There are many ways to promote your business online but with the level of competition, AI overviews and algorithm changes these days, it is becoming increasingly difficult for businesses on a budget to find visibility and online customers without going the extra mile to use the right strategies.
As a new business, we faced this back in the days when we started out. We were not sure about how to get seen by potential customers. Millions of other brands are in this same situation today but there are strategies you could use to promote your business and reposition it for visibility regardless of your industry.
I first stumbled on some of these strategies, through trial and error, when I first started optimizing for visibility for our own brand and some of our clients.
Over the years, with recent changes in algorithms and innovations like AI visibility, AI overviews, GEO etc., a lot has changed but the goal is still to get as much visibility as you could leverage for your business. And in this guide, i’ll be sharing with you some of the digital marketing strategies that’s kept our brands and our clients in front of our audience.
Leverage Content Marketing
Table of Contents
One of the easiest ways to promote a business online free is to leverage content marketing.
This is a very popular marketing option for businesses on a budget. It has worked since way back in the early 2010s. It’s still working today. And often times, it works in creating brand visibility, increases trust and builds goodwill for the brand.
As a new brand, you want to leverage content marketing as a strategic way to reach a well-defined audience, get them over to your website, introduce them to your business and probably, get them to buy from you.
This is how we started years ago. And for many years now, this is one of the most realistic strategies that have been used all over again by many businesses.
To be successful with content marketing you have to consider the following:
- Identify your Audience: Find out exactly who’s going to be interested in your product or services before getting started.
- Understand their Needs: Find out what these people are interested in when they come online. Remember your content is mean to provide solutions to these needs.
- Provide Valuable Content: Since you already know your audience and what they need from you, go ahead provide valuable solutions to these needs, using your content.
The key thing you want to keep in mind about content marketing is to provide real value to a clearly defined audience over a specified period of time. This is very crucial.
Engage in Brand Storytelling
Brand storytelling creates powerful real live pictures in the minds of your audience. They are one of the most realistic ways to create engaging and people centered content that will build trust among your audience.
As a business that’s just getting started, brand storytelling is one of the most powerful tools you can use to promote your business online. And with platforms like Tiktok, Instagram, YouTube, you can pull a lot of weight.
The reason why brand storytelling is very powerful is because people love stories. And you can key into this by using this technique to talk about your brand, the interesting activities you’re doing, your shortcomings and big wins, clients etc.
The other thing about brand storytelling is that it can come out as part of your content marketing or social media marketing content. You don’t have to keep it separate.
Also, you can use this as a strategy to document your progress. For example using brand storytelling in this content means I’ll be sharing with you not just what works in theory but some of our personal experiences as a brand, lessons we’ve gathered and of course our anecdotes.
As a new brand, even your growth journey, mistakes and all can save as part of your storytelling. And yes, brand storytelling doesn’t always have to be the best thing that’s happened to you, it can also be part of your painful lessons, gains and losses.
Use Social Media Content
Social media provides a powerful platform for people; brands and businesses to connect engage and build powerful outcomes, almost from scratch.
It is one of the best resources you can use to promote your business online free, especially as a new business.
Back in the days, when we were just launching out as a brand, social media was one of those places that gave us the leverage, to get started from scratch.
It was tough getting search engine traffic those days. And the social media was where we had our very first readers over to our website. It was also where we secured our first paid plans before direct clients started getting in.
As a new business, you need a life line. You need some first new website visits, new buyers who are already familiar with your brand and a wave of activity to start building your imprint and the social media can get you all of this, free.
But, you have to build a platform there. To get a decent success with free social media promotion, you want to start with the following:
- Identify your Platform: Choose the top social media platform with your ideal target audience. You don’t need all of them
- Create & Share: Create and share valuable pieces of content with your audience on social media
- Engage & Promote: Engage with your audience, and find ways to promote links from your website while encouraging them to patronize your business. You don’t want to overdo it and of course, you do not want to keep quiet about it.
Social media can give you a head start and leverage to get started especially, where you already have some visibility there.
Collaborate with Influencers
Influencer marketing is now a big deal. Collaborating with influencers, people with large platforms to offer valuable services can serve as one of the cheapest ways to promote your business online free.
The major thing about this kind of collaborations is that you’ll have to be able to provide value to the influencer and their audience, in exchange for the visibility they give you.
Most businesses do this. And a number of businesses have initiated very symbiotic kind of collaborations with our brands, even till date.
To make the most of this as a small business marketing strategy, you have to identify the key influencers you can work with. And find ways you can add value to their brand before making a proposal.
Remember, you can’t work with all influencers. You need influencers that will also add value to your brand or those whose audience are most likely to going to be interested in your brand.
Also, some influencers will ignore you. I’ve worked with brands whose partnership requests were denied for one reason or the other. This is very normal. And it’s one of the reasons why you want to have a lot of options and of course, keep your options open.
Optimize for Visibility
Over the years, I’ve watched how search engine optimization has gone on to become one of the best marketing strategies to get organic visibility for new businesses.
Like most businesses today, we didn’t really understand search engine optimization during our early days so we barely optimized our content.
This lack of optimization meant, we were getting less visibility from the web. At some point, it got very difficult continuing because most of our content was getting zero views. That was very discouraging and enough to get anyone frustrated.
As a new brand, you want to grab as much visibility as you can get. And one of the easy ways to get free visibility is to leverage search engine optimization.
So, don’t just create and share content, optimize each post you make for maximum visibility by using the right keywords, title, semantics and all search engine optimization strategies that are relevant.
Where you can’t get this done by yourself, leverage search engine optimization services by experts. The results can be heartwarming in a matter of days.
Whether you’re posting on social media, your blog or third party platforms, do not fail to optimize your website and content for visibility. It is one of the best options to promote your business online free. And the results are oftentimes very sustainable.
In addition to your general SEO, get your Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) up to date. Make sure that your content and web pages are structured for easy indexing and citations across top AI Chatbots like ChatGPT, Peprlexity, Grok etc. Doing this will get you referral visits from those platforms.
Grow with Guest Posting
Over the years, guest posting has been a very popular option for brands and businesses seeking to build back links, create visibility or tap into the audience of an existing brand.
Although it has become less popular as it was in the past years, it is still a very powerful option you can use to idiomatically kill three birds all at once. By this, I mean that Guest Posting can get you visibility, backlinks and new website visitors when done correctly.
If you want to leverage guest posting to effectively promote your business online, you want to first of all, identify the top platforms that will benefit your business. You don’t have to write guest posts on all websites.
Read their blogs, find out what they write about and then pitch an interesting guest posting idea that will benefit their audience.
Chances are that they will either accept your ideas or reject them. If they accept your guest posting idea, you can then go ahead to create and send in valuable post to them with relevant links back to your website.
Go Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising is another cheap way to promote a business online regardless of your location.
While this is not a free business marketing option, it is a very low cost option that can get you the needed visibility to gain some traction especially during those early days when you’re yet to gain some.
One of the most affordable options for this kind of advertising is usually Facebook Advertising. Outside having a large audience with diverse demographic options, Facebook advertising has different paid offers that can get you started off the ground.
There are also a number of social media advertising options you can use to get started, depending on your target niche.
For example, you can use Instagram. Another affordable paid advertising option that can deliver. And then there’s Twitter, YouTube, TikTok and Linkedin.
You can use any of these as a very realistic option to promote your business online free or in a way that is far more affordable based on your budget.
Sponsored Posts
Sponsored post is also another top marketing option to promote your business online free or at a very affordable rate. It can be used by any business on a budget.
The best thing about sponsored post is that you can decide the tone of the content or the way your post is written. And you can even write it yourself.
Again, so many times, sponsored posts can stay on the website as long as possible, giving you continuous benefit in terms of visibility, link and brand value.
And, when compared to other advertising options, sponsored posts are not as expensive as most other paid advertising options. So since you’re on a budget, you can use this option to build visibility on top niche websites and even get backlinks.
To get the best out of this, you want to pay attention to your business goals, overall budget and target audience. Use these factors to choose relevant websites for your sponsored posts.
Maximize Banner Advertising
Some top brands and websites do have inexpensive banner advertising options that are more affordable for small scale businesses to start their marketing and promotions.
You can leverage any of these to get started, based on your budget and target audience. But just as its applicable to the other options earlier mentioned, do not advertise on just any platform. Choose your preferred platforms based on your expected outcomes.
If you want to use banner advertising, you don’t have to limit yourself to blogs alone. You can also try out forums like Reddit, Quora, Nairaland etc. And other platforms big or small, depending on your budget.
While doing this, it is crucial to focus on not just platforms with traffic but those platforms with audiences that are relevant to your business.
Final Words
There are many cheap and affordable marketing options to promote a business online regardless of your location but finding the right marketing options is always one of the key challenges for most beginners.
In this guide, you just learned about some of the most realistic marketing options for small businesses that I’ve used. And what’s worked for most brands, including the ones I’ve worked with.
While using these strategies, it is important to measure your outcomes so you understand what is working and what is not. Also, remove and replace strategies that are not working. Expand on the ones that are delivering results and find ways to evolve even better outcomes.
It’s now your turn to choose these strategies, customize them and use them for your own business to drive the growth you deserve. And where you can’t get it done yourself, reach out to us for help here.
Now, it’s your turn! What are your biggest challenges when it comes to promoting a business online? Drop your comments below.
No responses yet