Paid advertising is at the helm of every digital marketing strategy. It instantly puts your business right in front of a wider audience, boosting your sales as a result.
But, in the long run, paid ads alone can’t be effective on its own—not to mention, it can be costly, too—proving unsustainable for startup businesses.
The Good News?
You can still get your brand messages out for little to no cost with an inventive publicity approach: free publicity. While traditional marketing still has clout, free publicity may just be more effective in generating sales and in reaching a far wider audience.
No matter the industry you’re in, your business can benefit from free publicity. As an SEO agency in Singapore, we present some free PR opportunities you just can’t miss.
Podcasting
There are at least two ways you can jump onto podcasting: either you start a podcast channel on your own and/or guest-star on a channel that’s related to your niche. To get on a podcast, you’ll have to collaborate with a host, pitch yourself, and demonstrate how you can benefit the channel and its audience.
Guest Posting
What could be a more win-win situation than this: a high-DA site gets quality content from an industry expert like you, while you are provided with the opportunity to mention and link back to your website. As you continue with this strategy, you are likely to position yourself as an authority in your niche.
Participating In Local Events
You can be in a local event for two reasons: to sponsor it or to participate in it. Either way, it’s a great opportunity to be noticed and let the attendees experience your brand. If given the chance, it could also be a way to connect with people who can up your PR game—bloggers, influencers, and even reporters.
Influencer Marketing
Having mentioned bloggers and influencers, it’s worth noting that these groups of people can advertise you to thousands of followers for free, if not for a small cost. Remember, publicity is no longer merely about news coverage or prints alone and a social media post that supports your brand can be way more effective than paid advertising ever would.
Running A Social Media Contest
The benefit of running a social media contest is two-pronged: It boosts your engagement and attracts new followers as your existing audience are bringing in new participants. Your creativity is the limit in terms of creating the mechanics, but classics such as ‘like and/or comment to win’, ‘share to enter’, or ‘tag a friend’ surely never gets old.
Also Read: Viral Content: Good for Business or Just Boosting Publicity?
Other Free Publicity Platforms
Besides these strategies, there are also free online platforms and tools you can use to publicise your business. Check them out below.
1. HARO
HARO is a free online tool that lets you connect with reporters looking for valuable sources for their stories. It works just like this: When a reporter looks for a resource for a particular topic, they will put out a query, which you can answer if you have specific knowledge about it. If the reporter likes your response, you could land an interview for the story, which would then link back to your website.
2. Online Directories
Online directories are the new phone books in this digital age. Because consumers nowadays are turning to search engines for answers, you want to make sure that your business is searchable online. One way to do so is to list in several online directories including Yellow Pages, Yelp, and Foursquare, to name a few.
3. Google My Business
Google My Business is the Goliath of all online listings and one of its attractive benefits is that it lists your business’s exact location on a mobile-friendly map, making you more visible to the majority of users who search from their smartphones. Here, your customers can post reviews about your products and services. You, on the other hand, can include all the meaningful information about your brand such as:
— Working hours
— Preferred payment methods
— Printable coupons; and
— Special offers, to name a few.
The Benefits Of Free Publicity
As the name suggests, free publicity lets you put your business out in the open for FREE. But, it’s not the only reason why you should be bothered by this strategy because:
- Free publicity gets you more attention. If your business is the highlight of an article or is mentioned favourably in a story, you can instantly capture the attention of the readers and potentially attract them with more of what you have to say.
- Free publicity establishes you as an authority. If you’re constantly sought for opinions and quoted in stories, it would be an instinct for the readers to assume that you’re an expert in your field and someone they should do business with.
- Free publicity has great staying power. More importantly, when you’re featured in a publication, there’s a great chance that the story will be passed on to someone’s network and sometimes, even be republished for marketing purposes. It’s particularly true for useful and valuable content.
Need more enlightening? Feel free to ask us at OOm, a digital marketing agency in Singapore, for advice on pulling off these free publicity opportunities, too!
Get in touch with us today!