8 Free Marketing Strategies For Your Small Business

As a solopreneur or small business owner, you want free marketing strategies for your small business so you can get your services out into the world. Of course, you know you need to attract clients to make the impact you’ve been dreaming of! 

You’re running the show  “on the lean,” bootstrapping every step of the way, and doing the very best you can to juggle all the hats. Before you know it, you barely have time to manage the day-to-day client support. The administrative hat is slipping off and you aren’t bringing in new clients consistently. 

But you know that your rate of growth is directly tied to the attention you pay to marketing.

Do you invest time? Money? Both? 

It’s so hard to know what will stick, and yet, you’re fully committed to building a marketing strategy that builds your brand awareness, develops the KLT (know-like-trust) factor with your ideal clients, develops you as a thought leader in the field, and creates a rushing funnel of clients in your door.

And you want to do all of that with the biggest "bang for your buck.” That is to say, you want to focus on valuable marketing strategies that will make the greatest impact on your business without becoming a full-time job or breaking the bank.

Yes? 

Great. You’re in the right place, because in this blog, I’m sharing 8 absolutely free marketing strategies for your small business that you can start activating today.

1 | CREATE CONTENT CONSISTENTLY - One of the best marketing strategies for your small business is to create original content consistently What topics does your ideal client want and need to learn about? How can you provide value on a regular basis that keeps readers coming back for more? Where do they like to consume content and how often are they looking for it?

Yes, this requires your time, but it’s absolutely free. You can create a consistent content schedule using schedule batching and time blocking.

2 | LEARN HOW TO USE SEO - If you’re like me, SEO isn’t your favorite acronym because it implies all sorts of tech talk that scares the heck out of you. Hands up, anyone?

But learning how to use SEO is instrumental to building a business with online recognition. The benefits of learning how to use SEO and implementing its strategies include increased website traffic, additional brand awareness, and exposure to new customer leads. 

Think of SEO as a 24-hour “done for you” sales service. (And who wouldn’t want leads coming through the door when they’re sleeping?)

3 | GOOGLE MY BUSINESS - This is one of the easiest, no-brainer marketing strategies for your small business. It’s like a local listing that lets you manage your online presence by allowing you to share your story, edit key business information, and control how you show up when someone searches for your business.

It’s completely free and it truly is a set-it-and-forget-it marketing option; only update it when something changes. Plus, it’s a great tool to connect with customers.

4 | USE AFFILIATE MARKETING - Affiliate marketing is a trending (and inexpensive, or even free) strategy that has grown in popularity in the last number of years, and it’s a fabulous way to grow your bottom line We often think about becoming affiliates for large brands or big companies, but you can create your own affiliate program for others! 

When you host your own affiliate program, you reward partners for sharing your products and services with their clients. This allows partners to introduce you to a new pipeline of leads that you wouldn’t have otherwise connected with. And when a sale is made, it’s a win-win: you sell more products/services and the affiliate partners get paid a commission. 

5 | GUEST BLOGGING - Guest blogging is a completely free marketing strategy for your small business that you can employ in two ways.

First, you can invite other business owners to write for your blog, offering your readers the opportunity to learn about a complementary topic you don’t typically write about. For instance, if you’re a health coach supporting women on their weight loss journey, guests could include a food blogger, owner of a kitchen or fitness product, or an entrepreneur whose focus is space organization.

Secondly, you can expand your influence and increase brand exposure by guest blogging on someone else’s site. This form of guest blogging puts you in front of your target audience. It helps you build your own leads and subscriber base as well as increase your search engine authority and online influence.

6 | START A FACEBOOK GROUP - This platform literally has billions of active members daily, so it’s no wonder that Facebook Groups are all the rage right now! 

Starting and growing your own Facebook group is completely free and gives you direct access to your ideal clients to engage on a personal level. A Facebook group is a more private intimate environment for you to ask questions that allow you to find out where prospects are struggling and what they need, then offer up solutions and loads of value. 

As members get to know you and rely on the support you offer, you can nurture them towards your paid programs. It’s the perfect way to build KLT on a platform where your target audience is already spending an hour every day. 

7 | LEVERAGE EMAIL MARKETING - Email is one of the oldest (modern) marketing channels and remains one of the most effective. In fact, 80% of business professionals believe that email marketing increases customer retention. 

So it’s clearly a must-use platform for reaching your ideal clients, nurturing relationships with them, staying relevant and top-of-mind. Plus email marketing is one of the most effective ways of converting an audience into repeat customers. For every $1 spent on email marketing $44 is made in return.

If you’re looking for an intuitive, easy-to-navigate email marketing platform, I highly suggest Convertkit. I’ve been a raving fan for 2+ years now :)

8 | SET UP REFERRAL RELATIONSHIPS - This is such a powerful marketing strategy, especially for small business owners. Power partnerships. referral relationships - whatever you want to call it - is all about developing and maintaining relationships with other small business owners whose ideal client is similar to yours. 

If you’re a business consultant focused on strategic planning for nonprofits, you may want to develop referral relationships with grant writers, fundraising consultants, and other small business consultants whose focus is nonprofit. Individuals in any of these complementary fields could be good referral partners with you -- and you for them.   

Sometimes, all you need is an extra tool for your marketing toolbelt or a few hours with someone who’s been there and knows how to get it done. Need a couple hours of coaching to get your marketing strategy on the right track? Book it here.