It is a fantastic idea to use free publicity to promote a business. There are many ideas and ways of publicizing a business for free. When it comes to promotion, you can’t beat free promotion. The ability to bring in new customers or clients without spending any marketing dollars is something any business should capitalize on as often as possible. Many of these involve a little time investment to get things going. Once you’ve built up your business, there wouldn’t be a need to be as active on some of these. Here are 10 suggestions for your growing business to put to use immediately as you wish.
Ten Free Publicity Ideas For Businesses
We’re going to provide a quick overview of these 10 ideas before going into the how or the mechanics of each one.
- Get your business printed in newspapers or magazines.
- Promote your business by answering questions on Quora.com or similar websites.
- Use Facebook to publicize and spread news about your business.
- Run an online blog where you keep customers up to date on any business news.
- Run team incentives.
- Tell a compelling story about your business that attracts new customers.
- Speak on a national radio show.
- Offer to write for guest blogs that allow you to put your website link on them.
- Reward existing customers.
- Get a toll-free phone number and place it everywhere as well as on your company vehicles.
Get your business printed in newspapers or magazines
It is not that difficult to get a story published in a newspaper or magazine. However, it does help to know some things about the media business. Most of the stories in a newspaper are interesting pieces of data that you find helpful.
Whilst there are the major news stories, there are also those businesses seeking free exposure. If you look through your local newspaper, there are a number of press releases sent from businesses and other services. When getting an article published, you will already know a lot of interesting information about your business. You will understand exactly what customers are looking for and find interesting.
Promote your business by answering questions on Quora.com
Quora was launched in 2009 and is a social media website. Finding new ideas to discuss will help a business maximize their potential on Quora or similar social media websites. Connect with people on Quora and open communications with those who answer your questions.
Only answer questions that you have a deep level of knowledge about. Questions about your business and what it specializes in. Make sure that you ask open-ended questions that welcome discussion. Work at building an online presence by mentioning your real name and business information.
Use Facebook to publicize and spread news about your business
Facebook.com can make someone famous overnight. In terms of business, it can promote a company to great heights. However, it doesn’t always work like this, it often takes effort and hard work. It’s important to get customers to communicate with their friends.
Fans need to like and share your information. This means that family and friends will get the information straight from them, rather than from you. That’s a valuable thing because people are more likely to remember something when a friend is connected to it.
Run an online blog where you keep customers up to date on any business news
A blog is an excellent marketing tool that any business can have. Running a successful business blog is all about communicating with potential customers. A good blog will be updated every couple of days and provide a mixture of interesting content with fantastic social integration. The blog will be written in a friendly way and make customers want to leave comments.
The content will be clear and concise, with an interesting subject matter. Customers will enjoy reading the blog and want to come back for more. Guest bloggers can also help you attract new customers.
Run team incentives
Incentive schemes that work, are a mixture of recognition, reward and feedback. The reward is more than just the money. The recognition will make your team feel like they are making a valued contribution to the business. Real-time feedback will help staff know that they are performing well and that they will be rewarded for doing things right.
Your workers do not always need to be rewarded in cash. Alternatives should be provided, since no business can afford to keep giving financial rewards to employees. Point schemes can be a great way of rewarding hard working employees.
Incentives to take excellent care of your customers will pay dividends in the medium and long run. When your customers are happy, they spend more and your business prospers.
Tell a compelling story about your business
Having a compelling story can attract new customers in an instant. Customers are drawn to businesses that they can relate too. Perhaps you overcame something major to set up your business. If a business does not have a lot of credentials, telling a compelling story can give it instant credibility.
Make sure you place your compelling story in marketing materials and conversation. Get to know customers by differentiating yourself in the marketplace.
Speak on a national radio show
Radio shows get listened to by many people. Make sure you tell your compelling business story on the air and watch how many new customers you get. A radio interview helps customers remember your name.
Being a guest on a radio show will give your business free publicity and help sell products. Before sending out a press release, make sure you listen to the radio station first. Get to know the radio station’s audience and what they want to hear. Contact radio stations and get to know them personally. Let the station know that you are there, if they ever need help or advise.
Offer to write for guest blogs
A guest blog can make a business known, appreciated and valued. Guest blogging helps to push the host blogger into the limelight, but also the guest blogger. The content of the post is what really matters though. The post needs to be well written and not just rushed.
The post enables you to try out new ideas that you have not done with your own blog. A whole new set of readers might suddenly be interested in your blog. A well written blog post gives the writer a lot of kudos. Material should be fresh, meaty, original and authoritative. Learn more about guest blogging: http://weblogs.about.com/od/marketingablog/tp/How-To-Be-A-Guest-Blogger-Of-Find-Guest-Bloggerz.htm
Reward existing customers
Customer satisfaction is a large part of a businesses success. The level of customer satisfaction determines the length of time you will stay in business. Customers should be your top priority. A business should never just make sales, but create happy customers. By doing this, a business will gain free publicity from customers who speak of their experience to friends and family.
A business should never make promises they cannot keep. Customers soon get fed up of businesses that make promises they do not keep. This will cost a business, valuable customers. Customers will go away and tell everyone about their bad experience. The aim of any business should be to create satisfied customers. They can do this by rewarding their existing customers with free products and other incentives.
Get a toll-free phone number and place it everywhere as well as on company vehicles
A great way of capturing the interest of new customers is by using a toll-free phone number. People will ring a toll-free number because it doesn’t cost them anything. Most businesses have a toll-free phone number and there are a lot of disadvantages of not having one. Businesses who do not have a toll-free number are often perceived in the wrong way, as a small time business. A telephone number that is easy to remember will help people to use your business especially if placed on company vehicles that people will see. Click here for a place where you can sign up for a vanity toll free number.