What You’ll Learn: Learn the basics of how to promote your business. Find out smart, actionable marketing strategies and steps that can help you attract people to your brand or business.
The truth is, knowing how to promote your business is crucial to success. Online tactics—like optimizing your website, using social media, and email marketing can help. Plus, you can combine them with offline strategies such as networking, workshops and partnerships. This can enhance visibility and grow your business reach. To get started, work on clearly identifying your ideal clients and showcasing your expertise. Consistently work on promoting your business with purpose and authenticity.
One of the most challenging aspects of small business or freelance life can be finding clients. Luckily, there are as many creative ways to showcase your talents as there are gig workers hoping to catch a break. Hiring professionals is always an option. So is bartering services, such as writing copy in exchange for web design or SEO skills. Along with work samples, this can bring the potential for future collaborations and referrals.
To help promote your business, whether you’re a freelance writer or other business owner, we’ve created a short guide. This includes both online and in-person strategies. Take a read to find the strategies that fit your business model the best.
Start by Envisioning Your Ideal Clients
Learning how to promote your business begins with considering your ideal clients. When you imagine the clients you want to attract, it makes finding them much easier. Jennifer Goforth Gregory, author of The Freelance Content Marketing Writer, offers insights into how to promote your business. She says a great way to brainstorm new clients is by starting with the audience you understand. Then, think about various products they buy.
“Come up with a list of companies that sell these products,” Gregory says. Places to gather ideas are on the vendor list for conferences that would resonate with your audience and ads for trade publications, she says.
In the age of specialization, Gregory says that clients want writers (and other contract workers) who have experience in their topic, especially agencies.
“You can have as many niches as you want,” she says. The trick is presenting yourself as a specialist to a potential client by sharing specific work samples and discussing that experience.
Where to Promote Your Business
Your clients are the first part of the story in figuring out how to promote your business. Now that you understand who you’re trying to reach, the next step is to start finding the right channels. You need to know where to promote your business.
Common places include online job boards, networking events, social media sites such as Facebook or Instagram and other locations. Below is a brief overview of the different channels you can use.
- Online directories: Websites such as Yelp or YellowPages are a sure-fire way to have your business get eyes on its offerings. By creating a profile for these sites, people can find your business information quickly and see what others think of your services. Common directories include: Yelp, YellowPages, Google, Better Business Bureau and Glassdoor.
- Google Business profile: Creating a Google Business profile is another powerful way to get your business on the map—literally and figuratively. This allows potential customers to see your hours, location, services offered, contact information and other key points. If you operate a brick-and-mortar business, a Google Business profile is a must-have.
- Social media: Knowing how to market your business on social media is critical today. Creating a business profile on the major social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, X and Threads can give you an easy way to show up in customer’s feeds. Remember that each platform has its own style, which you should be aware of before creating content. LinkedIn is a solid choice if you want to share professional anecdotes or build in public. Instagram, in contrast, is a better option for sharing media about your business process (e.g. highlight your creative designs).
- Local events: If you’re considering how to promote your business locally, you have a variety of options. Farmer’s markets, craft shows and other local creative events are a great way for business owners to highlight their expertise and showcase their offerings. Meeting your customers face-to-face can provide a connection that an online review can’t capture. Another way to get involved in local events is to put on workshops about skills related to your offerings. If you operate a 3-D printing shop, for example, you could teach others how to design objects in your preferred program.
5 Ways to Promote Your Business Online
The online world is vast. As a new business owner, it can quickly feel paralyzing to try and decide where to start. To help you narrow your choices and get some ideas rolling, here are five of the best ways to promote your business online.
1. Create Newsletters and Email Marketing Campaigns
Sharing insights and valuable resources organically encourages readers to recommend you to their network. Marketing emails and regular newsletters are often underrated. Yet they’re methods of growing your network, attracting clients and generating passive income. Kaitlyn Arford, writer, editor and creator of the newsletter Freelance Opportunities!, credits her newsletter as opening important doors for her own career. She says it helped her connect with freelancers, hiring managers, editors and other professionals.
“A lot of people have heard about me solely because of the newsletter,” Arford says, only regretting having not launched it sooner. She says it’s also become a stable revenue source from paid members, premium subscribers, ads and paid newsletter recommendations.
If you decide to place ads, she says it raises your credibility. “Advertising in a newsletter allows you to connect with a highly targeted audience,” Arford says. “Readers are more likely to connect with an ad placed in a newsletter they value that comes from a trusted source.”
She says that successful ads include a clear call to action. “The best-performing ads offer something that people want to take advantage of, like a freebie, a webinar or something that could solve a problem,” Arford says.
2. Build and Optimize Your Website
For nearly all businesses, having a website means you have a level of credibility. It’s key to promoting your business today. Without one, you could end up losing business. Regardless, a website is also a convenient place to give information. You can showcase your hours of operation, give insights about your product or service and keep your clients in the loop regarding updates.
While creating a website might seem overwhelming and technical, AI tools have made the process much easier. For example, a number of website-building businesses (e.g. WiX, WordPress, Shopify) allow you to prompt AI to design and create the site for you. This leaves the technical work out of your hands.
That said, there’s also work to be done after your site is created. Creating your site to be more friendly to search engines and searchers is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Creating your site to be SEO-friendly is a critical part of online marketing.
If you want to attract a local audience or clients seeking a specific service, Arford suggests honing SEO. If hiring someone isn’t in your budget, there are affordable tools she recommends, such as Content Harmony. These can help you find SEO words for website and marketing copy.
“Investing in keyword optimization can improve your online presence and ROI, so don’t be deterred by cost, and remember that it could be written off as a business expense,” Arford says.
3. Leverage Your Social Networks Through Social Media
Whether sharing advice in a group, connecting through a private message or gaining a new connection, you can leverage your social networks. They can be useful to engage potential clients and highlight your abilities. According to Hala Taha, influencer, podcaster and CEO of YAP Media, “The most valuable platform for a freelancer is LinkedIn” with “one of the most highly educated and compensated audiences.”
Taha says LinkedIn also has the best search capabilities. This allows you to home in on attributes and behaviors of your audience who are primed for having sales conversations that solve professional needs. Be sure to optimize your LinkedIn profile, add keywords throughout that align with your skills and connect your network by “consistently creating educational content that solves problems,” Taha says.
Ghostwriter Marcia Layton Turner also offers advice on how to promote your business beyond referrals. Sher says LinkedIn has been her most effective marketing tool, helping her land at least one additional book project a year. She also uses its paid tool Sales Navigator to “target successful business leaders.”
As you work on marketing your services, don’t forget to spread good vibes with your peers. Turner pays it forward by participating and offering ideas within Facebook groups. “When I receive a lead that isn’t a fit for me, I can turn around and refer it to someone I know,” she says.
Gregory has become a leader among content marketing writers. She offers regular advice, as well as ongoing rate transparency in her own career. She has inspired countless freelancers in her Facebook group—The Freelance Content Marketing Writer.
4. Share Your Expertise Through Samples, Podcasts and Online Courses
Finding out how to promote your business involves different strategies, and one of those is highlighting what makes you special. Showing off your skills allows others to discover you. For those starting out, writer and strategist Christine Day suggests offering to work on a friend’s website for free. “Do a great job for them, and then tell them you’re looking for more work,” Day says. A mindset she recommends is “treating yourself as your own client.”
Blogs or Lead Magnets
Day recommends starting a blog or creating a lead magnet, a free offering that helps grow your mailing list, such as an e-book, resources, event or class. “No one is going to give you money to write for them until you demonstrate you’re already doing it,” Day says. She suggests leveraging that work when you’re pitching new clients.
Podcasting
Taha produces and hosts the highly successful Young and Profiting podcast and advocates for generating your own buzz by creating “a podcast centered around interviewing your ideal target clients.” Sure, you’ll need to invest time and energy into your podcast, but the fastest way to earn that back is by “getting the right guests to come on your show and thus generating leads,” explains Taha, adding that this naturally introduces them to what you do without a hard sell.
“Even if you don’t convert them immediately, it will increase the chances that they remember you.” Another option is positioning yourself as “a guest on other podcasts that have the target audience you want,” says Taha, who mentions that it’s worthwhile considering affiliate programs, where a podcaster earns a small commission on each sale/conversion.
Classes and Educational Content
An excellent way to share your expertise is by leading a class. Day helps entrepreneurs, often in the functional health space, create classes and workshops. “Developing online courses allows freelancers to establish themselves as authorities within their niche while creating scalable assets that can generate recurring revenue streams,” Day says. “Digital courses offer the flexibility to teach specific skills through various mediums like video tutorials, audio lessons and downloadable resources—all without the constraints of one-on-one coaching.”
4. Collaborate with Other Influencers and Brands
Influencers are a key factor in consumers’ decisions. A 2024 study from Sprout Social found that 49% of consumers make purchasing decisions based on influencer recommendations. These online personalities engage across multiple platforms and audience types, so it’s important to select the right partner instead of blindly reaching out for the sake of eyes on your business. A budget-friendly way to start connecting with influencers is by working with smaller creators with followers of 10,000 people or less. You can also send gifts of your product instead of cash payment, which can be more cost-effective for new businesses.
Another way to collaborate is with brands that operate in a similar industry but are not your direct competitor. By partnering with another brand—especially if it’s well-known—you increase trust in your business. After all, if a profitable business is willing to partner with you, why should a consumer partner with your product or service?
5 Offline Strategies to Promote Your Business Locally
While it’s been rightly said that every company is a media company, that doesn’t mean that offline marketing strategies have lost relevance. In fact, they might even be more effective. Here are five different strategies you can use to promote your business among the people you live with.
1. Join Local Networking Groups
Networking your way to success is a viable option, and networking groups can be a stepping stone to success for many small businesses. Groups such as your local chamber of commerce, Rotary International and Business Network International (BNI) are all solid organizations you can be a part of to hopefully fill your pipeline. You’re likely to find like-minded entrepreneurs to offer you advice along the way.
If you don’t have any local networking groups in your area, consider subscribing to SUCCESS+™. You can get help with generating more revenue and leads. Find business insights based on your specific personality profile.
2. Use Flyers, Business Cards and Local Boards
As more and more consumers get inundated with emails, business cards, flyers and other physical forms of communication can give you an edge in promoting your services. Direct mail—sending marketing materials via post—is an easy way to grab someone’s attention instead of a traditional email. This is especially true if you create a well-written, personal letter.
Pairing a brochure, flyer or marketing letter with coupons is a smart way to grab a consumer’s attention and then give them a reason to act.
Local bulletin boards at community centres like libraries, town halls or larger billboards can also make an impact on digitally-saturated readers.
Another physical mail option to get customers’ attention is sending out seasonal mail and gifts. For example, if Christmas is around the corner, find creative ways to showcase your product/service with some festive cheer. This puts you on a potential client’s radar quickly.
3. Partner with Other Local Businesses
If you’ve attended a number of community or networking events, chances are you’ve met with other business owners that operate in similar or complementary industries. Consider creating a partnership with local businesses, non-profits or charities. This can establish you and other businesses as local leaders. This is also a great angle to show consumers you care about more than just sales.
For example, let’s say you run a home-renovation business. A simple way to partner with other businesses is to connect with contractors that offer tangential services like landscaping, home repair or flooring services. You can discuss passing off relevant work to one another that may not be in your normal wheelhouse. You can also find ways to collaborate at events, such as hosting a workshop on DIY renovation projects for homeowners.
4. Ask for Word-of-Mouth Referrals
Though it may feel a bit awkward at first, there’s nothing wrong with asking those who live in your community for word-of-mouth referrals. According to a 2023 survey, word-of-mouth was internet users’ number one source of brand discovery, as 36% of respondents noted.
To properly get customers spreading their positive thoughts about your business, however, a few things need to be in place. First, you need to offer an exceptional service or product. If people aren’t wowed, they aren’t likely to talk about it to others. Second is to offer referrals or sneak-peeks to customers who are vocal about your product to others. This will incentivize them to discuss your offerings more and more, leading to a snowball effect.
5. Offer In-Person Workshops and Events
As a business owner, you’re often seen as an expert in your field. As such, you should find ways to offer that expertise to others in the form of workshops and events in your community. A simple way to share your advice is to write a piece in your local paper on an event that is connected to your business.
That said, don’t use events, workshops, or other community-building activities to deliver a hard sales pitch. The core of your focus should be on showing potential customers that you’re a recognized expert and that you want to give back to your community.
Best Practices to Make Your Promotion Efforts Work
Promoting your business takes time, plus mental and physical energy. Often, using the proper channels and tactics may not be enough—you need to have the right strategy and mindset. To help you on your promotional journey, here are a collection of best practices to help your promotional efforts succeed.
- Know your product/service better than anyone.
- Understand your target audience.
- Come up with clear, actionable objectives for your promotional efforts.
- Look at what your competitors are doing.
- Determine what makes your product/service unique.
- Be smart about your budget, don’t over/underspend.
- Carefully monitor the results of every campaign.
- Offer benefits to loyal customers.
- Create a special introductory offer to get new clients.
- Have a growth marketing mindset, not a scarcity one.
Promote Your Business with Confidence and Clarity
Remember: promoting your business authentically takes time. Getting new customers won’t be an overnight process. However, being consistent with your promotional approaches day after day will yield you results. There are promotional strategies that fit every need and budget; you just need to take the time to find the one that works best for your unique business.
Photo by JLco Julia Amaral/Shutterstock
