If you're a new business owner on a tight budget, this post will show you how to advertise your business for free, without spending money on ads. This is where you'll receive insight on top platforms to post your content and maximize the impact it makes on your audience.
In today's crowded online marketing space, creating great content is only half the battle. Finding the right channels to share your content is equally as important, if not more.
Types of Content
Content is information and media created to inspire, inform and sell products and services. It's created to help your business connect with potential customers and motivate them to take action.
It can come in many forms and contrary to popular belief, it's not always aimed at selling. It's designed to meet your ideal customers where they are, and inspire them to take the next step with your business.
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Here are different types of content you can promote for free. In many cases you can even create these items for free or with a very small investment on tools and other resources.
Some of these content types can be bundled together to make it easier for your audience to consume based on their preferences.
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Creating content that connects could include providing an image that educates potential customers about the problems your business can help them with. It could include a silly post that adds a humor to their day.
You can inspire your audience with motivational posts. You could also provide useful tips and advice about issues that affect them as they work to accomplish their goals.
Consistent Promotion is Key
You can have the best content (tutorials, videos, blog posts, products, services) on the planet, but if you don't promote what you have, no one will know it exists, and you'll never reach your income goals. In addition to letting people know that you exist, you'll need to build the know, like and trust factor.
The know, like and trust factor helps your followers come to know your business through mini interactions that can ease their fear of scams, help them understand why you're the best solution for them, and eliminate their hesitance to pull out their wallet and buy.
Consistency helps visitors know that you are a real business that they can depend on for what they need. Creating great content and consistently promoting it are both crucial to your success.
Whether you're a seasoned content creator or just starting out, this list will help you navigate the vast online landscape and connect with your target audience like never before.
Get Started on a Limited Budget
This list will help you get started promoting even if you're on a limited budget. From social media platforms to specialized communities, we've curated a diverse range of free options that cater to different content types and niches.
Each platform offers unique features, advantages and opportunities to engage with your audience. It's important to tailor your content strategy accordingly.
Platforms You Can Use for Free Advertising
Here are some of the places you can use to advertise your business for free, without paying for ads:
1. Your own blog or website - Having your own, self hosted WordPress blog or website gives you the ability to post what you want, when you want and share it with whom you want. You don't have to worry about being banned, shut down or limited in terms of who can see what you have to offer.
That being said, you will have to do the work to drive traffic to your site. Even though it takes work and consistency, in my opinion, this is one of the best ways to advertise your business without the fees and complications associated with conventional advertising.
The keys to success with your site will rely solely on your efforts. Creating incentives and making it easy for your readers to share your content will also help you spread the word faster.
I find that doing things like styling text, creating bullet points, including sharing buttons, click to tweet, including attention getting, keyword enriched sub headlines, and a table of contents makes your content easier to consume and easier to share with others.
Giving away free content, and first look access to those who sign up and share your content can go a long way to building an audience of loyal, engaged followers and customers.
On the flip side, slack off in posting, or create boring, lackluster content and your business will pay the price. 💗💰
Let Google work for you for a change. Instead of waiting for Google to index your pages and send you traffic use it to be proactive in finding your own audience.
It's important to share your content on platforms in your niche. Perform a Google search for "forums + your niche" to find little known or untapped places to share your content.
You can perform the same search for groups on social media sites. For example, Facebook groups provide an excellent way to engage with users in virtually any niche.
Use appropriate hashtags and keywords to extend your reach, ensuring that your content will be seen by more people. For example, post an engaging teaser of your blog on Facebook with a link to the full article. On Pinterest, post images and videos that will drive traffic to your best content.
2. A Landing Page - If you don't have a blog or website and you don't have the time or interest to create one, consider using a landing page. Watch the video and check out our templates here.
There are many different styles of landing pages available to suit your niche and industry, providing a clean, professional look and feel.
Landing pages can be used to sell your products, promote affiliate offers and tell your story, enabling you to create an online presence that tells potential customers who you are, what you do and how you can help them. Here's a tutorial on building landing pages and how they can benefit your business.
We use Thrive Architect, for landing pages. It's a WordPress tool that comes with the all in one sales and marketing tool that we used to build our business, Thrive Suite. We've created a collection of ready to use landing page templates to make easy landing pages you can use to promote your business. Just purchase, add your details, and you're ready to start promoting. They come with complete instructions and set up videos.
3. Social media - Share your content on platforms like Quora, Tumblr, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram to reach a wider audience. Read this article for tips and insight on how to optimize social media for lead generation.
Participate in free groups on each platform to find potential leads and customers. If you'd like to connect on social, follow our social platforms by clicking the social icons below this article.
It's not enough to dump your content on social media and in groups and run away. Don't just post and go on your own pages. Take a moment to check out someone else's page, posts and resources. It's about interacting and being involved.
Create a strategy that enables you to post consistently (there's that word again) and interact on social media. Engaging with other people's posts, contributing to communities with valuable content can make a huge difference in the amount of traffic you can receive from your social media efforts.
For example, set up a shop on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram, and post an engaging teaser of products, helpful tutorials and more great content on these platforms with a link to the full article or product. Be sure to provide a link to an opt-in form or landing page for lead generation.
Other Places to Promote Your Content
Of course there are other places online where you can promote for free, (some are paid) that you can use in addition to the ones listed here.
It's a good idea to prioritize the list of free places first to see which content resonates with your audience before using paid methods, to make the best use of your advertising budget.
Your job as a business owner is to determine the best places to focus on, based on your niche and unique business needs.
Click to Purchase 36 Places to Promote Your Content
You might also consider limiting your focus to one or a few platforms to post content so that you don't become overwhelmed. You can also hire out the task of promoting to a specialist who can help you with ideas and strictly focus on the task of daily posting.
There are lots of other places you can use to promote your business. We've put together a guide that lists 36 places to promote your content. You can buy this guide for $5.99 on in our shop, download it and start promoting your content in as many relevant places as possible!
4. Your Email list - If you haven't started building a list, now is the time to start. Building a list helps you create another asset you own and control, in addition to your self hosted blog. Listen to a recent podcast episode that talks about 15 ways to promote your business using email.
It also helps you build an audience of people who are interested and ready to purchase your products and services.
Once you have people on your list, you can get started engaging and building rapport by sharing lots of great content. Grow your following with valuable insights, product updates, sales, discounts and deals and advertise your business for free.
Send newsletters with helpful links to your content (products, articles, courses, freebies, etc.) to your email subscribers, keeping them informed and engaged with your latest updates.
Read our guide that shows you how to set up a welcome email series for your audience.
5. Online communities - Join forums and discussion boards related to your niche, offering valuable insights and sharing your content when relevant.
The goal here is helpful, valuable content that answers questions and concerns expressed in the group without selling or convincing. This means, no links provided in the content, but be sure to have a link to your site in your signature, if allowed.
Also on social media, be sure there is a way, (like a link in bio or a link to a page or shop) for followers to join your list and access your primary platform.
6. Your own eCommerce store - Having your own self hosted shop is a little different from having your own blog or website. If you have products to sell, you'll need a shop like Shopify and WooCommerce that makes it easy for people to find what you have to offer.
There is also an option to set up a Facebook and Instagram Shop that you can use to sell products on those social sites, enabling customers to buy without leaving the platform. Visit our Facebook shop to see what you can do (if you have a Facebook page) to grow your audience.
As you know by now, it's not enough to just "have" a shop. You need to promote it so that people will know that you exist. You'll also need to build the know, like and trust factor we talked about earlier. So some of the same tactics we discussed under method 1 will apply here as well.
Additionally, your shop should be easy to navigate, do a great job of showcasing your products, provide a few helpful tutorials, resources and a page for frequently asked questions. Your checkout process should be quick and easy with more than one popular payment method available.
7. Free marketplaces - Don't forget about free (and somewhat free) marketplaces like Etsy, Gumroad, Facebook Marketplace, eBay, classified ad sites like Craigslist and more.
The thing to keep in mind with these marketplaces is that none of them are totally free. Many charge fees based on your sales. So while there may not be an upfront fee to sell, the platforms take their share of your profits on the back end.
To find marketplaces in your niche, perform a Google search for "free marketplaces + your niche" and you should be able to find marketplaces (also known as limited use sites), that can be used to promote your products and services.
8. Email signatures - Include links to your shop or your latest blog content in your email signature, providing an opportunity for every email you send to drive traffic.
Use a WordPress or Canva to create a link in bio page that can be placed in your email signatures. Include this link in your social profiles as well to link people directly to your best content.
9. Answer Questions on Sites Like Quora - Quora is a great place to determine the topics people are wondering about. You can create detailed content to the answers people are asking in your niche. When answering questions, provide a general answer with a link to your content so that users will have to visit your shop or blog to get full answer. Consider including a free download that contains valuable content if users want to engage with your business.
Perform a search on the Quora platform to identify questions related to your niche, and content you are comfortable answering. Then provide informative answers.
10. Optimize for SEO: While this isn't really a specific place, it helps your content stand out when people are searching for products and services like yours.
The goal is to be sure your content is optimized for search engines so that it can be found. Use relevant keywords and create high-quality, shareable content.
If you're promoting content on your blog, you can use tools like Rankmath and Yoast for search engine optimization for each piece of content you create. We have used both tools and after using Yoast for a number of years we made the switch to Rankmath.
Both are good products, but we found that Rankmath was easier to use and had the features we were looking for. There are a number of good products that you can use to make optimizing your content much easier and that's the name of the game.
Include a Great Call to Action
Don't take for granted that your readers will share your content automatically. Include a call to action for your visitors to share your content with friends, family or anyone who might benefit from it.
Make it easy for people to share your information by including social share buttons like the ones shown below.
Boost Your Productivity
Give your productivity a boost by creating an editorial calendar, and a content schedule on your calendar. Schedule your social media posts using a tool like Tailwind to post for a block of time, like a week or a month in advance.
From social media platforms to specialized communities, we've curated a diverse range of options that cater to different content types and niches.