Continuing our quest to grow our business for free, with all the heart and hustle but none of the hundreds of dollars, here are free marketing ideas number 26 through 50.

Dig into the first 25 free marketing ideas here.

Want to dive right in? Get instant access to a snazzy, printable PDF chockfull of these 50 ideas and sizzle up those sales.

Now moving on…

50 Free Marketing Ideas that Work Wonders for Bootstrapping Entrepreneurs {Part 2}

26. Sauce Up Your SEO

SEO is seriously the secret sauce to help you get targeted traffic, looking to buy from you, straight off the bat. No kidding.

You can start with the basics, like optimizing your meta titles and descriptions, knowing your keywords, adding alt tags and using optimized content. But if you really, want to turn on the heat, go all the way, and optimize your product descriptions, do an SEO audit and more.

For those of you wanting to learn more about advanced SEO techniques, I recommend ClickMinded, an SEO eCourse that I’ve personally taken and LOVED.

And because, I’m all about being smart with the dollars, if you use this link to get ClickMinded, you get a cool $50 off too. I told ya, I love you.

27. Wear Your Brand… Literally

Now this is something that I’ve never done myself but I know a lot of business owners do. Wear your brand as a t-shirt, a badge or a sticker. It’s a fun and cool way to get the word out there and have folks wanting to know more.

28. Press Releases Can Pack a Punch

Sure, the world maybe online but press releases are still powerful.

Make your releases really valuable to the media with awesome story angles and chances are you will get picked up.

So, be sure to stand out with your release.

29. Facebook Groups are {Still} Fabulous

Yep, they are. We have over 700 members in The Biz Bistro, our Facebook mastermind group for parentpreneurs and it’s so cool to have a community to check in with, share, get support, talk to and just get encouraged and inspired.

To find groups for your niche, simply type your keyword or niche into the Facebook search box and it’ll throw up a bunch of groups that you can join.

 

Be sure to read the group description, guidelines and follow them please.

30. Interview Industry Experts

Another awesome free marketing idea is to interview experts on your blog, podcast, video show, like Vicky and Lauren do.

However, before you do this, be mindful of the fact that most influencers are extremely busy and therefore, your pitch to them must clearly explain how they will benefit from talking to you or replying to your interview questions.

Be polite but not needy or clingy.

Be professional but not abrasive 😉

31. Do Product Demos at a Friend’s Store

Say, you sell essential oils {which I LOVE, by the way!} and don’t have a store but would love to connect and share these babies with people, in real life.

How about you ask a friend who does own a store or café or studio if you can do product demos at her place? You can do a trade for essential oils or babysitting!

32. Participate in Online Forums

Like Facebook groups, online forums, that are industry-specific, can be wonderful places for you to share your business and expertise.

Let’s say, you sell baby swaddling wraps.

How about you join in the conversations over at babycenter.com and share tips with moms who’re struggling to help their little ones sleep better?

33. Community Can Create Conversions

Whether online or offline, community is key for driving conversions and one of the best free marketing ideas out there.

Create a community around your brand with ambassadors who’d review your product or service and share it with their communities on social media and blogs.

More often than not, the only cost to you is the product you’d send them, in exchange for the immense exposure you’ll get to their communities.

34. Join a Mastermind Group

Mastermind groups can be a melting pot of various free marketing ideas, like these.

Whether you join a free mastermind group, like the Biz Bistro or start one of your own with a bunch of friends or join a high-end paid mastermind community, in either case, you can be sure you’ll get lots of opportunities to grow your business with ease.

35. Send Out Warm Prospecting Emails

This is a personal favorite and one that I shared in How to be a Work-at-Home Mom.

You essentially reach out to a business via email and ask them if you could help them solve a problem that you have the expertise in.

But you don’t send mass emails, because that’s just plain icky. Instead, you personalize and customize each email.

Time-consuming, maybe. But free and fabulous.

36. Cold Calls for the Courageous

This is another one that I’ve never tried because ahem, introvert who hates phone calls.

But Peter Bowerman of The Well-Fed Writer, who I absolutely admire and trust, makes a very STRONG case for it. So, if phone calls are your jam, I recommend you read Peter’s book and go for it.

37. Niche Down Your Social Engagement

You know I’m a big fan of social engagement and networking, right?

But if you’re all over the place, then your messaging will get diluted. Instead, I recommend you niche down on your social engagement and focus only on the 1 or 2 networks that really impact your brand.

Melissa Camilleri of Shop Compliment is a brilliant example of using a niche network, like Instagram to not only build her brand but also, sell a bajillion products… for free.

38. Answer Questions on Quora

Quora is a hidden gem. You can find people asking all sorts of questions and you can jump right in and share your expertise. Soon, you’ll have people clicking through to know more about you and voila, free traffic.

Regular forum playground rules apply: Be nice. Be helpful. Don’t spam. Capiche?

39. Track Your Website Traffic

I shared this in tip #1 about optimizing your site for conversions, but here we’re going in-depth into your website traffic.

Track it regularly to see who your top referrers are. If it’s a certain blogger, maybe you should do more partnerships with them. If it’s a particular social network, maybe you need to focus your marketing efforts there.

Plus, you can also track what’s not working and optimize that as well.

See are people clicking away too fast when they land from a certain page.

Figure out why conversions are so low.

So, yes, track your traffic. Please.

40. Use the Power of Twitter Lists

You know how Twitter parties can be a fun and free marketing idea. Did you know Twitter lists too can work just as well?

Creating a Twitter list is a simple way of organizing your Twitter followers so you can stay connected with the ones that matter the most while filtering out the others with ease.

To create a list, just go to your Twitter profile, click on your photo in the top right hand corner and from the dropdown list select Lists.

It’ll show you all the lists that you’re subscribed to or a member of and give you the option to create a list as well. That’s it. Click ‘Create’ and get started.

To interact with list members, simply click the name of the list and it’ll open up showing you their latest tweets.

41. Launch a Refer-a-Friend Program

This is another favorite and somewhat like an affiliate program but for service-based businesses.

Ask current clients to refer a friend who may need your services and in exchange, they get a particular free service.

My hair salon does it and I love it. For every friend I refer, I get a free hair spa treatment. Awesome stuff, you guys.

42. Offer Live Chat Features on Your Website

73% customers prefer live chat as a customer service channel. 73%, you guys.

If you don’t have a Live Chat element on your website, get it now. It’s fairless simple and painless to set up and easy-to-use. Purechat has a free option to get you started.

43. Make Social Sharing from Your Site Simple and Seamless

Can customers and clients share your products and services easily from your site?

Do you have social sharing buttons installed that work seamlessly? What about your images?

Are they pinnable?

If not, fix this now!

SumoMe has a gorgeous range of social sharing tools that you can see in action on this site itself. Install them, if you have a WordPress site, and let people share your business for you.

44. List Your Business on Google Local

Have a local business? Make sure you’re listed on Google Local to come up in search results for your friendly in-the-neighborhood audience.

45. Get Free Publicity via Help a Reporter Out

Want more free publicity in media outlets, like maybe, The New York Times? 😉

Sign up for Help a Reporter Out or Source Bottle for media requests from the press themselves.

46. Make Marketing {Magically} Fun

What are some of your personal passions?

Can you do magic tricks?

Bake a batch of the best brownies?  {In which case, you and I should talk!}

Make balloon animals?

Craft stunning paper origiami birds?

What are some of the personal hobby-style things that are your specialty? You can use them to market your business.

Think… a walk-in Brownie Bonanza at your store for kids. You’d have me there right in front, when you open. 😉

Or origami birds made from the paper you use to wrap your product in? Or stamped with your logo?

Yes, combining personal and business passions makes for good, free marketing ideas indeed.

47. Reward Long-Term Customers with Premium Rewards

According to Marketing Metrics, the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 – 70%. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%.

Don’t you think we should be rewarding our existing customers and those who trust us with their business, long-term?

We totally should. That was our logic behind our premium Lunch’s On Us rewards program as well.

Plus, we’re enrolled for Rewards programs at all our fave places – Starbucks, Marks and Spencer and even, the local tea café we love. So we thought, if we love rewards so much, others would too.

We were right. It’s loved by everyone and our clients feel SO appreciated as well.

Can your business start a rewards program?

48. Take One Marketing Action… Every Day

Free marketing ideas are only good when you use them. That’s right.

Make marketing part of your every day activity schedule. You have 50 ideas right here. There are 31 more in 31 Days to Get More Customers. 80+ solid ideas to help you supercharge those sales and get clients lining up.

BUT if you don’t use those ideas, they’re no good.

So, take out your planner and write down for every day, one thing you will do to market your business.

Go on, write it down. I’ll wait, before sharing the last item on this mega, mammoth, massive list.

49. Invite People to Guest Post for You

Have a blog?

Stuck for content?

Invite people to guest post for you.

Lay down clear  guidelines so that you don’t attract the spam leeches. Be sure to edit and tweak each post before publishing it so it resonates with your audience.

And then, ask the guest posters to share with their audiences. You get new readers and they get exposure. Win-win!

50. Go for Guest Blogging Yourself… for the Best Business Branding and Boosting

THIS one is my personal favorite.

I’ve guest posted on nearly a hundred blogs and it’s been my #2 business-building, traffic-boosting, sales-supercharging marketing tool. {Our #1 is referrals from existing customers}

Guest blogging is not dead and while Mr. Cutts may have clamped down rightly so on the spam monsters looking for lousy links, guest blogging where you share quality content that’s packed with info and is loved by readers, is awesome for your brand and for boosting your SEO authority too.

So, guest blog, guest blog, guest blog.

It’s free, it’s fabulous and it’s a fun way to find new audiences to connect with, share and support.

Go ahead, get started with supercharging your sales with your personal copy of these 50 FREE marketing ideas, delivered to you in a convenient PDF format, perfect for printing out and keeping at hand. Pop in those details below and you’ll have it in your inbox {almost} instantly.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, including to Amazon and if you click through and buy via these links, you’ll contribute to our latte fund but you wouldn’t be paying anything extra. Feel good fuzzies, all around.