interact with your site, identify the pain points and discover the most popular pages.
With this information you can make considered and informed changes and improvements to your
site.

18. Review Google AdWords

Google AdWords is not free. In fact, it’s incredibly expensive. But if you are already running a PPC
campaign then it’s worth taking some time to review your strategy. Try rewriting some of the ads
and improving your quality score to generate better results.

Sparing a little time reviewing your campaign could save you lots of money. For most of us AdWords
will cost, but if you are a charity you can apply for a Google Grant of up to £10,000 to spend on
AdWords!

19. Use PR

PR is still a very powerful weapon in a marketer’s arsenal. Without hiring a dedicated PR agency,
there are some steps you can take to implement a bit of PR. Following any substantial news or
updates, it’s worth distributing a press release as you never know who may pick it up.
Sign up to platforms like HARO (help a reporter out) and look out for hashtags like #journorequest
on Twitter, as you may be able to wrangle a mention. PR, of course, goes hand-in-hand with link-
building for SEO.

20. Contribute to forums, blogs and discussions

Part of marketing your business online is to establish yourself as a reliable industry expert and
a voice of authority. In order to build this authority, take the time to contribute to relevant forums,
blogs and social media discussions.

Offer genuinely helpful insight and answer questions that are being asked. People will appreciate
your input and, with any luck, will convert into a customer.

21. Speak at industry conferences

Another excellent way of building your authority and reputation as an expert within your industry, is
to volunteer to speak at relevant industry conferences. It’s a great way of getting your personal and
business name out there. If you’re trusted to speak at conferences, then you’ll be trusted to offer a
good product or service.

22. Content creation

It goes without saying that content creation should be central to any digital marketing strategy. If you
haven’t already got a blog on your website then don’t wait a second longer. Do it. Right now.

You’ll probably have noticed that there are a disconcerting amount of blogs on the web. So don’t do
what everyone else is doing; be different, be helpful and be relevant.

23. Guest post

As well as creating content for your own site, be sure to integrate guest blogging into your marketing
strategy. Only aim for relevant and high quality sites, preferably with a high domain authority and
nonexistent spam score.

It’s a great way of ramping up brand exposure, but also securing links back to your website (hello
better SEO rankings).

24. Use blogging platforms

As beautiful as your website’s blog might be, it can be frustrating if your lovingly crafted content is
not getting the exposure you think it deserves. Especially if you are only just starting out, it can be
crushing to spend hours working on a stellar article, only for two people to read it (probably your
mum and your best mate).

This is where blogging platforms, like Medium, can help increase your exposure. Just make sure that
you follow the best practices for republishing content on these platforms.

25. Carry out keyword research

If you are undertaking a full blown SEO campaign, the chances are that you are paying someone to
do it, or you are already an SEO whiz, in which case you’ll (hopefully) know what you’re doing.

For the newbies, keyword research is the initial stage of any SEO campaign and can help you
identify user intent and figure out what your target audience is searching for. It would take several
blog posts to cover this in enough detail, but a good place to start is with this complete guide to
keyword research for SEO.

26. Optimize your metadata

Get into the habit of writing an SEO title and meta description for every page and post you publish.
This is the information that will be displayed in the search engine results pages, so you need to
make it as enticing and relevant as possible.
27. Mark up your website with Schema.org structured data
In a nutshell, schema markup allows you to label the content on your site for the benefit of the
search engine. It helps the search engines provide more detailed search engine results pages.
Although there is no evidence that schema markup directly improves your rankings, it will make your
listing more attractive, therefore encouraging more click-throughs. And that can only be a good thing!

28. List your business in online directories

Ensure that your business is listed in relevant online directories. There are the most popular ones,
such as Yell, Yelp and Thomson Local, but there are a whole host of other industry or location-
specific directories.

Make sure you add your business listing to only the directories which are relevant to your business,
and ensure they aren’t spammy.

29. Make sure your NAP are consistent

That sounds complicated but it’s really very simple. NAP stands for name, address and phone
number. NAP consistency refers to the process of ensuring that all mentions of your business
feature the correct information.

Do a quick search and make sure that the name, address, phone number, and any other information
about your business listed online are all completely accurate and formatted consistently.

30. Test your website with Google’s PageSpeed Insights and Mobile-Friendly Test

Finally, if you want your website to rank well and offer a fantastic user experience then it needs to be
fast and mobile-friendly. Utilize Google’s free tools to check the speed of your website and whether
or not it is mobile-friendly. Any red flags should be resolved as quickly as possible.

So there you have it. There’s definitely enough information here to keep you occupied for quite some
time. It always helps to have a marketing budget, but these free steps are the best place to start.
Good luck