Most things in life aren’t free, but some things are! If you’re looking at ways to get free advertising in Walsall, Great Barr and the surrounding areas of the West Midlands, then you’ve come to the right place.
Getting the word out about your local business, doesn’t have to cost a fortune.
Having already taken a look at some effective ways to advertise your local business, in this article we’ll tell you ways in which you can advertise for free.
Free Local Business Directories
There are many local business directories that will allow you to submit your company for free. This will increase your chances of being found when people are searching for local companies on the search engines.
These include
- Small business directory
- Best of Walsall business directory
- Walsall business listings
- Great Barr business listings
- Midlands Business directories
- Yelp
Being in these directories also gives you a back link, which can improve the domain rating of your own site and help elevate it in the search rankings.
Hub spot also have a great article entitled 50 local business directories if you’d like to read more.
Set up a LinkedIn Profile
LinkedIn is like Facebook for businesses and is a great way to promote your local company. Not only is it a great tool for hiring talent for your company, you should post on it regularly and use relevant hashtags (in a similar way to Twitter) so that people can find your company.
Once your page is created, make sure to share it wherever possible. On your other social media accounts, or to an email list of your clients.
If you’re not sure how to start and what to put on your Linkedin business page, then check out competitors in your field to see what they are doing and make sure you layout your marketing goals from the outset.
Check out these tips for LinkedIn businesses.
Email Marketing
Whenever you get the opportunity, you should ask your customers if you can keep them up-to-date via email about your products or services. Creating an email list and telling customers about your latest offer/product/service, or even just what your business has been up to, is a great way to build trust and get repeat local business.
Be sure you know the rules on GDPR, which can require specific consent from a customer to email them. You must also ensure they can opt-out of having emails sent to them in a transparent and simple way.
Create a Facebook business page. It costs nothing, you can get followers immediately by inviting friends from your personal page and there are many ways to generate more followers.
There are also many local interest groups and Walsall business groups that you can join. These include:
- The Walsall Business Network – a local business network, where you can freely advertise your services.
- Walsall and West Midlands Local Businesses & Services – Promote your business or service locally.
- West Midlands Small Business Networking – A place for small, local businesses to support each other.
- Walsall Community News –
- Walsall Businesses – Advertise your business in Walsall for free.
There are many other area specific groups for communities, covering the likes of Walsall, Aldridge, Brownhills and Great Barr. You should always check the rules before advertising as some groups may not allow it. Alternatively, you can monitor these channels and keep an eye out for local people looking for a service.
Someone may be looking for a Walsall electrician, for example, to help with a repair. If that’s you, jump into the comments and let them know you’re available. Look out for opportunities where you can post about your services to help the community.
Visit Pioneer Magazines on Facebook.
Get Free Reviews
By setting up a Facebook business page, users can leave your business a review. People do look at reviews, so making sure you always leave your customers with a positive impression is crucial.
One of the most important reviews that you can have is a Google Review. It’s simple to get started by joining Google My Business for free. You set up your business profile and then you can encourage satisfied customers to leave you a review.
When searching Google, potential customers may search for you business to see if it’s trusted and find these reviews. You also get the chance to respond to negative reviews, so always do so in a positive manner in order to show that you really do take customer feedback on board.
Brush up on SEO
SEO, or search engine optimisation, can rapidly increase the amount of people coming to your website. To apply these techniques in order to appear higher in the search rankings for local businesses can take time to learn, but once you’ve got a grasp of it, you’ll never turn back.
SEO is a way of structuring your website and writing posts in a very specific way in order to bring in more traffic from search engines such as Google. You can learn this yourself if you have the time, though also paying an SEO specialist may be worth it if you have the cash.
Looking for additional help to market your Walsall business? Advertise with us, or check out our premium Pioneer Magazines business directory.