You have to spend money to make money, right? That’s the good old marketing rule. Well, yeah it is true to some extent, but there are ways to promote your business for free, too.
Now, I know what you’re probably thinking – “There must be some sort of catch” and with many ‘free’ marketing tools out there, there is a catch.
But I’ve done my digging and found you 8 ways to promote your business for free (except for the small cost on number 6 – but it’s just too good to keep to myself!)
So, here are the 8 gems I’ve come up with to get your business promoted – for free!
Add your business listing to Google
This is extremely important. Google Listings plays a huge part in generating new leads – especially for fitness businesses who offer a local service. This is also a great technique as it bumps your business up the Google ranking, with Google local listings now showing up on page 1 of Google searches.
To add your business listing to Google, simply follow the instructions here: www.google.com/business
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Ask happy clients to share their experience on their social channels.
As I’m sure you’re all aware, social media is a massive weapon in your digital marketing arsenal and helps to get your business noticed on a budget.
But generating quality leads on Facebook, Twitter, etc. isn’t an easy task and often requires spending money on ads. Here’s my tip to generating quality leads quickly and for free – have your satisfied clients shout-out your business and how well it’s working for them!
Tell your clients something like “give our business a shout out and you can then bring along a friend for free!” – So, the client gets to bring a friend along to your fitness class and in return, they shout out your business on Facebook PLUS they bring a friend who you can try turning into a new client.
Sounds good doesn’t it!
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Offer your writing services to local magazines/industry magazines
This is a tactic we use ourselves and now write for a number of publications. When you create valuable content for a magazine, people will read it – simple. But when you add your footer bar, talking about the author (you) and your business – this is where you can reap the rewards!
Contact local magazines – free local publications, newspapers, even other blogs, too! You want to get your content out there and subtly promote your business through this content – for instance, if you’re writing an article on how to burn fat, you want to mention methods you use in your classes/sessions and how well they’re working for your clients.
I’d also recommend giving readers a special discount on their first class or something you feel comfortable offering.
You then have a full page subtle advertisement in a magazine without having to pay a penny!
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Create short ‘how to’ videos and upload to fb and youtube
Video content is huge and is something you should definitely be investing your time in. But just having any old content won’t boost your engagement by tonnes. You need to create stand out shit hot content!
I recommend creating a number of short punchy ‘how to’ videos and share these on youtube, instagram and facebook.
These videos are really on trend right now – so if you do these right – you could be looking at viral content.
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Make sure your Bing and Yahoo Local listings are up to date.
Google is the big dog of search engines, yes, but millions of people do still use Yahoo and Bing. You want to make sure your business listings are up to date on these search engines and this will help boost your business in front of other users, who don’t have Google as their default browser.
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Take advantage of Google’s PPC Promotion.
Ok, so as I mentioned in the beginning – this technique isn’t exactly free, but it’s not far off! Google PPC (Pay Per Click) ads are a great way to bump your business to the top of Google with sponsored ads at the top of searches (as shown in the picture below)
Yes PPC ads cost money, so they aren’t free. But, at the moment, Google are giving you £75 free credit when you spend £25. So that’s 3 x more bang for your buck! It may not be free – but it’s something I recommend you jumping on ASAP!
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Get featured on our success stories page
Testimonial pages are a win-win platform. If you’re one of our clients then why not get your testimonial featured on our success page. We add imagery and – more importantly – a link to your website, bringing you more traffic and more engagement.
If you’re a Startup Active client and want to get featured, drop me an email: omar@startupactive.com and we will get you on there!
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Create a contest or challenge that requires social sharing
Everybody loves a prize and getting involved in a competition is something many social media users can’t resist. I recommend giving away some fitness gear branded with your logo or maybe a free session – whatever you’re comfortable with.
But how does this promote your business? Well, for users to enter the competition, they have to share your content for you. For instance:
Create a post promoting your giveaway and in the caption put something like:
“To for your chance to win this prize, simply share our post and comment below saying ‘done’.
This will then promote your posts without spending a penny.
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