Five ways to publicize your business for free

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.

Source: The Nation Nigeria