Here are some quick tips on marketing a local business with little or no budget:
Let your customers speak for you.
Ask your customers to post honest reviews on high-traffic sites like Yelp.com. Be sure to respond to any unfavorable reviews.
Post customer testimonials on your web site.
Ask your customers for referrals.
Ask complimentary businesses to link to your web site; for instance, if you are a wedding photographer, ask a wedding florist to link to you.
Use Google.
Google offers a number of services that can help – post your business on Google Local Business, create a Google Profile for your company’s key executives and link to your web site, consider spending some money on Google AdWords.
Use social networking sites.
Set up a Facebook fan page, start connecting with prospects on Twitter and join groups on LinkedIn. You can also set up your company profile on LinkedIn (rather than only using your personal profile).
Send out an online press release.
There are a number of free online press release distribution services. See this previous post for an analysis.
If you have any other tips, please leave a comment below.
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