1. Optimize your website. You don’t need a super expensive homepage specialist to improve your visibility on search engines. Research your industry and business associated keywords, update your title tags and meta descriptions accordingly and keep content focused and organized. Less is more.
2. Create a blog. Although a timely investment, adding a blog to your business site lets you offer valuable content to customers and potential customers in a soft way, and provides an easy way to keep your site fresh.
3. Comment on other blogs in your industry. Remain thoughtful, focus on the content you’re commenting on, and offer value. With these three rules, you increase the chance that readers will click over to your site or blog and avoid being labeled as “spammer.”
4. Connect with bloggers. Reach out to the Ones who fall in your niche and suggest guest posts. Asking a blogger to guest post on your site also increases your traffic and adds complexity and a fresh voice to the content you’re putting out. And helps them expand their reach. Win-Win!
5. Answer questions on forums. There’s a forum for everything, and they give businesses a great way to reach out and build a following or reputation. A mechanic shop active in a car repair forum and offering their expertise on minor issues has the opportunity to increase traffic to their site and social media accounts, just by being friendly, helpful, avoiding direct sales pitches. Free help = new customer.
6. Go old school with press releases. Do you have a new product or service launching? Put together a punchy press release and send it out to local news or magazine outlets.
7. Consider postcard e-mailers. Cheaper than physical mailing, postcards cost less to send, less to produce, and if you target your direct mail list correctly, you’ll get your money back and then some.
8. Create promotional campaigns with other local businesses. Band up with other local businesses in your area whose products or services go hand-in-hand, yet don’t (or even) compete, with yours. Together, develop a joint marketing campaign, sharing the costs and the benefits. Something longterm might be born!
9. Make friends with local journalists. Newspaper and magazine ads get costly, but local journalists are constantly looking for story ideas. If you have a new campaign, product launch, or you’re building yourself up as an expert in your field, reach out to reporters and pitch story or interview ideas. And might get a company history backgoround story in the package.
10. Take advantage of free trials and samples. Promote trials and samples in-(onlin)store and through your business’s social media sites to draw customers in. Free cupcake Tuesday at a bakery or a free family holiday photo at your photo studio gets people in the door, and typically results in additional sales.
11. Look out for discounted ads. A few days before publication, magazines and newspapers discount unclaimed ad space. Take advantage of the reduced cost and dip your toe in print marketing. Being old school, but a lot of people still read (specially 30,40,50, 60 year olds).
12. Don’t forget classic flyers or stickers. Remember 15-20 yrs ago? Flyers were everywhere. And most time in dumpsters. But smart flyer still get’s the job done, especially if handed out by a gorgeous host or hostes. And legendary stickers – cheap and lasting, since you don’t have to pay for hanging (or sticking) place. Just check out the advertising laws or restrictions first!

Remember – you don’t need a national chain’s uotrageous marketing budget to get your business, product, and services out there. Take advantage of economical opportunities, be creative, and diversify your marketing avenues.


At Black Raven Solutions we are here to help you. Book a free 30-45 min Zoom call. info@blackravensolutions.com