At the early stages of business development, free publicity can be a such a saving grace for start-ups, helping them save cost and drive sustainability, while giving the business much needed public exposure at the same time. Jumia Travel, the leading online travel agency, shares 5 ways to publicize your business for free.
Take Advantage of Free Guest Blogging Communities
You can write and publish guest posts on well-trafficked sites in your niche, and take advantage of free guest blogging communities and use them as a good starting point for publicity. Try to refrain from making the article you intend to guest post too promotional, but make it clear enough for anyone who reads to come away knowing one or two vital things about your business.
Join Forums Relevant to Your Company’s Niche
Join these forums, join their conversations and offer useful and insightful answers to questions asked. Try to be as active as you can on these forums so that you can use the platform to give your business good and needed exposure.
Volunteer Your Company Leaders for Interviews
Try to leverage on some of your media or online contacts to get as many free interviews as you can for your company leaders. The interviews should of course be on subjects related to your company’s niche. This might be a bit difficult to get at the get-go (well, no one actually said it will be easy), but if you remain persistent, your efforts will eventually pay off. It’s really all about networking, building relationships and leveraging on that to get what you need.
Put Your Products or Services on Online Marketplaces or Classified Advertisement Sites
Take advantage of popular online marketplaces or classified advertisements sites related to your company’s niche, and sell your products, as well as market your business there. If it’s a hotel you’re running, you can consider putting your hotel up on popular hotel booking sites like Jumia Travel, to help market your business and increase exposure for it. Of course, these online marketplaces or booking portals collect some commission for this, but it is nothing compared to what you will spend on publicity and advertisement. You can also consider listing your business in business directories and local business listings.
Be Active on Social Media
There’s really no better way to get free marketing for your business than through social media. You need to actively put out interesting, unique and viral-worthy content that can help you build a large following and get more exposure for your business. You can also ask friends, family and even employees to regularly re-post your content. Constantly engage with your followers, answer their questions and solicit their feedback. Embrace social media as a tool for marketing your business, and dedicate time to build on it to get some much needed exposure for your business. Occasionally, you can also hold contests and give one or two things away to your followers. People love free things and this can easily help you with free word-of-mouth marketing, because people are bound to talk about it.
