If you are anything like me, you are looking for ways to minimize business costs and market your business for free as much as possible. As a young mother to my newborn son, I work from home and operate my business on a small budget. After doing some research and learning more about social media and networking, I began to incorporate the following powerful tools into marketing my business for free.
1. Start a Blog:
Starting a blog is free using domains such as Blogger and WordPress and these avenues can allow you the opportunity to network with other bloggers, websites, business owners, and customers. This option may even allow you to skip the costs of a website, especially if you are selling items you make yourself because you are able to share pictures of your items for sale and set-up a PayPal option on your side bar for prospects to purchase your products right from your blog.
2. Use Social Media:
Social media is absolutely one of the most effective tools in marketing your business online for free. With sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Linked-in, you are able to connect with your colleagues, customers, and other business owners at the click of your mouse. You are able to link your accounts with these media sites to your blog and/or website, making it easy to connect with prospective customers.
3. Send Newsletters:
I know there are a ton of companies out there that offer newsletter services that have pretty low monthly fees; however, you are able to access the same quality and services through sites such as MailChimp for free. You are able to create professional newsletters that are also fun and trendy and MailChimp also offers free tracking of who is opening, deleting, or unsubscribing from your newsletter.
4. Use Google Voice:
Google Voice is a tool used to combine all of your phone numbers, voicemail, and emails into one place. You are also able to use this service to make long distance calls for free! Google Voice saves time, money, and frees up your personal cell phone minutes.
5. Edit Photos in Picnik:
Picnik is a free photo editing software that is online and easy to use. Picnik offers professional quality similar to that of PhotoShop, but is much easier to use and comes without the hefty price tag of purchasing software. You are able to create an account and save your photos to the online database and also to your personal computer.
Bio: Jennifer is the founder of the blog Blissfully Ever After and owner of Mead Green Living & Wellness. On her blog she shares topics such as budget living, DIY home improvement projects, crafts, and healthy living tips and most recently began sharing how to successfully operate your business from home. You can also visit her on Facebook to connect Facebook/blissfullyeverafter.
