“Doing business without advertising is like winking in the dark. You know what you’re doing but nobody else does.”
You may have spent years building a brand that’s ready to take to market – so shout about it! Marketing a new business poses a whole lot of challenges, from investing in the right methods to finding your audience.
If you’re starting out or budgets are limited, try our top tips on how to advertise a new business.
- Start with market research
- Set up your social media profiles
- Get networking
- Join local directories
- Ask others to shout about you
- Befriend local journalists
- Talk to us!
Start with market research
Did you know that almost three quarters of marketers can’t find their target audience online? This doesn’t need to cost an arm and a leg. You can start with a few free digital tools. For example:
- Type your product or service into Google. Click on the ‘people also ask’ section to identify your customers’ wants and needs
- Join social media groups and take note of who engages with shares and comments. Are they a specific age, gender, or in a certain location?
- Use Google Keyword Planner (available when you set up a Google Ads account – no cash deposit required) to discover how often users search for key terms
- Look at your competitors. Read their reviews – use good reviews to identify key customers, and bad ones to spot pain points!
Set up your social media profiles
If you’re wondering how to advertise a new business for free, social media allows you to share content, find your audience and drive traffic. You don’t always need a website – you may be able to drive traction on a Facebook page alone, but you should consider this a supporting asset once you’ve built up your reputation.
Remember, social media isn’t just a platform to shout about yourself. It’s a mechanism for engagement. Talk to your potential customers. Create valuable content. Comment on other people’s posts. Use hashtags. All of these will put you in front of the right people – for example, a comment on LinkedIn can expose you to new followers, while a hashtag increases brand awareness on Twitter or Instagram.
Get networking
Want to ‘bee’ really sociable? Head to your next local networking event. Some companies offer paid networking evenings or referral marketing networks. The latter can charge expensive membership fees, so do your homework first. Find a group that’s likely to feature your target audience – there’s no sense in joining a networking group full of tradespeople if you sell cosmetics.
Try to measure the value of every event. For example, if you go to an industry conference, tot up the value of a potential lead versus the cost of attending.
Join local directories
One of the best ways to advertise new business is to start local. Look up local directory sites, both those specific to your trade (like Check a Trade or freelancer networks) and more general ones, like Yell.
Getting your services in local directories helps to build up your ‘backlink profile’, which tells search engines that you’re a reputable service. This will help your website to climb higher in Google rankings, while you’ll also appear in local mobile searches. You can take this even further by setting up a Google My Business profile.
Ask others to shout about you
84% of us trust reviews as much as we do our friends, making referrals one of the best ways to drive organic business. Ask friends and family to share your website and social media profiles. You could even offer your services for free to encourage customer testimonials. Reviews and star ratings from Facebook and Google show up in search engines, while social media shares are likely to be seen by ‘lookalike audiences’ – also known as your target customers.
Befriend your local journalists
Local papers and business publications are crying out for news from businesses just like yours. Contact them to find out the name of the business editor or news desk manager. You could draft a press release outlining your services (remember to highlight your skills and USPs), or tell them about any work you’ve done in the community. Remember – news teams love a CSR story!
Follow your contacts on social media and make sure you tag them when you have an update. They’ll likely share your story for free – but make sure you’ve got a good story to tell.
Talk to us!
If you’re keen to ‘bee’ found online, you might need a helping hand creating your digital footprint. Give us a ‘buzz‘ to discuss your marketing objectives and budgets – we’ll do the rest.
