free marketing ideas for small business Archives

Looking for some truly awesome marketing ideas for selling online?

Whether you sell on Etsy, on Amazon, on Shopify or somewhere else online, these marketing ideas are from my 12-Month Marketing Strategy Plans for Online Shops.

These detailed downloads are super easy to follow and will help you drive more traffic (and sales) to your online store.

18 Marketing Ideas for Selling Online

Highlight any publicity your business has received with an icon or shoutout on your store page banner. For example, “As featured in this month’s issue of…”
Ask a local photography class to take highly stylized, creative photos of your products as a class project. As a result, you get free high quality product photos to use.
Create a gift card for your store and promote it on your home page and at the end of every product listing.
Add text fly-outs to your product photos that highlight special features or a target customer that would benefit from this feature. See this post for examples.
Get a free Square.com reader for your smart phone, so you can sell your products by credit card anywhere, anytime (out of the trunk of your car, if need be). You also get your products featured in Square’s online shop for free.
Apply to have your products included in monthly subscription boxes to get in front of potential new customers. It can be sample sizes or even a coupon.
Instead of always going after the end user, try to also target potential business users for your products such as restaurants, small hotels, fashion stylists, interior decorators, daycare centers, dog groomers, event planners, AirBnBs, and so forth.
Post something nice about a prominent brand company to your social media sites and tag them on it and they will likely repost it to their social media sites (so your business now gets seen by their followers).
Change or add your shop categories depending on the time of year, and make them as detailed as possible to really attract interest.. For example, Valentine’s Gift Ideas for Kids, Beautiful Holiday Decorating Ideas, New Fashion Jewelry for Fall 2022, etc.
Put your shop logo and url on your smart phone case, lap top, lap top bag, coffee travel cup, yoga mat and anywhere else other people will see it as you travel throughout your day.
Create a free list or checklist that promotes your business or is something your target market would be interested in. For example, if you sell jewelry, create a “10 Classic Jewelry Pieces to Own” list or if you sell wedding products, “Six-Week Countdown Wedding Checklist”.
Attend a popular music or sports event and wear a t-shirt that has your store name and url printed in a large readable font on the front and back.
In your product copy cover the 5 Ws (and one H) and tell customers what it is, who will use it, when they will use it, why they will use, where they will use it, and how they use it (if applicable).
Offer and promote an ongoing discount to trades, professionals, students and/or seniors, whichever is most applicable.
Join a Facebook fan page of something you are truly interested in, like a favorite TV show. Just join in the conversation; never use it to promote your business. Your avatar and Facebook user name should say it all.
Use your social media avatar like an ad, to promote your latest product or sale.
Have a fridge magnet made with your online store url. Then ask friends and family to put it on the refrigerator in the lunch room of their work place, in addition to their home fridge.
When sending out customer packages at Christmas, include a recipe card with a Christmas cookie recipe on it. Make sure your store name and url are also clearly on it. This is something they will keep and pull out every Christmas, reminding them of your store.

Download One of My 12-Month Marketing Plans!

Over 300 tactics to try for advertising, promotions, sales, publicity, SEO, content marketing and social media in my 12-Month Marketing Strategy Plans with plans specific for what you sell, including:

ways to get free year end publicity Want some free year end publicity opportunities? I have several ones to try.

Do you have a blog? Have you ever thought about submitting it to various publications who run “Best Blogs of 2013″ lists? Why not?

In December, magazines, newspapers and blogs always inundate us with stories about the Best of Year, whether it is movies, songs, books, etc. However, this presents a good opportunity for you to get some free publicity for your small business.

1. Submit Your Business for Publicity

Start with your business. If you are a shop, promote yourself to writers and editors to be considered for a list of 10 Best New Online Shops for 2013. Or get really specific, 10 Best New Independent Fashion Shops for 2013. Think of the types of blogs that would run a story like this (Racked is a good one), or even Google a similar title to see who did a story like this last year.

2. Submit Trends for Publicity

Were your products part of a trend this year? Well use that to pitch a story to writers looking for a year-end wrap-up story, such as 2013’s Top Home Decor Trends – Foxes, and pitch it to a blog like Houzz or Apartment Therapy. Or maybe you are part of a trend that will be big in 2014. They are looking for that too.

3. Submit Your Blog for Publicity

Does your business have a blog? Then promote it to all those blogs making up their Best Blogs of 2013 lists. Maybe yours was one of the 10 Best New Blogs for Women for 2013. Think niche for the title to better your chances of inclusion. It doesn’t just have to be your blog, it can be one of your posts. PhotoShelter ran an articles last year called, Best Photography Blog Posts of 2013 and included 10 posts in 5 different categories.

4. Submit Your Marketing for Publicity

Did you do some really creative this year to market your business? Maybe something unique on social media? I have seen articles about Best Tweets of the Week so why not 2013’s Best Vine Videos by Small Businesses or Most Creative Facebook Marketing Campaigns. Sites like Mashable and Social Media Today would be interested in stories like these.

5. Submit for Local Publicity

Never forget your local market. Contact a writer or editor at your local newspaper and pitch a story about Best New Local Online Shops for 2013 or Local Businesses To Watch For in 2014.

Not only is this free publicity for you, plus you can now use the moniker in your marketing, “Chosen one of the 10 Best New Online Shops for 2013 by XYZ Magazine”.

About Me

Do you need your Brand Story written or an SEO-Optimized Blog Post or a Personalized Business Consultation? As a 20+ year marketing professional and small business consultant, all of my services are super affordable.

I have consulted for thousands of small businesses since 2012, and my advice has been featured in the NY Times, Success Magazine, Yahoo Business, American Express, Big Commerce, Business2Community to name a few – so this is professional advice you can trust!

My Publicity Pitch service has also gotten my clients featured in Real Simple Magazine, Apartment Therapy, House Beautiful, Vanity Fair, Houzz, Martha Stewart, Glamour Magazine, LONNY, DesignMilk, Emmaline Bride,– just to name a few.