Monday, July 6, 2015

Free Ways To Advertise Your Small Business

Use free advertising techniques to promote your small business.


If you're starting a small business and you're tight on budget, it can be challenging to spend money on advertising. Luckily, there are many free ways to advertise your small business and get the most out of it. Start thinking of different ways to connect with others through different forms of communication and with time, you will be able to earn trust from people, develop your credibility and promote your business with personal branding.


Public Speaking


If your business relates to a topic that people are interested in, public speaking is always a great way to not only brand yourself, but to advertise your business for free. You can begin by researching the contact names in the Directory of Meeting Planners or research your local Toastmasters club. Toastmasters is a nonprofit organization that helps develop public speaking and leadership skills through feedback from a local community group. By giving speeches to as many places as you can, people will get to know you better, understand what your business is about and become potential customers.


Teaching a Course


Before spending money on a service, most customers want to see if the person they are buying from is really skilled or not. That's why teaching a course on the service you are providing is a great way to demonstrate your knowledge and skills to other people. For example, maybe you are part of a small business that involves website designing. What you can do is call your local school district or community college and see if you can teach an education course there involving topics like HTML, CSS, PHP and even graphic design. Demonstrate your abilities to a classroom full of people who are interested in this topic and tell them that if they would like more information, they can reach your website. Not only is this a way of teaching others, but it's also a way to promote your personal brand as an expert in website designing and to advertise your business.


Craigslist


Craigslist is a website with online classified ads. It is among one of the most popular websites on the Internet for finding jobs or selling goods. In order to advertise on Craigslist, first go to the website and find the location nearest to you. Then click on "for sale" and then "post" on the top right hand corner of the page. Choose a category that best fits the product or service your business sells. Write a posting title and a posting description. Add price, location and your email address. Craigslist provides a routing address that sends other people's replies into you mailbox. Click continue to verify everything is okay and then accept the terms of use to post your ad on Craigslist.


Fliers


Creating fliers is another way to advertise for your small business. All you need a layout and design program and paper. To catch people's eyes, you can always use colored paper like light yellow or blue. Come up with a catchy headline that will attract the reader's attention. Add a graphic or logo related to what you are trying to promote and provide brief information about the product or service you are providing. Offer a discount or maybe a special bonus and provide your business name and contact information for the reader to reach you. Finally, provide a call to action, print your fliers and start distributing them to the public.


Social Media


Print advertising is starting to fade away in the past and online advertising is starting to become more prevalent because more and more people are using the Internet these days, especially in the world of social media. Social media is a media used for social interaction. You may connect with people and advertise your small business on sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. You can also draw attention by creating great content on your blog or website, making it easily accessible for people to contact you, and participating on other blogs by commenting on what they write about. If you are using multimedia such as videos or photos, upload it on sites such as YouTube or Flickr so that other people can see what you are about. The more you can get out there and start using social media sites to connect with other people, the more you will be able to create a strong network, promote your brand and advertise your small business.

Tags: your business, small business, advertise your small, other people, promote your, your small