Promoting your local business doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg.

In fact, some of the best ways to promote your business are free or cheap because they don’t scream “advert” to your potential customers.

With a bit of spare time you can use these ways to promote for free – set aside a bit of time each business day to do this and you’ll start to get more leads and enquiries from the internet.

Make a video

You don’t need any fancy equipment to do this.

Everything you need is almost certainly already on your computer. Or you can use your mobile phone if you prefer.

You need a microphone. Although good quality helps here and purists will tell you that you need to spend lots of money on a microphone, in practice the one built in to your webcam will be adequate.

Depending on your business, if it’s photogenic then a demo of the product or service works extremely well. But simple photos turned into the internet equivalent of a holiday slide show work OK. Or you can use screen capture software to talk people through things on the internet or capture a PowerPoint style presentation.

Tip: if you haven’t got PowerPoint then use the presentation option in a free program like LibreOffice – that’s the program I use for my presentations and it works fine.

Or if you’re comfortable being on camera then record yourself on your webcam.

Take a few minutes to script out what you’re going to say in your video.

Make it informative so that viewers don’t just give up almost as soon as they reach it.

Then record it.

Aim for a video that lasts between 1 and 5 minutes.

For your first few, read your script out loud once or twice before recording so that you’re less likely to stumble.

Then record your video – you should be able to do that in one take.

Once it’s rendered, log in to your YouTube account and upload it.

Adjust the title if necessary, add in some relevant tags and put in a description.

The description can be anywhere from 100 or so words to around 500 words.

YouTube will automatically convert any web addresses into clickable links. It will also convert times into links that will go to that time in your video (so 0:20 would leap forward to 20 seconds into your video).

Make sure you include a call to action at the end of the description as well as one earlier on to cater for people with shorter attention spans.

Select the best thumbnail or upload one.

Then press the Publish button & then watch your video so that it has at least 1 view and to check it’s been rendered OK.

If appropriate, use the embed link to put it on your website.

Use your Facebook page

If the last time you looked at your Facebook page was when you created it (or if you haven’t even created a Facebook page yet) then you’re missing a trick.

Especially if you’re a business-to-consumer (B2C) company but it also works for business-to-business (B2B) as well because Facebook reaches so much of the world.

Post regular updates without being spammy – you should instinctively know whether or not that’s the case but if you’re in doubt, ask yourself the simple question of whether or not you’d like to read it on Facebook.

If the answer is no, that’s probably the same answer your customers will have.

Videos and cute pictures work really well on Facebook and can get shared with friends. So if you’ve got some nice – reasonably relevant – photos that you can share on your page, that’s good news.

If not, case studies are a good option. We’re natural voyeurs and like to nose around what other people are doing. So turn that to your advantage.

Facebook requires reasonably regular attention.

If you aren’t likely to update your company page often – meaning once a week at the very least – then it’s worth either delegating the task to someone you trust or scrubbing Facebook from your promotional list entirely.

There’s nothing worse than going to a page that’s a ghost town or that hasn’t been updated this year. It just sends out all the wrong signals to your customers.

Equally if the only posts are the online equivalent of blowing your own trumpet, that’s not good either.

If you’re stuck for ideas, pick something topical (not the weather unless it’s been extreme) and think laterally about how you can link the topical “thing” with your business.

The first few times you do that often involve brain ache but it gets easier as you go along.

Run a special event

This might be an after hours preview. It could be a talk. Or it could be a customer-only event or discount.

For instance, a restaurant could open an hour early and offer a taster of their new menu, Gordon Ramsay style (without the expletives).

A hairdress could talk about how to keep your hair in shape between appointments so that you’re always looking as though you’ve just left the salon.

If you’re stuck for ideas, follow the supermarkets. They follow the seasons and other special events – Easter, Christmas, Guy Fawkes, Wimbledon, etc.

Special events need to make your customers feel special – they need to offer something over and above whatever you normally offer.

But that doesn’t have to involve money or discounts unless you want it to.

And it doesn’t have to be directly related to your business so long as you can work out a logical “hook” that links up the reason for the event and what you’re doing for the event itself.

If in doubt, have a quick surf of the news section of the web – you’ll pick up plenty of ideas that are essentially just public relations stunts.

Or link the event with charity so that the karma is shared.

Use the power of recommend a friend

Companies like Sky do this all the time.

Their customers get a reward for introducing a new customer – and the new customer gets the same reward, so there’s not the awkward feeling that you’re trying to bribe people.

There are lots of different ways to use recommend a friend – the free gift is just one of them.

Just asking actually works quite well – most people are flattered to be asked. And if you can weave in hypnotic words such as “I’m looking for more customers like you” then so much the better.

So long as it’s true, position your request to say that you’re only asking your best customers for this information. Most people will feel privileged (at least at some level) so long as you don’t word it in a cheesy way.

Text messages

Unless you want a sore finger, this isn’t free.

But it’s very close to being free.

You’ll need the mobile phone numbers of your customers – a business card draw works OK for that or the old fashioned option of a pen and paper.

Then a service like Text Magic handles all the technical side of things at about 5p per text sent.

Which makes text messages a lot cheaper than using a stamp (although things like postcards can work very nicely under the right circumstances).

Texts are actually read and acted on.

Fast.

Usually within a few minutes of being sent.

So they’re great for drumming extra business almost at the drop of a hat.

You have to be succinct (otherwise it costs extra credits) but that’s fine for texts as people aren’t expecting an essay.

Don’t over-do text messages otherwise your customers will get bugged by them.

But don’t leave it forever between messages either.

And mix up what you offer and when you send out offers, otherwise you’ll have customers waiting for this week’s 10% off deal before buying and it’s bad news to train your customers only to buy when there’s an offer being given.

Always include a call to action

We’re too busy to guess what we have to do next.

So if you don’t include some sort of call to action in your messages, you’re missing out.

In my case, it’s click this link to contact me if you think I can help you to promote your business. We can have a chat and tailor things to your precise needs.

In your business, you’ll hopefully know what you want your customers to do.