Promote Your Business For Free With These 21 Tips
- Comment on blogs and forums. This positions you as an expert, and sends leads to your Web site. Stick to forums that match your target customers (if you sell anti-virus software, don't post on a bird watching forum).
- Offer advice and help, but don't be too promotional. Rules vary by forum, but many will allow you to add a signature block with a tagline and a link back to your Web site.
- Add a refer-a-friend link to your Web pages. You will need a bit of programming for this, but your Web host may be able to help (or, there are free scripts available online).
- Interview an expert and upload the mp3 file to your Web site.
- Write articles for online directories, trade publications, and local business magazines.
- Start a blog (www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.org).
- Ask your current clients for referrals.
- Offer a less expensive, smaller version of your product.
- Offer a more expensive, higher-end version of your product.
- Create your own e-newsletter and send it to your clients.
- Use the traffic you get from the blog comments, blog, and articles to build your mailing list.
- Develop partnerships with people who offer services or products that complement yours (if you're a Web designer, partner with a copywriter).
- Keep a "swipe" file of your competitors' marketing brochures, literature, ads, etc.
- Survey your customers. This can be online or by mail, but it's free at www.surveymonkey.com. Find out what they are happy (or unhappy) about. Get ideas for new products.
- Hand out two business cards. One for the prospect and one to pass on.
- Create a one-sentence tagline that describes the benefits you offer.
- Add a signature file to all your email messages. Include your tagline, and an offer (free guide, newsletter signup), as well as your contact information.
- Add testimonials to your brochures, Web site, and ads.
- Include article reprints in your marketing materials.
- Add free content (checklists, white papers, downloads) to your Web site and drive traffic with the articles, the blog comments, and the partnerships from items 1, 4, and 11).
- Cross-sell your products and services (this works whether you're asking if they would like fries with their burgers, or back-up software for the back-up hard drive they just bought).
About the Author
Jodi Kaplan, founder of KaplanCopy, fixes "broken" marketing. If your marketing is costing more money than it's making and people leave your Web site without buying, your marketing is broken. For more tips, and a free 25-page marketing guide, go to KaplanCopy Free Marketing Guide
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