We all love a bargain don’t we, especially if it helps you cut costs in your business. Lower costs mean more profits, and we want to share our top 10 ways that you can advertise your business for free.
1. Add your business to Google My Business
What do you do most often if you want to know something? You search Google, and chances are that most of your potential customers will do the same if they are looking for a dog walker or a petsitter. Add your business details to Google My Business completely free of charge.
This tool is invaluable and will be displayed at the top of the page when people are searching for you. You can customise your free profile with all your business information to include the following:
1.An “about” tab – tell your potential customers all about you and your business. Don’t be shy – share your strengths, experiences, and qualifications. Make yourself stand out from the others.
2. A link to your website for people to gain more information.
3. Your phone number with the option to directly call you straight from your Google profile.
4. A location – This allows people to view where you are on Google maps and get directions to your premises. This is probably not applicable in most pet sitting and dog walking cases, BUT it will allow you to rank highly in the town you live and people will be more likely to choose you if you are closest to their home or business address.
5. Photos – choose a few fantastic photos to highlight what you and your pet sitting or dog walking business are about.
6. An option for the customer to save your details for future reference.
7. Opening times – if you offer a wide variety of times for pet sitting or dog walking, have them listed on Google. You may stand out when customers are choosing who to employ.
8. And importantly, a place for customers to leave reviews.
This article on Hootsuite shows you step-by-step instructions how to set up and optimise your Google Business profile for maximum success.
2. Reviews give great (free) business advertising
Positive reviews are one of the best forms of free business advertising. Most of us now read reviews before we buy or hire anything or anyone so encourage your happy clients to leave an online review – it could be on Google, on your website, or on social media.
Your potential customers will be able to read past reviews to give them confidence that you are the right dog walker or pet sitter for them.
3. Ask local businesses to display your business card or flyer.
Ask local businesses to display your business card/flyer and offer to advertise their businesses in return.
Many post offices and corner shops have community boards where businesses and individuals can advertise for free. Pet shops and vet surgeries are the perfect places to advertise your dog walking and pet sitting business.
We highly recommend using Canva to design logos, business cards, flyers, and social media templates. Give your business a professional, but friendly “brand” feel using a free Canva account. Once you get going it is quick and easy to use. You can save templates to use over and over again. Make your business stand out from the rest!
4. Set up free business accounts on social media
You don’t have to be posting on social media all the time, nor do you have to have accounts on all platforms, but it does help to have a presence, and these will rank high if someone is searching for you on Google.
You can create accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, quickly with minimal prior experience. Try to get the same username on each platform if you can (search to see what’s available first), and of course, use your templates from Canva for universal branding over the internet.
5. Participate in local online community groups and advertise your services free of charge.
As well as search engines, people are likely to search for a pet sitter or dog walker on Next Door and local Facebook community groups.
Don’t just join the groups to advertise your business. Get involved in conversations about the local area, and share your local knowledge and interest in the community. Show people that you are a trusted and valuable member.
Then, of course, advertise your services. Most groups will have a few rules on when businesses can advertise for free. Some have a certain day of the week, others may set a limited amount of times you can advertise per month. If you are in a few groups, it’s a good idea to keep a small list or spreadsheet of the rules for each group, along with the dates of when you share a post. You don’t want to over-advertise even if it is free.
6. Advertise your business for free on LinkedIn
Add your business to LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional online network and it’s completely free to set up a business profile. Share your portfolio, links to your websites and social media, posts from your website, and start making connections.
7. Use videos for free advertising
Video footage is fast overtaking pictorial and written content, so it’s a good idea to create free videos and upload them to YouTube, TikTok, and other social media accounts. People always love cute animal videos and it might get your business noticed.
8. Suggest a story for the local newspaper
If you have a local newspaper or magazine why not suggest a story to them? It doesn’t have to be about your business as such, but maybe you could write some tips for pet care, share a story about how you’ve managed a pet first aid scenario, or talk about a pet rehoming success. Think of something that will get noticed and get your pet sitting or dog walking business noticed as a result.
Jenna Farmer is a PR guru and has some freebies to get you started. Check out her website for how to pitch your story to a journalist. It’s one of the best ways to advertise your business for free.
9. Talk on a podcast, local radio or speak at an event
If you’re more of a talker than a writer, why not guest on a podcast, local radio, or speak at a local event. Build on your strengths and knowledge. Find podcasts or shows where you’d like to feature and pitch to them to become a guest.
10. Check your business listings free of charge
Finally, if you’ve done all of the above, check your listings by running a free Yext scan.
Yext is a website that allows you to run a free scan of your business’s online presence on Google, Facebook, and Yelp. It operates in three steps: Scan – Review – Fix. It’s always worth doing a quick check to make sure you are getting the most of your free business advertising.
We hope that these tips will have given you some ideas of how you can easily advertise your business for free.
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