Ways To Market Your Business Online On A Shoestring Budget

By: Marketingland.com
Special Content

The following sites are some of the most influential, as well as the most cost-effective (free!).

Set up a Google My Business page: This listing will get your business on Google Search, Maps and Google+ and enable customers to review your business.
Create a listing on Yelp: As the biggest online review site, creating a Yelp listing is definitely worth the effort. It’s free, and gets you in front of the platform’s more than 140 million monthly visitors.
Create a free Angie’s List page: Users pay a monthly fee to use the platform, but listing a business is 100% free.
Get listed on Yahoo Local: Yahoo offers local businesses the opportunity to get a basic business listing in its directory for free.

Social Media

Join industry Facebook and LinkedIn groups: Become a valued member of two or three groups in your business’ industry, offering advice and support. This helps to establish you as an expert in your field.
Create your own Facebook group: Create a free Facebook group for customers or prospects to get help or support with a problem related to your niche.
Use images to offer discounts on Facebook or Twitter: Using images to offer discounts or coupon codes is a great, non-threatening way to promote your products without being too “salesy.”
Promote a free, no obligation 15-minute consult to your followers: Reduce the risk your prospects feel by offering a risk-free consult.
Monitor brand mentions: Use a social listening tool like Social Mention to monitor and contribute to conversations happening in your niche.
Create and share an original infographic: A tool like Piktochart requires no design or coding skills, and costs start at only $29 per month — much cheaper than hiring a designer to do it for you.

Contribute guest posts to a well-known industry site: To find blogs to contribute to, do a search for “your niche” + “guest post”.
Hold free webinars on your site: If you’ve investigated webinar software, you already know how costly they can be. A great, low-cost alternative is using a WordPress webinar plugin like WebinarIgnition.
Partner with a complementary business to co-sponsor a contest: Co-sponsoring the contest gives you access to each other’s audience, maximizing your efforts.
Install a free social sharing plugin on your site: Using a free WordPress plugin like Share Buttons ensures all your blog content can be easily shared by your readers.
Comment thoughtfully on blogs in your niche: It’s perfectly acceptable to leave your website URL in the appropriate field, just be sure to use your real name or business name.
Create an award for businesses or products in your niche: Create a simple badge using a free program like Canva.

Join relevant industry forums and respond to questions with helpful advice: Make meaningful contributions to conversions to capture the attention of other readers.
Sign up with HARO (Help A Reporter Out) to get free PR for your business: Respond to relevant media queries and land free mentions and links in publications like Huffington Post, Forbes and other popular outlets.
Email a well-known business or influencer in your field with an authentic testimonial: Businesses love receiving testimonials, and many times will post them on their website (along with a link).
Invoice your business like a pro: Make sure that you’re billing your clients on time each month as well as keeping track of everything.
Answer questions on a Q&A site like Quora: Search the site for relevant questions you can answer intelligently.

By: Steve Olenski