Moreover, it is not necessary to invest huge sums in promotion, hire an SMM specialist or even hire a hyped advertising agency. To start, you should take advantage of the free ways accessible to assist to attract the target market and improve sales, no matter what your business is about – it may be a rental service like Evolve, offering the majority of cars to hire. Just imagine, the numerous most prestigious rental options can be hired in one-two clicks. Or it may be online shop or beauty service. What these techniques are and what their basis is – all the specifics are in the article.
Advantages and disadvantages of free promotion
Almost every business development tool has certain strengths and weaknesses. The same applies to free promotion in social networks. Before using these tools, we recommend analyzing their pros and cons and then evaluating the feasibility of using them in a specific project. Advantages of free methods: minimum financial costs, work without intermediaries, eliminating misunderstandings, delays, mistakes on the part of specialists who do not thoroughly understand the product and communication with potential customers directly, which increases the loyalty and trust of the audience. Among minuses, we can mention lower efficiency compared to paid campaigns, slow profile growth if not used in combination with other tools and also these methods are “conditional” because they require a lot of time to implement. At the first stages of the development of a business account, you can limit yourself to free promotion methods. But as the project grows, it’s highly recommended to include other tools in the strategy that will allow you to get much larger coverage in less time.
Which channel to choose for promotion
Before you start promoting your business through social networks, you need to choose the right information channel. Finding out which of the social networks will work best for the store and where exactly there is targeted traffic is the main task of the entrepreneur. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the characteristics of the audience and the product you are working with. Which of the sites is more effective to promote depends on the specifics of the business. But in most cases it is better not to limit yourself to one option, but to use several. Moreover, you can publish similar content on them.
How to advance for free: effective methods
Content has to be unique
Everything is built on content. Any tactics of promotion are pointless if there is no interesting, engaging content on corporate social networks. After selecting acceptable places, this is the first item to concentrate on. Let’s take Instagram as an example. Create a catchy profile cap. Put important information in the attached messages in the top of the profile, like price list, contacts and payment info. Use high-quality visuals. Organize a professional shooting of the product, as profile photos should attract attention, cause a desire to buy. Your account should contain meaningful posts, not just listing the characteristics of your products, but showing how it can be used and solve certain problems.
Hashtags
Many underestimate this tool and consider it outdated. However, it still works well if you select the right hashtags, which can provide a significant amount of additional coverage as well as new prospective clients. The important issue is that the keywords and terms correlate to the interests of the store’s target audience.
Mutual promotion and barter
Frequent references in other accounts help to build a business presence. This is one of the fundamental concepts of free social media advertising. Partner pieces and stories, as well as guest writing, will assist you in reaching your target. This method is not suitable for all online stores. But in most cases, interesting storytelling with a mention is able to attract dozens, and sometimes hundreds of new subscribers. But to do this, you must first select the appropriate barter account. It can be a blogger or an online store with another product. So to sum up the key things to promote your online business for free and, what is more important, successfully, are the following: unique content about the company and the products, thematic medium- and low-frequency hashtags, involving subscribers in various contests, looking for accounts for mutual promotion. If possible, it is worth connecting paid methods: at least, advertising from bloggers and target. Without them, it is quite difficult and time-consuming to promote commercial accounts in social networks. In general, social networks are an ideal place for business development. There are thousands of potential customers gathered there, with whom you can communicate directly, building long-term, trusting relationships.
