A few months back, I wrote a blog post of this exact title. It was a short piece—250 words. The gist of it was that you can absolutely market your business for free, but you need to be prepared to put in the work.
Being a short post I did not go into the particulars. Well, now I will. I am going to share our marketing recipe for how to do things right. Most everything I share can be done for free with a few small exceptions. If you want to implement marketing automation software, pay for content placement, or do things like pay-per-click advertising, I do not know how you can get those done for free.
Content marketing has been the primary way to engage your audience for years now.
According to the Content Marketing Institute:
“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.
Content marketing’s purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behavior. It is an ongoing process that is best integrated into your overall marketing strategy, and it focuses on owning media, not renting it.
Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. It is non-interruption marketing. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent. The essence of this content strategy is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty.”
If the concept of content marketing is new to you, it may make sense to stop briefly here and take a look at this short article that is well written on the subject: Why Content Marketing Really Matters