11 Tips For Promoting Your Business Without Paid Advertising in 2024
Marketing is the root cause of the distribution of any product or service in the market.
This is an integral part of business growth. From increasing brand awareness to attracting customers, from increasing sales to expanding the company, marketing plays a central role everywhere. It is through him that people learn what the product is and how it can change their lives.
Most importantly, marketing turns business into a two-way process by involving consumers in it. With its help, companies collect feedback, work on personalization, and build a solid base. Marketing also includes effective ways to interact with the audience and PR strategies to strengthen the positive reputation of the brand.
Everyone strives for simple and affordable promotion methods. However, most companies resort to paid advertising, which costs a pretty penny.
You can save money by being creative in how you market your business. – You can use the following effective techniques:.
1. RELEASE OF BETA VERSIONS
This is a well-known technique that many companies resort to. Before you release your website or product to the market, announce its beta version. No matter how strange it may seem, this way, you awaken a sense of interest in the audience. In addition, beta testing will give you the opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of your product.
Use early access to build an initial customer base, and then build your product’s marketing strategy around it . In addition to developing and improving your product, beta can be used to gather feedback on the marketing methods themselves. It will also create an atmosphere of exclusivity around the product, as customers will be eager to try it out.
On top of that, test participants will consider it an honor to be “insiders” who will have access to the exclusive before others. If everything goes well, you can even count on a loyal audience that will appear even before the release of the final version of the product, thanks to word of mouth.
2. FORGOTTEN FORUMS
The easiest way to grow your audience is to promote on specialized marketing forums. There, you can network with other entrepreneurs, representatives of companies from related industries, and fellow marketers. The more often you communicate with successful businessmen, the more opportunities you will have to expand and organically develop your business.
Choosing a smart marketing strategy for promoting on forums will allow you to participate in discussions related to a specific area and provide your knowledge and experience to interested consumers. With the right approach, this audience can turn into permanent, loyal customers.
3. PUBLISHING PLATFORMS
If you want your product to appeal to avid readers, aim for publication in major marketing magazines. Stay up-to-date with the latest trends and prepare detailed reports for advertising publications.
You can cover public relations, branding, career opportunities, digital marketing, automation, niche news, case studies, business strategy development, and other relevant topics. Really useful articles, newsletters, and publications will make your product popular among significant industry representatives.
4. ACTIVELY USE YOUR PRODUCTS
People tend to trust actions rather than words. No matter how loudly or often you tell your customers about your product, tangible results will only be achieved when they see you using it yourself. It’s simple: You must become an ambassador for your brand. Start using what you are promoting.
Moreover, by becoming an active user of the product being created, you will learn from personal experience about its main advantages and disadvantages and will be able to find ways to improve it.
5. REFERRAL PROGRAMS
Launching word of mouth is still one of the simplest and most accessible methods of promotion, which demonstrates good effectiveness provided that there are regular customers. According to surveys, around 78% of B2B companies use this social media marketing strategy and achieve great results.
Referrals can be loyal users who spread information about your product among their friends and acquaintances, thereby helping to expand your audience. As an incentive, they can be offered a reward for each client they refer.
Use dedicated referral program platforms like GrowSurf to make the most of your word of mouth.
6. COMPETITIONS AND SWEEPSTAKES
Running a competition with your own products as prizes is a great way to increase brand awareness and attract an interested audience. With their help, you can also research the market and study your competitors.
Run contests for New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, or any other holiday that suits your target audience. Along with this, you can organize surveys to collect information about the preferences of your customers. Based on the results, offer the person a gift with the ability to choose from several options.
A more interesting version of the competition could be a quiz that includes questions of varying difficulty. It will force the audience to dig deeper into your brand and its features. In addition, you can hold a competition on social networks, one of the conditions of which should be the publication of a photo with your product in the frame. This way, you will not only learn more about your consumer base, but also attract new customers through social networks.
7. CASH REWARDS
Everyone loves money. This is the best incentive you can offer consumers. Give them cash rewards or their equivalent for each client they refer. Offer incentives for various actions: registering on your website, downloading a mobile application, participating in product testing, publishing posts about your company on social networks, and so on.
If you start rewarding people for these simple actions that help promote your brand, they will automatically start showing interest in you. This marketing trick gives high returns even with a small investment.
8. CREATE AND DEVELOP USEFUL CONNECTIONS
Build a community of like-minded people across industries through meetings, conferences, exhibitions, and social events. You will have the opportunity to find potential clients, investors, and partners to whom you can present your product and share plans for further promotion of your brand.
Networking not only helps you connect with potential clients, but it also makes it easier to find talented developers, content marketers, designers, and accountants with whom you can work to grow your business.
9. PRINT ADVERTISING
Another good way to increase brand recall is by investing in the distribution of brochures, booklets, badges, and stickers. Conduct audience research and create flyers based on the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action) model. Add calls to action and give people time limits to create a sense of urgency. And most importantly, make it easy for readers to contact you through your website or app.
To properly implement this approach, hire professional copywriters and designers and work with a print distribution agency. To increase the impact of such advertising, provide recipients with a money-back guarantee to reassure them that there is no risk in subscribing to your product.
The more effectively you distribute marketing leaflets, the more noticeable the response from your audience will be. Don’t forget about traditional billboards, banners, and displays; this will make your product more popular and memorable.
10. SOCIAL MARKETING
Promote important social issues to attract ethical and conscious customers to your brand. We are talking about advertising campaigns in support of the hungry, organ donation, the prevention of drinking water pollution, and other social initiatives. In this way, you associate the brand with socially oriented activities and increase the authority of the company.
Such initiatives provide good opportunities to expand the audience. On the day of the event, you can hand out T-shirts with your brand name or flyers about how your business helps solve a particular social problem. This way, you will build a community of supporters who can later be converted into customers.
11. VIRAL VIDEOS
Every day, the number of users on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks is growing. That is why one of the most effective ways to promote is to create engaging videos that will gain views. According to statistics, about 81% of companies use video marketing to creatively promote their products.
You can make a video that is extraordinarily funny, or you can make it deliberately staged so that it appeals to a wider audience. If you are lucky and the video goes viral, your brand will gain popularity among a wide audience in no time!
CONCLUSION
Marketing goes far beyond paid advertising. Try to use all available opportunities to promote your brand to achieve maximum recognition. If you do everything right, your business will definitely begin to grow at a rapid pace.
