By now, you would have already made an advertising budget for 2019. No matter how hard you tried to accommodate everything, you are going to find certain activities that you have missed to accommodate in the list.
And, since all the resource allocation is pre-planned, it becomes very difficult to accommodate new strategies later, especially those which are costly for the budget.
But, that doesn’t mean you cannot try new opportunities. You will have to grab every opportunity that can help you advertise your brand better.
If you are facing budget constraints, you can go for additional ways to advertise for free. These do not cost you much and are expected to bring good results. When I say this, it does imply that that though these are not paid advertising options, they do cost you time and resources. So, logically, these might not be completely free of cost but are too reasonable in terms of ROI.
I have listed some such options here.
Table of Contents
Interactive Content
Good content is the key to brand advertising. So, you keep trying all sorts of quality content that could entice your audience. And, when the content is interactive, it can invite a high level of engagement.
Whether it is your website content or social media post, it has to be interactive. Users like to communicate and expect a human to respond to their communication. So, when you post something that solicits an opinion or feedback, readers will find it interesting to read. Such communication encourages interaction.
Moving a step further, you could also offer giveaways as incentives for sharing the content. This does have costs associated with it but often these costs are minor when compared to the benefits that they can draw for your brand.
Interesting attractive content is also naturally shared by users among their friends and family. These are very simple and sure ways to advertise your brand on a daily basis without having to worry about the budget.
Guest Posting
Blogging on one’s own website has been one of the most popular ways of advertising your brand. But it does have a limited reach. And, the challenge is how to bring high-quality traffic to your blog. So, though blogging is effective, you will have to find better ways to reach out to your audience.
This shortcoming of blogging for advertising can be overcome by guest posting. Guest posting is just another feather in the hat for the brands to advertise through other people’s blogs. When your writer publishes a useful piece of content on one of the popular blogs, he spreads the name of your brand. This is irrespective of whether you are able to get a no-follow or a do-follow link. You are reaching out to your audience, and not to Google alone!
The main advantage of guest posting is that you have a chance to make your brand known to the wide audience of high-quality blogs. Most of these blogs are regularly read by people who want to learn something which could help them increase their knowledge or skills. And most readers like to follow the source of such information.
When users read your guest posts and find them interesting, they reach out to you through your website. It also encourages them to follow you on social media pages. So, this is a good way to attract more audience towards your blog/website and social media pages.
Videos
Videos are the most powerful type of content when it comes to engagement. Live videos are doing very well on social media.
By sharing such content you are encouraging the viewers to advertise on behalf of you. They watch your videos and share them with their groups.
The best part is that you can make your own videos, easily and without heavy expenses. There are various types of videos that you can create conveniently. It only takes a few minutes and simple equipment.
And, there are types of videos that you can just share without creating it yourself.
The video is going to be one of the most happening advertising trends of 2019. So, don’t miss this!
Employees Speak
Your employees are the most believable of all the resources that you have. And, the best part is that they already have a presence on the various social media and professional media platforms.
But, how can they be your advertising channel? Well, it’s simple! Encourage your employees to share your company’s events and celebrations on their social media pages. And, why would they not, when they are a part of these events?
Moreover, you could ask your loyal employees to blog something about the company and their experience working with you. It gives them a sense of pride and being valued when they are allowed to write about you. Believe me, your employees, like your customers, are some of your best brand ambassadors.
User-generated content is the most believed content on the internet. People love to read and share it.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is the most conventional form of marketing on the internet. Despite being used for more than a decade, it continues to be very effective.
The high user base of email channels is the prime reason for its success as a means of advertising. If you are finding difficult to manage such high numbers of users, you can organize your email marketing campaigns with the use of specialized email marketing software.
And, coming back to the costs, I would not say that email marketing doesn’t cost anything. But, compared to other marketing avenues, this cost is too less to be concerned about.
Email marketing is time-consuming. It is also an art; if done effectively, it can have a very good impact.
The benefits of email marketing don’t even need a mention.
Moreover, there are ways to integrate email and social media marketing which can get manifold benefits out of these low-cost advertising means.
Conclusion
Free and paid advertising are two sides of the same coin. You shouldn’t avoid either if you want to build a good brand image.
While paid advertising does cost you a lot of money, there are other ways of advertising that can be used for very less or no cost at all. These are easy and come with hardly any risk.
I would not recommend these as substitutes to paid advertising. But, these ways do complement your paid advertising campaigns by increasing your outreach.
So, won’t you like to try these now?
Author Bio
Jin Markov is an experienced Content Writer with GoodFirms.co, a research firm in the USA. He writes on areas related to advertising. His quest for knowledge makes him a lifelong learner who loves to experiment with varied subjects.