Free Marketing Tricks You May Not Have Tried

Even the best business ideas can fail if you don't find a good way to get the word out about your business.  When you're first starting out and on a shoe string budget, you may think traditional marketing is out of reach financially.  But even if that's true, there are plenty of free ways to market your business and get the word out.

Harness the Power of Facebook

Your business should have a Facebook page to entice and engage customers.  Yet you may wonder how to get customers to your business' page.  

One of the easiest ways is to invite your friends and family who are friends with you on your personal Facebook page to like your business' Facebook page.  The more people who do this the better because their friends will also see your business' page when your friends interact on it.  This strategy is free and can be an excellent way to draw more attention to your business' Facebook page.

Join Local Online Directories

When you have a business that's web based, it's easy to forget to market locally.  Yet this can be one of the best ways to discover local clients.  Chances are that just by registering your business with your local county, you'll be added to some local directories.  You may also consider adding your business to the online Chamber of Commerce directory.

Look Where Others Look for Your Services

Another way to find potential clients is to look where they look for help and either respond or advertise there.  For instance, if you're a virtual assistant who does behind the scenes web design, joining a Facebook group for bloggers makes sense.  You'll likely see bloggers asking for help with web design.  You can answer their questions without asking if they'd like to hire you.  The more helpful you are, the more others will seek out your assistance and hopefully hire you.

Likewise, going where people look for services like yours is a great place to advertise your business.  If you run a day care business out of your home, why not advertise your services on Craigslist where people are already looking for sitters?

When you're just starting out, you don't have to spend a lot of money on marketing.  Some of these free strategies can be very useful in landing new clients.

What's your favorite low-cost marketing strategy?