20 Free Ways to Promote Your Brand Online (without Social Media & PR)

In the recent past, we’ve talked a lot about digital publicity and social media for small business and bloggers, but over the last few weeks, I’ve received several inquiries from our readers asking if I had an ebook or mini-course about the best ways that small business owners and bloggers can promote themselves in more of an integrated way online (not just using publicity and social media). Unfortunately, I don’t.

So to help all of you, I’ve pulled together this list of the top things you can do to promote your business online free or almost free.

1). Get listed on Yahoo.com and Google.com local listings to help increase your local search listings. Both search engines offer free listings. These listings are especially helpful if you have a local brick and mortar retail location.

2). Submit your answers to Q&A sites like Yahoo.com Answers and Quora.com to reach more people and add a link back to your website. I’ve had a little success.

3). If you’re a service provider or an info-product creator, hold a live webinar. (My first one is scheduled for next month). All of the pros say how wonderful they are to use to connect with audiences because people can see and communicate with you.

4). Look into publishing your content on Medium.com. I’ve used it for one blog post and I’ve received some traffic (102 page views to be precise). If I published weekly, I’m sure then the page views would add up to the thousands every month.

If you want to be successful, then you need to post high-quality content that’s easily shareable and interesting. You can also add images, videos, and other forms of media to enhance your articles.

5). Start a blog to showcase your expertise and position yourself as an expert. You only need to do one or two blogs per week to start.

6). Make sure your site is mobile-friendly because consumers increasingly use their smartphones and tablets to read content and shop online.

7). I know it sounds silly, but email your subscribers about your business or new offerings. If you don’t have a list, start by reaching out to your friends and family and ask them to join. You’ll be how surprised the subscribers add up.

Note — When I first started Creative Development Agency many years ago, I had zero subscribers on that list. Now, I have over 10k. Additionally, I just started this list back in early May and have about 1,500 subscribers, many of which joined through personal invitations, Facebook advertisements, content upgrades, and general publicity coverage.

8). Create a video demo and add it to your website. You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on a professional grade video. Instead, it just needs to explain the benefits and features with a decent quality camera.

9). If you have the budget and the audience, then trying launching a podcast relevant to your area of expertise. If not, then you can pitch yourself as a guest.

10). If you want to increase the number of email subscribers you have on your list, you need to optimize your website to collect email addresses. SumoMe.com is one of the best ways to do that (and best of all, this service is free). Between our scroll box and welcome mat, we generate an average of 2 to 4 percent conversions every month. I’d be leaving 200–300 additional email addresses on the table every month if I didn’t have these two additional items.

11). Ask your existing customers or readers for referrals. Offer them something free in exchange for the referral.

12). Look at partnering with other companies that have similar audiences in size and interest. Just make sure they’re not your competitor. You can do a JV webinar or partner up as an affiliate.

13). Create a PowerPoint presentation and add it SlideShare.net to increase your traffic. You probably won’t get a ton of traffic but you will get some if your content is interesting and well-organized.

14). Offer to write a testimonial or endorsement for a vendor or supplier to generate more traffic back to your site.

15). Offer a giveaway or contest and encourage your website visitors to enter. You can use Gleam.io to create a landing page and post to your website, create a blog post, or add to any social media platform.

16). I know you’ve probably heard it time and again, but make sure your website and images are optimized with the right keyword phrases. I’m not an expert, so click here to find out about search engine optimization.

17). Try signing up for ViralContentBuzz.com. It’s s community where your blog posts get shared with other members for credits. I’ve used it before and had great success. My blog content gets shared about 6 times a day. Viralcontentbuzz.com isn’t a social media site as much as it is a community where your content gets showed to members.

18. Make use of your email signature by adding a link to your blog to help increase your traffic. People are lazy, so the more actions hoops you make them jump through, the less likely they will be to click on your website.

19). Offer a free 10-minute consultation with prospective clients so you can understand their needs and wants.

20). Make sure your website is clean without a ton of links and clutter. The simpler, the better. Include email opt-ins on every page of your website. You’ll actually want to make sure you have at least three places on every page for people to opt-in on your website. Opt-ins in the header, a pop-up, in the sidebar, and the footer are the best places to add opt-in boxes.

What have you found to be an effective way to promote your business online (not using social media, publicity, or influencers)?