5 Powerful Ways To Market Your Business Online For FREE In Australia
It can be pretty tough to get enough customers for your business, especially when first starting out, and advertising can be so expensive.
Luckily, there are a lot of ways you can promote your small business online in Australia, for free!
How To Market Your Australian Business Online For Free:
These 5 quick tips you can complete in under 5 hours, and will get your small business much more visibility online, improve SEO and help you get more customers.
1. Sign Up With Google My Business To Market Your Business Online
Difficulty: Easy (25 min.)
To get an awesome map listing on Google searches, you need to list your business with Google My Business.
This invaluable tool is overlooked by many small businesses, but is so important to gain local customers.
Registering is easy.
Make sure you are signed in to your Google/gmail account and visit Google My Business.
Fill in your business' address, website address, opening hours and any photos that show your recent work or products.
It's very important to add a few categories that your business falls under. (For us it was website development, SEO and photography).
Verify Your Business Address With Google
If you work from home and don’t serve people from your address, you should check the box "I deliver goods and services to my customers at their location."
Then your home address will not be published on your Google listing, and you can specify which locations you will serve for your business.
The listing is not immediately live. To get it published you need to verify your physical address.
If you live in a remote location and only receive mail at a PO Box address this proves to be impossible to register.
Unfortunately Google won't accept PO Box addresses, so if need be, ask a relative or good friend if they wouldn’t mind getting your GMB mail. (make sure to check “I deliver goods and services to their location”! )
Once you click on verify, a physical "postcard" is sent to your business address.
The postcard will take 5-14 business days—for us it took 2 weeks.
Once the postcard arrives, find the code. Simply enter it on Google My Business and hit verify!
Use Google Reviews & Posts
Once live, send the link to your clients so they can give you a review!
Another new feature is "Posts," to give short updates similar to your Facebook Page.
Posts are live for a week or two, so you need to keep writing little updates if you want those to stay prominent on your listing.
Results:
Your business will come up on Google map section when people search for your service/product nearby.
If you have difficulty setting up your Google My Business, download our free Google My Business comprehensive setup checklist.
Need to DIY a new website for your business?
Create your own simple website yourself on a budget with Strikingly from just $10 a month it’s hard to beat. Or if you’re a bit more tech savvy, use Squarespace and save up to 30% off your first year of website hosting (save around $120) with Squarespace here.
2. Put Up A Free Yellow Pages Ad
Difficulty: Easy (20 min.)
Yellow pages ads are a quick and easy step to giving your business more exposure when people are searching for a business.
To put up your ad for free on the Australian Yellow Pages website go to Sensis and sign-up.
You get one free listing from either the Yellow Pages, White Pages, Whereis or True Local, so think about which website your potential customers will be using and select that service.
The free listing only includes basic information, so if you want your logo displayed or services offered you need to upgrade your ad.
3. Create a Facebook Page
Difficulty: Medium (1 hr.)
Facebook is a good way to market your business online for free.
Even though engagement from your page followers is quite low, it does help with your website's SEO, and your page will also come up in local searches within Facebook.
To create a Facebook page, login to your existing Facebook personal profile and click on the Page link in the bottom left hand corner.
To get the most out of your Facebook business page, it's best to have a special round/square Facebook logo to fit the new profile image size and a background banner or image that reflects your business and is the correct dimensions, (851 x 315 pixels).
Add Your Business Information To Facebook
Add information to your page such as your business type, business description, services and opening times.
Don't forget to create a call to action button on your banner, to encourage visitors to take action on your Facebook page.
This can be anything from messaging you, or getting a quote. There's also a section for your services or selling products.
Post Any Updates or Promotions
Again, ask your previous clients to give you a review on your Facebook page, and publish engaging updates, photos or video of your business in action.
You may also want to post any deals or promotions you have going right now.
Invite your family and friends on Facebook who may be interested in supporting your business to like your page.
Hint: while you’re at it, if you are an artist, you can join our free Facebook marketing group to help you market your business.
4. Get Involved In The Online Community
Difficulty: Medium (1 hr.)
Choose the best place to reach your ideal customer and become involved online.
Think about your ideal customer and what forums, Facebook groups or websites they may visit.
Leave occasional valuable comments or contribute to the conversation, and occasionally offer your professional services or products if relevant.
Get A Profile Image Gravatar For Website Comments
To have a business profile picture when you leave comments on a website, you will need to create a gravatar.
This will display your business logo on your profile image when you comment on forums or websites and people can click through to your website.
When you are commenting on stories, there will usually be a place to leave your website address as well.
Make sure to fill this in, so that if people appreciate your information and want to find out more about you, they can click through to your website.
5. Write Blog Posts On Your Website
Difficulty: Medium-Hard (2-4 hrs.)
If you have a website, it can be a good idea increase your SEO and regularly create fresh content. (If you don’t already have a website, we highly recommend Squarespace websites!)
It can be tricky to figure out a blogging plan, and it’s easy to waste time on writing about topics that nobody cares about. To help with a blogging plan you can book an SEO consultations/coaching video call to work out your strategy for as little as $50.
A good start is to think about what your ideal customer would want to know related to your product and go from there.
Reverse Engineer Your Products or Offerings
A great way to attract the right visitors to your blog is to ‘reverse engineer’ your main products/services.
In other words, think about your main offerings and what your buyers would also be searching for on Google that is related.
Then, think about how you can get them from the blog post to your sales pages.
For example, if you run a party hire website, you could start with "10 ways to create the perfect birthday party" and then have a link to your party hire products and services.
Bonus Marketing Tips
If you have a small budget, email marketing is absolutely your best friend!
Email marketing has the best ROI (return on investment) than any other form of marketing. We recommend building your email list straight away, without delay. A great way to build your email list is through offering a free guide, checklist or eBook, video course or even a discount code on your website. We use Flodesk, and the basic plan includes delivering these freebies automatically, saving you loads of time as well as including unlimited subscribers and lists (as soon as you have more subscribers Mailchimp and others become very expensive!). We have an amazing discount code MARKETING where you can get 50% off your subscription click here to get it.
And for websites, if you decide on the DIY route, we recommend Strikingly website builder for low cost and ease of use. Another great option for a slightly larger budget is Squarespace. Save up to 30% off your first year (save around $120) with Squarespace here. Both DIY website builders are easy to use, include security updates, and provide great value for money.
If you run a health & wellness business, we have a FREE Facebook marketing group where you can post your questions or comments!
*Some of our links are affiliate links. They in no way affect our genuine recommendations and tips.
