Starting a small business can easily cost a lot of cash. Not everyone has a huge budget to fork over money for their promotions and branding at the start. Here is how you can promote and brand your online small business for free.
Give it Time
Promoting and branding an online business for free will take up a fair bit of your time. Spending money means that you can sit back and let the advertisements do the work a little more. This does not mean it is impossible at all. There are plenty of pathways you can choose that do not include spending money.
Remember that it is not just the hours you are putting in to build your business but the number of people that see what you are doing. The more people that catch sight of your business online, the more customers you should receive if you are using a healthy marketing strategy. Be patient and active online and see where you get. Once orders start to come in you can start to think about paid advertisements if you feel you want to.
Branding
Create an identity for your business online you want an individual brand that attracts customers. Be approachable and take the time to create an excellent brand that speaks for your business. This will be the core of your work, as you want your brand to translate your target audience into paying customers.
When people see your brand they should easily recognise what you are doing and what your business stands for. Consider the brands that you know well and the brands of other online businesses on the same route as you. What do they incorporate into their branding and how does it work for them?
Pick a name that stands for what you are selling. Don’t make it difficult for your audience to recognise what your business offers. You can use a name generator to help you come up with a name here.
Create a logo that works for your business. Something simple and effective that shows people exactly what to expect from your business. Make sure that it is resizable and use it on all your social media and emails. Your logo is a great way to advertise, as the more times people see it, the more they recognise your business, and therefore the more likely they are to use it. Follow this link for free access to a logo creator.
Promotions
Promoting your business for free can feel tiresome as you might create an advert and not have many interactions. This is normal, keep going and you will start to see some results. The more you put into your business the more you will get out.
Sign up to social media and start promoting. This does not mean you have to have a sale every day or create perfect adverts; just post something every day at a peak time (6 pm is a good one in the UK).
Biteable is a great free tool to use to make video advertisements. Choose from a multitude of templates and spend a few hours a week making adverts for your business. You can import pictures of your products or use their stock photos to create an advert about a common event or holiday. When you have created the advert you can download it and upload it to your social media.
Remember to add tags that are trending and related to your content. This will grow your audience. Post your adverts on selling pages and pages related to your online business. The more people that see your content the better. Check the rules in each group to ensure you are allowed to post as some are only on specific days.
If you put in the time and interact well with your audience, you will start to see an increase in followers and hopefully sales. Perseverance is key when promoting and branding your small business without a cash budget. Keep working hard and you are bound to see results.
