5 Easy steps to market you business that anyone can do, without any money.

Marketing is everything. It goes without saying If you’re a new business owner or entrepreneur, though, that statement can be daunting. You know you need to market your business, but how? Nothings coming in!

At this point, you’ve jumped into your business or new career headfirst. And whether you’ve spent money to fund your initial goals, website, materials, ideas etc.—chances are—you’re probably haven’t got much left over financially.

Starting a business is hard: physically, emotionally, and on your wallet. However there are still decisions about money that you have to make. There are behind-the-scenes costs associated with starting up. And, of course, there is the big question to ask yourself:

If I spend money how will `I know it will make a return?

The answer to that question really depends on your marketing strategy.

I know how you feel right now—overwhelmed, stressed, and probably anxious about your financial state. But when it comes to getting your feet off the ground, gathering a customer base, and growing your company, it all starts with how you market. Everything is just marketing and sales!

“Here are some simple ways to market your business, even if you’re extremely low on funds.”

Step 1: Have a strategy.

It goes without saying, you have to have a plan but for someone who isn’t the best at forward-thinking this can be a challenge.

Start by thinking about what, exactly, you want your customers to know about your business, what is your message? Think about the person you’d like to see purchasing your goods or services. What type of person is this? How old is he/she? What is he/she into? As you think of your ‘ideal’ customer, you can start to set a strategy for how you will reach them.

Also think about how you want your potential customers/clients to engage with you. This goes beyond your website, but to your social media, too. When someone scrolls through your Instagram feed do you want them to see certain images? Products? Concepts? Create a goal-focused strategy and start from there.

When you have people who use your goods/services, engage with your content, or share your posts, they do the marketing for you! If you’re looking to build your customer or subscriber base, start by creating (if/when applicable) a newsletter or email subscription.

Step 2: Build an organic subscriber base using Email

It’s all in the list, they say! Email marketing is a great way to bring in people who may have engaged with your content on a variety of spaces. By creating call-to-action buttons on posts, links on social media, etc., you can funnel people into one place where you can then share all your best products/services and updates with them weekly, monthly, or as often as you’d like.

Some great options for this are: Mailchimp or Mailerlite (FREE plans). You can also use a more ‘writer-friendly’ service like Tiny Letter to focus less on the design aspect and more on the writing – if that’s you prefer.

Step 3 : Use your subscribers and customer base

Want to know the easiest way to get critical, honest feedback? Poll your customer/subscriber base. Seriously, this is one of the easiest and most foolproof strategies out there! Plus it costs next to nothing to do.

Start by using a service like Survey Monkey or Typeform for example. Survey Monkey is a great way to send unlimited 10-question or fewer surveys under their free ‘basic’ plan. Typeform is essentially the same concept, but with a more minimalistic design.

Step 4: Social media.

Firstly, you need to think about automation. When you schedule out posts, you give yourself more free time to pursue other interests and/or marketing options. You can use a service like hootsuite orbuffer for this.

You can also create strong campaign assets for your brand (think matching colors, logos, designs, etc.) through sites like Canva, where you can design and re-create based on where you’re sharing content. Or, you can use royalty-free images from free sites like Unsplash. If you’re stuck on how to market your business, this is a natural (and relatively simple) way.

Don’t forget to use sites like Google Analytics to track your social media sharing to see what types/times work best and what content your audience is truly resonating with.

Step 5: Optimize for SEO (on everything).

SEO isn’t just for writers. In fact, if you’ve just launched a business, having your written content follow strong guidelines in this area will be invaluable to your growth. Stuck? Start here

When you focus on search engine optimisation, you are giving your sites and pages the best opportunity to be seen, searched, and engaged with again and again.