Free Marketing

Last week I met someone who said they wanted to do some marketing but didn't have any money. I've been wondering how I could help. Here's what I came up with...
Until they have some money to spend on marketing, they could consider setting up a Wordpress and/or Posterous blog site. Maybe both. They'll need to download some software for Wordpress, but Posterous is web (cloud) based, so no download and you can update it by email. Facebook for business might be another consideration. LinkedIn would be a good way of connecting with people, too. You'll find me at http://uk.linkedin.com/in/colinkirby247. These will give you a web presence and maybe a following prior to the launch of the company.

With Wordpress, Posterous and maybe Facebook in place, they could get a Twitter account and start promoting the blog sites. I strongly recommend Hootsuite as a way of managing your Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts. Again, it's free, no download required. You'll be able to schedule Tweets, follow useful people (who often will follow you, too). I've found people to be very generous in forwarding messages, which can direct people to your blogs which can have the same content as a website. But beware overtly "selling" on Twitter.

Registering the company on directory websites would be good. Most have a free listing available. There are other blog and social media platforms, but the foregoing is probably enough to start with. When they have some money to spend on marketing, all these tools can be used to direct people to a website. In effect, what they will have done is the reverse of most marketing strategies, i.e. website first, then the blogs and social media to promote it.

Is a website absolutely necessary? Hmmm... depends on the business. If you watched the excellent Mary Portas in Mary, Queen of Shops, you would have seen how she transformed businesses. In 5 of the 6 episodes I saw, she didn't mention 'website' once. All promotion was done locally with leaflets and some door knocking. If you need help with leaflets (and other printed material), give me a call as I have a very good printer I can recommend in Billericay.

All of the above is free - except the investment in time. Rather than get bogged down in all this stuff, make a start, schedule some time every week to keep it updated and get out and sell!

Got any questions? Don't be afraid to contact me.

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After 26 years at Kirby Towers, we’ve decided to use the fireplace for its intended purpose – a real life open fire. After so long a time in a disused state, we had to get the chimney swept, so we called in Burnham Sweeps.

Contact Us

address
13 Princes Road
Burnham on Crouch
Essex
CM0 8BX

telephone
01621 784 509
07717 855 435

email
colin@kirbymarketing.co.uk