Where to promote my business for free?

• Write guest posts for other blogs.
• Answer Quora questions.
• Publish content on LinkedIn.
• Offer to do interviews on other business' podcasts.
• Promote your website on your email signature.
• Send email newsletters.
• Do a free product giveaway or contest.
• Create YouTube videos.

Is there such a thing as free advertising? Yes!

While you'll have to put some time and effort into promoting your business, it's possible to advertise your business without shelling out a single cent on ad spending.  Yes, it's true! You don't need to pay for Facebook ads to bring in a potential customer. However, not all free advertising for businesses is created equal.

At Nextdoor, we think all business owners should have the opportunity to promote their business and increase their brand awareness. That's why our experts have created this list of some of the top ways to promote a business through free advertising options. In this short guide, we'll go over the top 12 places to advertise for free with minimal effort and maximum return on your time and energy.

A quick note: This list draws from many different mediums with varied audiences. The most important factor to remember when advertising and launching your ad campaign is to meet your customers where they are.

If they're local shoppers, consider avenues that target your neighborhood (like Nextdoor). If your customers seek out your professional services through how-to videos or advice, consider online advertising such as creating videos on streaming channels (like YouTube). Make sure the method you choose to promote your business matches the local customers you're trying to reach, such as display ads, or use a digital advertising technique through more social channels if you want to share your business online.

By keeping your customers in mind, you can ensure your advertising efforts will be worth it.

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As a local business owner, it's important to connect to new and current customers in your immediate area - your neighborhood. To that end, Nextdoor is the go-to digital space for engaging with your nearby community and a key platform for local advertising of your business for free.

Take advantage of Nextdoor's free advertising for local business leaders by creating a Business Page. Consider:

After you have one recommendation, you'll also start showing up in neighbors' local search results. From there, how much you engage on Nextdoor is completely up to you.

If you're a small business, you don't have to pay for Google advertising to show up on the first page of Google search results. Want a marketing secret? Google actually wants people to find relevant, local search results when they look for terms like "Plumber Tampa" or "Boise Bakery" on Google Search or in Google Maps, not just those who utilize Google Ads.

You don't have to invest in a big marketing campaign to improve your odds. Instead:

As you start to show up in results, you can also use Google's analytic tools to find out which keywords are driving traffic to your site. Google Analytics uses this information to make further changes to your description and website to improve your local SEO rankings.

After Google, Bing is the second most popular search engine. It's free and easy to create a Bing Places Business Profile.

Just claim and verify your business listing, then start updating your information. Once you're set up, you'll be able to start capturing traffic from Bing, too.

If you still receive a phone book from your municipality, you're probably more inclined to use it as a doorstop than a business directory. However, there are plenty of reasons to list your business in the Yellow Pages:

It's free to list your business, update your hours, add a menu, and more.

Similar to the Yellow Pages, the White Pages has evolved to include an online directory of personal and business addresses, phone numbers, and websites.

Since 35 million people search the White Pages directory each month, keeping an up-to-date listing with your hours and contact information could potentially pay off for prospective customers.

Along with Yellow and White Pages, there's a whole world of new online business directories that target younger consumers on the lookout for the best local businesses.

Your business probably already has a "Yelp" listing (whether or not you want one). Use this as an opportunity to increase your digital advertising. Claim your Business Page, and then take the following free steps:

This kind of engagement is another great marketing strategy that can gradually help you improve your rating and show up in local search results.

Do you offer professional services like contracting, interior design, or house cleaning?

Angie's List is another great online directory that can help you connect with local customers. While Angie's List has some paid features that allow you to book jobs through the site, our focus here is on free tools.

So what can you do without entering your credit card information?

Curious customers can still follow the links to your external site to get a quote.

Foursquare isn't just a playground game. This website started out as a social networking tool that allowed users to "check-in" at popular locations and compete to become "mayor" of their favorite venue by visiting frequently.

Customers can still use the Foursquare app to search their geographic location for fun venues to visit. However, Foursquare's technology now powers location data for dozens of other companies including:

While Foursquare offers paid marketing solutions, it's free to claim your listing and is a great way to advertise your business. That way, you can ensure your hours, location, and contact information start showing up accurately on FourSquare and with its partners.

Facebook is known for its wide array of targeted advertising options and tools. But you don't have to have a big budget to take advantage of the social media platform's massive user base.

Creating a Facebook Page for your business is simple and free. As with other sites we've listed, you can:

When customers "like" and review your page, it can help to increase your credibility and drive web traffic.

You're probably familiar with several social media networks beyond Facebook. Perhaps you even post on a regular basis! The odds are quite high that a potential customer uses the same platforms, which is why it's imperative you are establishing an online presence as a business owner.

But if you own a retail business and have zero energy for videos, tweets, or other kinds of posts, there's a quick and easy way to connect with customers without creating new content.

Believe it or not, YouTube is considered a social media platform which means it is an important online medium for business advertising. We'll admit that making videos for YouTube takes time. But if you have a smartphone, you won't need to invest in any expensive videography or editing equipment!

It's free to create a YouTube channel for your business. From there, you can start adding video content that promotes your business:

If your videos go viral on YouTube, your efforts will pay off in spades!

But even if their viewership is more modest, videos can help improve your search engine rankings and serve as a fun, engaging way to answer customers' questions and engage more deeply with your audience.

Like creating videos, blogging takes time and effort but as long as you do it yourself rather than hiring a writer, it's completely free! But before you go and start blogging, we recommend starting with content marketing and getting your website set up and optimized. Once you've done that, blogging is like the cherry on top. A blog post is also a great way to boost SEO quality on your site. SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is an organic form of marketing that can drive more traffic to your page from a search result, increase brand awareness, and help grow your business.

Creating a business blog has several potential benefits.

Don't feel like you have enough to say? A blog can also be a great space to post interviews with local leaders and influencers, which is a form of influencer marketing. As they promote the interview on their channels, you'll see more traffic and prospective customers to your site.

Readers of your blog may even sign up for your mailing list allowing you to communicate through email marketing strategies. Sending monthly email newsletters or notification emails when new posts come out are great ways to stay engaged with your closest clients.

For best results, try to update your blog at least once a month.

Social media is a powerful tool. Not only is it a way to share images and videos, but, it is also a great way to connect with your customers.  Having active and engaging social channels is crucial to any marketing strategy. You can build relationships with new and existing customers through both personal and professional platforms. LinkedIn, for example, can promote your business through a professional site.

Now that you know where to advertise for free, make a list of the marketing channels that are most appropriate given your industry and budget:

Remember that while it's free to create a listing on many platforms, what really pays off is finding ways to communicate with your target audience on a regular basis. When you take the time to update your online presence and consistently post, you'll generate meaningful interaction, and with it, new customers.  Start connecting with nearby neighbors and turn them into customers by claiming your free business page.

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Business Insider. Pinterest Passes Snapchat as the Third Largest Social Network.

You may not have wads of cash to spend on marketing in the early stages of your startup, but that doesn't mean that there aren't effective ways to get your brand noticed.

Before the Internet, small businesses only had a few affordable ways to market their products, such as printing out fliers or sponsoring small local events. Now there are all kinds of opportunities available on the Web for free—you just need to know where to look.

Learn how to market your business online with these seven tips:

7 ways to market your business for free

1. Use online business directories

One way to market your business is to register with Google My Business. This is a free tool that allows you to create a listing for your business so it can easily be found on Google searches and visible on Google Maps. Businesses can do it by completing an online registration form and a simple verification process.

Yelp is one of the most popular online business directories. You can create a free Yelp account to help promote your business and engage with customers. Customers can also leave ratings, reviews, and pictures of their experiences with your business which will help boost your sales.

Yahoo! also has a big database of businesses called Yahoo! Local. It's free and worth the few minutes it takes to set up. Microsoft's Bing has a similar service that's easy to sign up for.

2. Market your business on social media

Social media isn't just for posting your family pets anymore. You can use it as a marketing tool to gain exposure for your business. Social media is a great way to interact with potential clients and customers . You can post regular updates, provide a behind-the-scenes look at how your business operates, and even notify your following of upcoming sales.

Instead of shelling out a ton of money, you can invest your time into creating social media profiles like Facebook, Instagram , or Twitter. YouTube provides a free way to distribute creative promotional videos, but to succeed, you must put up content that people want to view and are relevant to your business—a simple ad will not work. You can also network on LinkedIn—both at the personal and professional level as another way to help market your business.

3. Start a blog to promote your business

A blog not only helps your company get its name out through followers, it is also a way to connect with your consumers more directly. But remember that one of the major keys of blogging is to keep your stream updated as frequently as you can.

A dormant, abandoned blog is worth nothing. Make sure that each post you create provides visitors with helpful information. Write blog posts that tell your brand story and answer questions potential customers may have. You can also share your blog on your social media profiles to gain traffic to your website.

4. Add SEO to your online strategy

It’s important to optimize your business website for search engines so customers can easily find you. SEO cannot be underestimated in the world of constant Googling. Search engine optimization gives you the upper hand when marketing your business. It helps you increase website traffic and gives you authority in your line of work. You can pick up a book or find resources online to learn how to market your business with SEO to make sure your site is primed for performance on search engines.

5. Use press releases to promote your business

Whenever your business does something newsworthy, consider issuing a press release. They're a powerful media tool to use to help generate publicity, and having free distribution of them is a bonus. There are dozens of websites out there that you can use for your press releases, such as PRLog and 24/7 Press Release.

6. Join an online community and contribute

Every niche has communities online. But just signing up for a forum and posting every once in a while about your business isn't beneficial for anyone and could even annoy people. Actively contribute and build a rapport with the community while keeping your business out of it. Passively promote your business by putting a link in your signature or mentioning it only when the context is appropriate.

7. Make your website content shareable

Whether you’re writing long-form blog posts, creating engaging videos, or simply introducing a new product, everything on your website should be shareable. Having quick links to share website information via social media, email, or text message means your users can connect their network to your business at no cost to you!

There are several ways to market your small business for free online. To recap, social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are often the places your target audience is already spending time, so why not engage them there?  Take advantage of free online business directories so you appear in active searches for the services you provide. Along the same lines, ask yourself: How can I show up even more to prospective customers’ searches?  Share helpful resources through a blog on your website and use press releases to share key news about your business. Those content efforts, coupled with a solid SEO strategy, can help increase traffic to your website. The more you explore and experiment with new ways to promote your business, the more you’ll learn and refine what works best for you.

A version of this article was originally published on August 1, 2014.

Photo: Getty Images

A lot of promotional advice recommends pouring money into ads on Facebook, Instagram, or Google. But you can’t put all your eggs in the advertising basket—diversification is key to avoiding diminishing returns over time.

This guide walks you through 25 ways to promote your business, complete with examples and resources for getting started.

Business promotion is more than just publishing images on social media or buying ads. It’s a process that will help you achieve measurable success in your business. Here are nine free or low-cost ways to promote your business and drive traffic and sales.

Free traffic—as opposed to paid traffic that comes from things like purchased ads—is often hard to come by for new websites. You can start blogging to drive traffic, but it takes time before you’ll start seeing results. While you grow your own audience, guest posting gives you a way to get in front of someone else’s. Not only does this drive traffic back to your website, but the links to your site will help with search engine optimization.

Find and connect with bloggers who have the type of audience you want to reach. Offer to write a guest post that their audience will love. Make sure the topic you write about is also related to your business in some way.

Getting your product reviewed can be a great way to spread awareness and drive sales. Instead of waiting around for someone to review your product, use a blogger outreach campaign to get the ball rolling. You may end up landing a product review on outlets such as Buzzfeed, like Shopify merchant RT1home.

Contact bloggers with relevant, engaged audiences and offer to send them new products for free in exchange for an honest review. If you have a great product, they’ll love it and tell everyone.

While blogging is a great way to drive traffic back to your store, it takes time. This is especially true if you don’t feel very knowledgeable on a topic you need to write about, or you’re not generally comfortable writing. One way around this is to ask for contributions from other bloggers or experts.

Seek out experts on a topic and ask them to contribute an idea, such as a tip, recipe, or story to your blog post. Then, publish a list of all the responses you got back. You’ll be providing your audience with great content from relevant experts, plus the contributors will want to share the article with their own readers, increasing your own reach.

If you want to take product reviews a step further and solicit even more people to promote your product, consider starting an affiliate program. Affiliate marketing incentivizes other people to drive traffic to your business by offering a commission on every sale, similar to referral programs.

Take BarkBox for example. If you look through popular dog accounts on Instagram, many will have a BarkBox affiliate code in their bio, like @henrysworldtoday.

Finding your first affiliates can be tough if you don’t have wide brand recognition. Use an outreach campaign to find and recruit your first few affiliates and get the ball rolling. Look for affiliates who have an engaged audience and are already writing about your industry.

Resource: How to Create a Successful Affiliate Program For Your Business

Gift guides are a list of recommended products or gift ideas, typically centered around a holiday (like Christmas) or a person (like your dad). If you’ve ever Googled for gift ideas, you’ve likely come across several gift guides, like this Valentine’s Day gift guide by The New York Times.

Getting your product in the right gift guides can increase sales and traffic to your website. However, inclusion in these guides doesn’t happen randomly and requires some effort. In many cases, business owners and marketers lobby to get their products included. Use outreach to contact gift guide publishers and ask to have your product included.

Investing in a professionally designed infographic is one way to drive traffic and potentially build backlinks, which are great for search engine optimization (SEO). The cost ranges greatly for quality infographics—depending on what you need and the skill level of the person you hire—but it can be well worth the investment.

Need an idea for an infographic? Check out sites like Visually for inspiration. Once you’ve chosen an idea, research the topic and identify the points you’ll cover in the infographic. You can hand this outline over to a professional designer as direction for what you want the infographic to cover (or as a guideline for yourself if you’re going the DIY route, in which case you should check out tools like Canva or Piktochart).

Let’s say you sell bicycles and related gear. You might create an infographic that talks about the environmental benefits of bicycling. Some points or figures you might include in the infographic could be how much a daily commute saves in fuel emissions, as well as a comparison of the total number of car owners and bike owners.

That message speaks to your customer base, but is also compelling enough that many blogs and even news sites might want to feature and link back to it.

Instead of hiring a PR company, take control of your own publicity. If you have a great story or an interesting product that people will want to write about, put it out there! Get in touch with bloggers and journalists who cover businesses like yours and tell them what you’re up to.

While it’s true that most writers are inundated with requests, they are still always on the lookout for a good story. Make sure you target the right publications (i.e., don’t ask a tech writer to cover your clothing line), and offer them a compelling story to improve your success rate.

When marketing a new business, press coverage is a good way to get your name out there. Mercedes Provost, founder of Copper Bottom Swim, shares how she got free coverage for her nine-month-old brand:

“I built a press list, drafted a strong email and press deck, and started reaching out. It’s generally a two-step email tailored to the journalist’s beat, with the first introducing my brand and the second pitching some ideas that would be well-suited to our audiences.”

Mercedes’ pitching was a success. She landed a few hits, but Canadian national newspaper The Globe and Mail was the most meaningful and biggest publication she got coverage in, by far. PR helped drive 50 sales in three days, which was a huge success for Mercedes as a new business owner.

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Email marketing is a great way to attract and retain customers as a small business. You can ask potential customers to sign up for an email list on your social media profiles or ecommerce website. Email is one of the most cost-effective ways to market a new business, with an average return of $42 for every dollar invested.

Once readers opt in, you can send them promotions, product launches, or content to build a relationship and increase sales. Many brands, like Cattached (Cat Caboodle), for example, use email to welcome new customers.

Consider creating automated email marketing campaigns to send marketing messages for you. It’s a huge benefit for small-business owners who don’t have a ton of time or resources to spend on marketing.

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When it comes to promoting your online business, SEO is one of the best ways to get traffic and sales over time.

The goal is to get to position one, so when shoppers type in a specific keyword, they find your brand first on search engines. These shoppers are considered “high-intent,” which means they are more likely to buy your products, because they’ve set out to find something to meet a need or solve a problem.

The problem is, small businesses often don’t have the time or resources to do search engine optimization. The upside? Executing the basics can be enough to put you ahead of competitors.

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Social media can help you promote your business to new customers, create community among existing customers, and help you grow a following and further develop your brand. Some brands have taken off by crafting authentic and engaging presences on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Here are some ideas for how to promote your business on social media platforms.

You’ve no doubt heard of TikTok by this point. According to the latest TikTok statistics, the social media platform has one billion active monthly users worldwide. Using TikTok for business is also the easiest way to reach younger demographics like zennials and Gen Z.

With many small businesses like Loungefit finding success on the app, TikTok might be the tool you need to scale your business’s social media presence and drive fast growth.

For example, SendAFriend was able to scale to $5 million in two years, thanks to its TikTok marketing strategy.

TikTok is great for building brand awareness. But you can also drive sales with a link-in-bio feature that directs viewers to a landing page.

Learn more: TikTok Marketing in 2022: How To Advertise on TikTok (+Video)

In 2019, a study found that YouTube users watched over one billion hours of video on the website every day. Yet, only 9% of businesses use YouTube to promote themselves. As YouTube is second only to Google when it comes to the popularity of search engines, it’s a prime marketing opportunity for you to take advantage of.

A YouTube channel can help:

Compelling video content is excellent for attracting new customers and engaging with current ones. A basic YouTube marketing strategy will help showcase your brand’s identity and connect with your target audience in a fresh and exciting way.

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Sometimes you don’t need to write a guest post or ask other people to review your product. When you find the right match for your brand, a simple mention on social media can go a long way.

Reach out to influencers on the social media platforms where you feel your potential customers and target audience hang out. Specifically, you should look for nano- or micro-influencers, who have smaller audience sizes, are less expensive to work with, and whose influence is proven to drive more engagement.

Just make sure that you reach out to folks who have audiences that would like your product. Ask them if they’ll consider featuring your product in a post, and make sure that you align on expectations with them before you send them your product for free.

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To grow your social following over time, it’s crucial to post content consistently. Studies suggest that audiences respond differently depending on your posting frequency, so make sure you test to figure out the best cadence for your brand. You can also compare your posting frequency and engagement rates to your competitors.

On platforms like Instagram and TikTok, consider posting different types of content throughout the day. For example, @kyliecosmetics publishes a mix of single image posts, Reels, and Stories. It shares a mix of product-related and user-generated content to keep followers interested and engaged.

As consultant Jay Baer notes, it’s more important to focus on creating a strong marketing plan and a process to create genuinely compelling posts on a regular basis than it is to post poor quality content constantly.

Two helpful marketing tools for scheduling future posts are Hootsuite and Buffer. You can integrate them with your browser and dozens of other apps to schedule posts and track engagement metrics for your social networks. These apps can help you cut down on time spent actually pressing Publish.

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Using product reviews and testimonials to create trust and gain insights into your products is a great way to increase online sales.

Yotpo is a review app available for Shopify sites that encourages customers to leave reviews after they’ve made a purchase. The process is automated, so you don’t have to manually reach out to customers yourself.

Connect your business’s social accounts and post the reviews directly to your pages. These reviews provide fresh content, build trust in your brand and product quality, and help drive traffic from social to your site.

Consider the context in which most users are browsing social media. Maybe they’re on a mobile device during their commute, taking a quick brain break at their desk at work, or killing time as they wait for their show to come back on after commercials.

There’s one thing those scenarios have in common: Social media users are often scrolling in between other tasks. That’s why bite-sized content is an effective way to captivate your audience. This social media marketing strategy works particularly well on platforms made specifically for quick experiences, like TikTok.

For example, let’s say you sell products for soccer players. On your blog, you write an article titled “7 Training Exercises to Improve Your Soccer Skills.” You then repurpose that content into seven pieces of micro-content for use on social—one for each exercise. That would play much better than trying to cram an entire article into a much faster social media experience.

Engagement is critical to keep any online community alive and well. A great tactic to engage with your online community is going live with them on whichever social channel you have the best engagement.

Consider hosting a live session around a particular topic (maybe you’ll pack orders live with your audience) or theme (like teaching a different watercolor technique each Friday). You can also call upon co-hosts you think your audience might enjoy.

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Social share buttons are a key element to increasing the “virality” of your site, which can, in turn, drive traffic and boost online sales. Make sure the buttons to popular social networks—like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest—are easy for users to find.

You might want buttons that match your store’s visual aesthetic, like Culture Kings has on its product pages.

To implement this social media marketing tip on your own online store, consider an app like AAA Social Share Buttons Marketing, which has its own analytics and can help you optimize positioning and layout.

The emergence of the hashtag organized a big part of the social web according to conversations, making it easy to join in on discussions and events. Now, as the hashtag is less of a guiding force and more of a supplementary tool, it’s up to businesses to find the types of trending topics they want to engage with as a brand.

A social media monitoring tool like Hootsuite can help you find and engage with different trends based on your brand. If you’re a TikTok user, the platform has a Discover page that allows people to view and see what’s popular.

As you figure out what kinds of marketing efforts work best for your brand, also consider the types of trending topics that make sense for you to jump on (or create yourself).

For example, watercolor shop Case for Making encouraged customers to paint with a different color during each day of October, coining the challenge #Colortober.

Above all else, don’t just post to post. Make sure that you’re contributing to the conversation in a meaningful, natural way.

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Thanks to Buzzfeed, quizzes have made a strong comeback.

Pieces of interactive content work really well on social media—that is, if they can provoke quiz-takers to show off their results publicly. To do that, you need to create a quiz that tells people something about themselves or how much they know, so they’re compelled to share it.

If you want to try building your own, try Playbuzz, an easy-to-use tool for creating interactive content.

Social commerce is growing, with ecommerce sales from social media projected at $1.3 billion in 2023. If your social posts aren’t shoppable, then you’re missing out on providing a crucial part of an omnichannel marketing strategy for your followers.

Essentially, you put virtual “tags” on videos, Stories, and posts in-feed. Social scrollers can then click on these “tags” to see how much a product costs, and they can tap to learn more and make a purchase without leaving the app—an ultra-efficient process.

For example, accessories shop Cupcakes and Cashmere links its inventory on shoppable Instagram posts for easy purchasing.

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When you run retargeting ads, you send ads to prospective customers who have been to your site before. These ads can be personalized based on their behavior. The positive aspect of using retargeting ads in your marketing efforts is that you can reach potential customers who are already interested in your products.

For example, Frank Body retargets consumers who were previously browsing but didn’t make a purchase.

As customers return to in-person retail shopping, brands need to meet customers where they are—literally. Engaging with your local business community to collaborate on products or events, joining your local community at events like street fairs or farmers markets, and even setting up a business profile on Google are just a few ideas.

Google business profile is an easy-to-use listing tool to manage your presence across Google Search and Maps. It’s the best way to promote on Google for free and get in front of prospective customers.

A “Google Business Profile gives local businesses a separate online presence other than their website,” says Amy Falcione, founder of a local marketing agency called Big Picture Marketing. “Your listing gives a brief but detailed description of what your business offers and who you are.”

Amy explains that people will search for your Google Business Profile to check and see if you’re legitimate. You can add photos and videos of your shop and provide links to your website or appointment booking software. You can even give people a look inside your business to build trust and credibility with potential customers.

If someone decides they want to engage with your business, they’ll be able to see your contact information, website, and business address right in the listing, so they can easily visit you online or in person.

A local event refers to any affair that attracts an audience from a local market. Artisan markets, craft shows, trade shows, and festivals are examples of events small businesses can promote themselves at locally.

“Right now, many local businesses are meeting online. They are using livestreams and online meetups to show off products online and reach people at scale,” Amy tells Shopify. “But as areas start to open back up, we don’t want to overlook the power of local in-person events.”

Local events help small business owners meet customers one-on-one and create individual connections. People can touch, feel, and smell whatever you’re selling and interact with your products.

“Another way to promote your business locally is through workshops and lectures,” says Amy. “For example, if you run a candle making business, you can run local workshops to teach people how to make their own candles. It’s a great way to build your reputation in the community and increase brand awareness.”

Offering local delivery allows you to provide a faster, more convenient alternative to traditional carrier shipping and in-store shopping, and is a thoughtful way to reach your local customer base.

Data from Shopify also shows that online shoppers spend 23% more and have a 25% higher cart size when local delivery and pick up are offered by independent retailers.

For example, Ottawa retailer Chris’s Ice Cream offers free local delivery with minimum purchase order.

Learn more: How to Create a Local Delivery Service

Another great way to promote your business locally is by getting local media coverage. Getting a story in the local newspaper can drive potential customers to your website or into your local shop.

“Start by creating a press list of all the publications you want coverage in,” Amy says, “then write your own press release and start pitching it to reporters. Make it easy for them by getting your own quotes and statistics and making your story sound newsworthy.”

Amy recommends the following tips when writing your press release:

Press releases that focus on community empowerment encourage local reporters to cover your business.

There’s no doubt that promoting your business isn’t just a nice-to-have. Businesses need low-cost and free marketing tactics to help meet their business goals—whether it’s raising brand awareness, driving website traffic, or making sales.

You don’t need to tackle all 25 of these tactics right away. Start with one or two that feel the most relevant to your business. Then, continue to add more as you grow.

Illustration by Rachel Tunstall

But in today’s digital world, the possibilities are endless (read: overwhelming).

Image source

So if you are struggling to figure out the best ways to promote your business; or even just what your options are, you are (a) not alone and (b) in the right place.

In this post, I’m going to cover the 30 most effective ways to promote your business, whether you have no budget, a limited budget, or some wiggle room. We’ll go over how to spread the word with respect to:

Promoting your business is a must if you want to stand apart from your competitors and out to your customers, so let’s get started with the most popular channel: Google.

Using Google to promote your business is a no-brainer. Capturing more than 90% of the market share, it’s one of the best ways to get in front of consumers that are actively searching for solutions. Here are the best ways to use Google to get your name out there:

Your Google Business Profile (Google’s term for your Google listing) is what allows your business to show up in Google Maps results, the local section of Google Search results, and also—when someone types in your business name (ideas for creative business names here!) and location—the right-side Knowledge Panel in Search results. As Google gets better and better at catering its results to the searcher’s location, this free directory listing should be a top priority.

The key to using your Business Profile to promote your business is to verify ownership of your listing through your free Google My Business account. Once you have ownership, you can optimize your listing to show up higher in search results and for more relevant searches.

If you’re ranking on Google Maps or showing up in the Local Pack (as seen above) of regular results pages (this is very doable), your business is basically promoting itself 24/7. Even better, you can publish posts directly to your Google listing, putting attractive promotions in front of your audience at a time when they have high intent.

For a deeper dive into this very free, very effective method of promoting your business, visit 13 Google My Business Optimizations.

A website is a must-have piece of marketing collateral no matter how old-fashioned your business or clients may be. Your website is the go-to for current and prospective customers. Even if they find you on social media or Google, they will want to go to your website and, like your Google listing, it serves to promote your business around the clock.

A good business website not only serves as a promotional tool in and of itself—it tells the story of your business and what you offer, provides contact information, and reflects your brand’s personality and distinguishing characteristics—but it is also essential for measuring and improving the success of your other promotional tactics.

For example, when you run ads, you need landing pages, which live on your website. When you post helpful information on social media, it should link to its home on your website. With all of your marketing channels flowing into your website, you can use analytics to see which strategies are working best and get invaluable insights about your audience.

Although there are completely free solutions to get a website in place for your business, almost inevitably you will need to move to some form of a paid website if you are serious about promoting your business. Having your own domain name, a professional look and feel, and the ability to scale and add features as needed are all essential for growth.

It’s one thing for you to promote your business; it’s another thing for Google to promote your business. SEO is a set of practices that align your business with Google’s ranking algorithm. But because this algorithm has evolved to use machine learning and user behavior to produce the most accurate and quality results for searchers, optimizing for search engines is really just optimizing for searchers—particularly those searching for what you have to offer.

SEO isn’t just one tactic, but many tactics that collectively work together to improve your rank. Also, because Google has superb location-based results, you have just as much of a chance as big retailers to show up on the first page of Google— without spending a dime! (With the exception of the costs to get a website, of course).

SEO tactics to promote your business include:

For more SEO tips, check out this post on The Top 10 Google Ranking Factors of 2020 (+How to Optimize for Them).

When your business is ranking high in results, Google is basically promoting your business for you—and not just to anyone, but to the people searching for what you have to offer. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Is your site optimized for search? Get an instant audit with the free LOCALiQ Website Grader.

We just touched on this in the previous strategy, but content is such an important driver of SEO that it really deserves its own category as a promotional strategy. A blog is not LiveJournal for businesses. Sure, you can create some posts about milestones and events, but a lucrative business blog is one that produces educational content, in your brand voice, around questions and terms your ideal customers are searching in Google.

These questions and terms are called keywords, and the more content you produce targeting these keywords, the more opportunities you create for your business to show up in search engine results pages. Great blog posts can be any of the following:

For help finding keywords and creating SEO-friendly blog posts, check out these resources:

A blog that shows your expertise, approachability, and genuine desire to help your audience is the perfect promotional tool for a business. So don’t just publish posts—promote them! On social media, via email newsletters, or even turn them into downloadable guides to help you collect leads. Better yet, if you produce content with shareability in mind, your blog posts will likely get noticed by other credible websites who will mention and link back to your site on their site or social media feeds—promoting your business for you.

Just remember that the more traffic you get to your site, the more important it is to make sure your content loads quickly. For large and/or growing websites, a CDN can ensure your content gets delivered quickly.  There are plenty of options out there—for example, HubSpot has a CDN option.

While SEO is one of the best marketing strategies, it is a long-term strategy that can take weeks, even months to start seeing results. For more immediate exposure, and if you have the budget, Google Ads is the way to go. Google Ads ads show up at the very top of search engine results pages, above organic and local listings. And of the search engines available, Google is by far the most popular not only because they control the largest share of search engine traffic, but also because of its high level of flexibility, ad building features, and detailed performance metrics.

Though mastering Google Ads takes some time as well as plenty of trial and error, an optimized campaign is far worth the investment. Advertising on Google can be done through text ads on the Search Network or branded banner ads on the Display Network. If you’re ready to get started, follow our step-by-step tutorial on how to run Google Ads.

If you’re already advertising on Google, see how your campaigns are *really* performing with our Free Google Ads Performance Grader.

Consumers routinely visit online directories to search for and vet businesses that fit their specific needs. These sites tend to be high-traffic, long-standing websites with high domain authority, so it’s not uncommon for your profile page or your business name to show up on the first page of Google through one of these domains. Online listings do not take long to create and can help enhance your online presence, promoting your business to nearby, high-intent customers.

Smaller directory sites pull data from larger ones, which means that by creating listings on the major sites, you’ll also likely begin showing up on smaller directories automatically. Below is a list of the major directories to start with. All of them are free, but often have paid options for advanced features.

For a deeper dive, check out this post on the Top 10 Free Local Listing Sites.

It’s one thing to create a listing, but it’s another to optimize it. By filling out every field in your profiles, adding photos, and collecting reviews, you can improve the appeal of your business and rank above competitors in searches. It’s also important to make sure your information in all of your listings is consistent with the information on your website. Inconsistencies can cause the Goog to raise an eyebrow about your trustworthiness. Finally, be sure to monitor your listing and fix any inaccuracies, which can happen when listings are auto-populated. For more ways to optimize your listings, use the same post I linked to above (but I’ll link it here just because).

We just mentioned collecting reviews, but because reviews are so important for small and local businesses, they deserve their own section.

Word of mouth is one of, perhaps the most, powerful way of promoting your business to the right people. Testimonials on your own website are great, but reviews on official platforms like Google, Facebook, and Yelp are even better.

These websites can increase your exposure, and because they have measures in place to prevent fake or spam reviews, people trust the reviews here more than anywhere else. Plus, reviews are a major ranking factor for local search results. To get reviews, check out these posts:

Many online directories allow anyone to add a listing, so even if you didn’t list your business, it may still be on there, collecting reviews. Be sure to claim your listings wherever possible, and monitor these sites frequently. This way you can respond to reviews—which is another great way to promote your business. Not only can you resolve (and even reverse) negative reviews, but the way you answer reviews (positive and negative) can reveal your brand’s values and give potential customers an idea of what it’s like to do business with you.

RELATED: 85 Profitable Small Business Ideas Worth Trying

Social media is another free way to get the word out about your small business. The most popular business accounts are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, but make sure to consider using other sites that might be specific to your niche, such as Pinterest or Reddit.

Facebook is the largest social network online and it can be a great way to keep in touch with existing customers and to reach new customers. Promoting your business on Facebook can vary substantially depending upon your industry, but here are some basics:

For more ways to promote your business using Facebook, take a look at our post 22 Facebook Marketing Tips for Small Businesses on a Budget.

And don’t forget Facebook ads!

Facebook advertising allows you to reach highly specific audiences, since you can target according to user profile information such as marital status, occupation, interests, and more. To get started with or even improve your Facebook advertising, check out our post on The 8 Best (and Free!) Facebook Ads Courses for Any Level.

If you’re already advertising on Facebook, make sure you’re not wasting any spend with our Free Facebook Ads Performance Grader!

LinkedIn has become more than just a place to post your online resume; it’s also a place to join in on group discussions, connect with potential customers, form new partnerships, or just to do general online networking. Potential customers can check out you or your company before doing business with you to find out how many employees you have and to get more information on the background of the company personnel.

You can also promote your business indirectly on LinkedIn by providing perspectives in group discussions and/or providing links to relevant content on your website. Just make sure you’re not always promoting your own content.

Video marketing is a great way to promote your business, and YouTube lets you do it for free! Promoting your business via YouTube is an effective way to help potential customers or clients connect with your business. Putting together a quick overview video of your business and then uploading it to YouTube gives you a nice sales tool that you can post on the homepage of your website or circulate in emails to prospective clients.

You can also post educational videos, tutorials, or how-tos in your YouTube channel in order to get discovered by people looking for what your business offers. There are plenty of affordable options out there for making videos; just check out our post on DIY at-home videos. You can also add videos to your blog posts which can enhance their SEO quality, such as with this WordStream post below:

Note also that videos tend to show up in results for very niche searches, sometimes at the very top, like this one:

As with the other paid strategies mentioned in this post, YouTube advertising can be an investment that pays off if it’s done right. You can advertise on YouTube by creating video ads that play before videos in relevant categories, or through text ads that appear in search results:

Despite being one of the more recently launched social media platforms, Instagram is the third most popular platform out there. With its diverse posting formats (permanent images, short-lived Stories, IGTV series, live sessions, Story Highlights, and more), there exists a variety of ways to use Instagram to engage your audience and promote your business. You can:

For more ways to promote your business on Instagram, check out these 11 Instagram marketing tips.

Twitter is another free channel that can be used to promote your business online—mainly if your audience is comprised of 18-24 year-olds. It tends to require a bit more activity to build an audience, but if you’re consistently active, you can master the platform and experience its benefits.

You can promote your products or services:

Or simply invite nearby customers to stop in:

While Pinterest is fundamentally focused on sharing photos, the fact that your photos can link back to your website creates an opportunity to promote your business and drive more traffic to your site.

Pinterest is especially powerful for ecommerce businesses looking to reach a female audience (Pinterest users are heavily skewed towards the female demographic).  If this fits your profile, you may want to think about getting active on the Pinterest network.

TikTok was only launched in 2016, but it has already surpassed Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Pinterest in active users. Its ease of use in creating compelling videos with special effects makes it a great video marketing platform—and not just for Zillenials. You can jump right on the platform to provide how-to, tutorial, or behind-the-scenes videos, but you may want to promote your new Tik Tok channel across other networks, as with the example below:

One of the best ways to get a leg up is to offer a hand up to others. Join communities and groups relevant to your business or industry on LinkedIn, Reddit, and Facebook, and offer people good advice and suggestions when they have problems or questions. (Make sure your own profile information points back to your business, of course.)

This is a great way to build a genuine reputation and form solid connections with people relevant to your work. What goes around generally comes around. And remember that while you’re helping one person with their query, you’re being observed by a thousand silent others who will see your name and what you’re doing.

Your business can be a part of communities both geographically-based and niche-focused, and influencers are celebrities within your niche. They’re not on the red carpet or hosting their own talk shows, but they are highly respected, wildly popular, and deeply trusted experts in your niche. Influencers have a large social media and/or blog following, which means that getting mentioned or featured by one of these influencers can promote your business to a massive, relevant audience.

Influencer marketing is a careful strategy, however. Before reaching out to an influencer, take the time to familiarize with their accounts across all networks; comment on, like, and share their content; and be sure to approach them with a specific ask and something of equal value in exchange. For example, you might offer them a month of free classes in exchange for a review on their blog and mentions on social media. Or you might offer to write a high-quality guest post on their blog that benefits their audience while also supplying a backlink to your site.

Here’s an example of an influencer in the automotive niche (David Patterson) promoting a local auto shop:

And here’s an example of an influencer in the home and parenting niche (Leticia Barr) promoting FabFitFun:

Social media advertising is among the most forward-thinking, highly-utilized, and profitable forms of digital advertising today. More than 3.6 BILLION people use it and it’s constantly evolving to offer ease-of-use and exceptional value for your advertising dollar. When done right, paid social promotes your business to a highly targeted audience with these advantages:

For local businesses, the community is a critical component of their success. Retailers and restaurants understand this implicitly, of course, and even those businesses focused more on the wider world still have a considerable attachment to the place or places in which they operate. That said, let’s talk about a few ways to market your small business in your community.

For some reason, the idea of pitching your business happenings to the local press feels intimidating, but the truth is, local blogs, newspapers, online publications are always on the hunt for fresh content.

Reach out to your local news sources and see if you can contribute an article—whether it’s a thought leadership piece, a list of resources, or a newsworthy update about your business. If your business’s story is compelling enough, you might even be able to get someone else to publish a featured write-up.

You can also ask to write about an event you are hosting in your community, or invite a local writer to attend for free in exchange for a recap.

If you have a little more budget, you may even consider a public relations partner, firm, or app to get your stories published in multiple media sources. If your budget is a little bit lower, you can publish your own press releases through companies like www.prweb.com. These press releases may get picked up by some media outlets and they can also help your search engine optimization by providing links back to your website.

You can learn how to write a great press release here.

Partnering with non-competitive businesses that serve the same clientele can be a great way to promote your business in your local network. Once you have established a relationship, you can cross-promote each other’s services through your email lists and in-store flyers or coupons, or by engaging them through social media. Don’t be afraid to get creative to maximize the promotional value of the partnership.

Attending local networking events is a great way to increase your presence in your community. This works better for some types of businesses than others. If you provide services directly to other small businesses or consumers, then local networking is going to be far more rewarding than if you sell products online, for example. However, every kind of networking helps, even if it’s just to share ideas and inspiration with other business owners.

Whether online or offline, inexpensive marketing techniques like these can get your business humming with the energy from new customers and clients.

And if you do partake in networking (I’m not trying to tell you how to live your life, but you should), do not miss out on my nine networking email templates, like the one below:

Even in a world that is increasingly digital, attending, hosting, or sponsoring events in your community is a great way to promote your business while strengthening your connection with local customers.

You could run a class at your location, offer to teach a class at a school, library, or other local establishment, or even just host a fun seasonal and/or family-oriented event. Leverage the time you put into creating and teaching the class by having a friend take video of you teaching, then put that video on your website and on YouTube.

Despite the dominance of digital media today, sending postcards, flyers, letters, or other types of mail can still be a very effective way to promote your business to nearby customers. One of the biggest challenges with this promotional method is that you can’t exactly target your mailings, so you’ll need to print out and send a high volume of mail in order to get a response. The benefit is that if you get it right, promoting your business through the mail can help you get new customers with a very repeatable process.

You could also send your loyal customers little gift packages during the holidays to keep them coming back and (most likely) promoting your business to their friends and family.

Newspapers, magazines, radio, and even television are some other traditional places for paying to promote your business. If you are considering promoting your business through print ads or any of these offline strategies, the key is to make sure you are tracking everything so that you can know the effectiveness. For more local advertising tips, head here: 10 Effective Local Advertising Ideas for Small Businesses

These three promotional strategies are last but definitely least—they’re just a bit miscellaneous with regard to the way I grouped the strategies in this post.

If you are targeting a national audience and you want to sell your products to retailers, going to a big trade show might make sense. If you are unsure of how beneficial the trade show will be for you, and you have some time to figure it out, you might consider just attending as a visitor before investing the money in your own booth. If you have a good relationship with a company already planning on exhibiting at a trade show, they may let you “hang out” in their booth for a portion of time, where you can observe and learn, and maybe even promote your business free of charge.

Email marketing has been around for ages, but the strategy has by no means become less effective over time. In fact, 77% of people prefer to get permission-based promotional messages via email versus other modes of communication. Email is a popular channel for consumers and businesses alike:

For more tips on using email marketing, check out my post on How to Write Undelete-able Promotional Emails.

Good leadership and proper treatment of your employees will naturally turn them into advocates for your business. Hold brainstorm sessions, encourage employee blog post contributions, host fireside chats, get them involved in local events, run family and friend promotions—value them and they will value the business they work for. You can then encourage social media sharing and equip them with news and tools to effortlessly spread the word about your business.

There is a plethora of options when it comes to promoting your business, no matter your budget. Implementing the strategies in this post is sure to pay off, especially if you regularly review and revise your strategy.

We’ve covered a lot in this post, so let’s recap how to advertise and promote your business: