8 FREE Marketing Ideas you can do today

Marketing is the key to success in business, but often, as a small business, it is difficult to allocate the necessary monetary resources towards our marketing efforts. For many, choosing the right type of marketing for your business can be overwhelming, with so many options now available. The 8 points below offer no-cost (or low-cost), simple and easy to implement marketing ideas which you can easily incorporate into your marketing plan today.

1. Email signatures

Your email signature is a great place to have a promotional message. Put it above the name field in your signature in a different colour so it stands out. Don’t forget to include your website and social media links in your email signature as well.

2. List your business in local business directories

Make sure you are listed on the online local business directories such as True Local, Local Search and the Yellow Pages. It is free for a basic listing and they can really help your website search rankings and Google search algorithms like them.

3. Recycle Your Content

Re-purpose your old content (blogs, articles, brochures etc). Turn a webinar into a video tutorial. Transform a collection of blog posts into an ebook. Create an InfoGraphic. Don’t be afraid to mash-up your content – chances are there will be a large amount of people who have not seen your old content – so it will be a fresh, new content for a large part of your audience.

4. Social Media

Use your social media page to promote current promotions, milestones in your business and relevant industry news. Get involved on the local business and community pages (if relevant), but remember the 80/20 rule: use just 20% of your content to promote your brand, and dedicate 80% to content that really interests your audience and engages them in conversations.

5. Update your website

Look for ways it can be improved. Is the content still relevant? Do you have new products or services which could be added? Google loves websites with quality and recent articles. You’ll be getting more traffic from search.

6. Survey your customers

Surveys are a great idea for gaining valuable feedback from existing and potential clients. It is easy and free to setup a simple survey with a product like Survey Monkey. Surveys can be distributed to your audience via your website, on your social media pages, or via a link in an email.

7. Create customer case studies

Ask happy customers to share their experience of using your product or service. Share these stories on your website and social media pages.

8. Create a Video

Create a short video for your website and/or social media. The video could feature a product or service, your latest promotion, an event you recently attended or sponsored. Follow this link for a tutorial on how to create a professional looking video with an iPhone: https://wistia.com/library/shooting-video-with-an-iphone.