Places to advertise for free

drsue_2 · 2 September 2009 at 10:14AM

Another resource for promoting your business online is Brownbook.net - this is a free business directory where you can add much more info about your company and services, so you get much more than just the line with yell etc. You can add images/video/text all for no cost.
www.brownbook.net

HTH
Sue

wammy77 · 7 September 2009 at 8:56PM

Hi, I'm sure i'll be shot-down for saying this but I will anyway..... what about donating a days profits to charity???

Local radio and newspapers will cover this story and advertise it for free (which usually costs a fair amount) so you get lots of great advertising, and your chosen charity gets some much needed funds - everyone's a winner!!!

I run my own business and have done this twice - it got me lots of extra clients and I was able to give to a good cause. My company is now affiliated with the charity and we often do events with them.

HTHs

Wammy77

purplepixi · 10 September 2009 at 9:28AM

It's already been mentioned but yellow pages is good.

If you go to https://www.yell.com (or .co.uk), you can get a free advert which is active almost straight away. One word of warning with yell and other phone directories - they will ring and ring and ring trying to get you to upgrade to a paid listing - be strong and say NO!

Other places:

Ladies nights at the local school/womens club/sports centre etc. Expect to pay between £10-£20 to get a slot but you'll be able to reach loads of people (if it's a charity night you may get a free slot).

Your local free paper/magazine, (the one's in the post office/news agents that say please take one). You can submit a little bio to them about who you are and what you do, and add in a reader offer and they'll probably print it at no cost to you.

Local bulletin boards, such as outside churches or village halls.

How about a few posters in the ladies bathrooms for local places such as the pubs, gyms, swimming pools, etc

Get a poster put up in your car.

If anyone drops off any books through your door (like the Avon you mentioned earlier), such as Kleenezee, Betterware etc, pop a business card back in the book for them when they come to collect it.

Try formal hire shops both mens and womens, as men can always pay for their wife to have their nails done for a treat! You may be able to strike a deal with the shop where you can hand out their info to your customers should they need a suit/dress for an event and the formal hire shop can hand out yours etc. This also works for wedding dress shops.

You could team up with a local beauty threapist who doens't do nails, and again hand out each others cards.

You could offer manicure/nail art parties, get a group of friends together first and then take extra bookings from your first party (aka Party Plan, but very good advertising).

Offer gift certificates, not immediate free advertising, but if someone buys one as a gift and then presents it for Birthdays/Christmas you might find you gain some extra customers that way.

Offer discounts to specific groups of people. E.g. if you live near a military camp, they've always got posh functions going on, so you could offer £5 off a treatment with the production of a MOD ID, same goes for students, NHS staff, Police etc

When the christmas fairs are one offer a selection of products for the raffels (schools, churches etc), and make sure you pop your business card and some info on what you do in with the products.

Offer a recommend a friend system to your current clients - e.g. if they recommend a friend they get 10% off their next treatment.

Or a loyalty card, for every 10 treatments they get a free.... Again not a direct advert but they might tell someone else about the great deal you offer.

The more inventive the idea the better. I could continue this list, but I think it's a little long already!

Happy Advertising

stallfinder · 11 September 2009 at 9:15PM

I've found Twitter and Facebook are both good for spreading the word about a new business and free.

DireStraits_2 · 15 September 2009 at 10:55PM

I use Homestead.com for my website. Its a template but it works. Has generated 000's in business so far this year

FreeIndex.com and findagoodone.com both free and work well (for me at least!)

Optimising your site, is hard work and can be a bit technical, but it is worth the effort.

Find wedding organisers, wedding shops, party organisers etc and offer them commission/payments for referrals.

You can get 10,000 leaflets for ~£150 at saxoprint.co.uk - but you need to do the design yourself.

Good luck

momo101 · 19 November 2009 at 4:09PM

Hi,
My friend and I are also trying to find ways to promote our new endeavour which would be beneficial to all those members here who run their own small businesses selling goods and services locally..

We have just launched our online community called Xibiti (Ex-zibi-ti) and the goal is that it will become a buzzing habitat for locals to find reputable services and goods locally and for small businesses to promote their businesses, and see how many potential customers are in their community and elsewhere and hopefully this will lead to more customers.

Not many listing to see at the mo, but hopefully if people signup (it takes less then a minute of your time) and their friends it will develop into something special.

I've said enough, you can have a look at what all the Buzz is by visiting www . xibiti.com. Please provide any feedback here or using the feedback tool on the website about what you think about the website.

Thanks

Mo and Chris.

digp · 28 November 2009 at 10:32PM

This is a really good post. Any more good ideas?

nexuss · 30 November 2009 at 10:06AM

Put leaflets in sunbed salons and coffee shops.

Places to advertise for free

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free