Creative ways to promote your startup for free

Venturing out on your own and launching a startup is no easy task. Coming up with possible ideas for products and services is never to be taken for granted. You never know if it is worth the risk until you take that leap of faith and start your own business.

One of the most difficult things for recent and young startups to do is generating awareness around their brand. In addition, creating buzz with regard to the products and services they offer. One major restriction they have is trying to promote themselves while working with a limited budget allocated to marketing.

When you do not have enough resources to advertise your services, this requires a bit of finesse and creativity. To get started with some creative marketing ideas, Writtent.com points out a series of strategies to market your startup.

One of the first places to exploit today is the internet. For starters, new businesses must have a very functional and informative website. Also, regularly publishing blog posts about current happenings in the business keeps your audience informed—not to mention engaged—in what your company is currently working on.

Another option that is free to explore is social media. Creating a social media account on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, and others are free of charge. You do not have to pay to get more visibility at first, so you are better off trying to grow your influence by organically reaching your targeted customers.

Have your business listed and get in touch with potential investors

According to Quora, the following are platforms you can take advantage of and consider if you want to get more exposure

1. AngelList
2. Product Hunt
3. CrunchBase
4. Reddit

Whether you have been operating for some time, or you are in the beginning stages, AngelList is a fantastic platform to have your startup listed. According to Angel.co, exactly 400 AngelList startups raised $163 million with the aid of 3,300 investors. So, it is a great place to connect with investors and in the process network with similar startups in the industry.

Product Hunt, meanwhile, was founded in 2013 and is a platform dedicated to the curation of products. This communal site allows users to share their own products, rank them and vote for the product they like the most. Once the product is ready for the market, then you can really make your brand’s visibility increase substantially.

CrunchBase is a bit different from the previous two services. They are a crowdsourced database of investors, incubators, and startups. This is not tailored to startups or new businesses but still, allows others follow company developments in a chronological order. When more information about your brand gets listed it adds more credibility, and trust in your business.

Reddit, social news aggregation founded in 2005, is another resource for startups to showcase their company profile. This social network is essential for raising brand awareness. Not only can you create an account there, but you can subscribe to topic areas like “startups” and “small businesses”. This helps you get an idea of what companies in your line of work are doing now.

Takeaways and conclusions

Finally, startups do have an advantage today because the web has connected virtually almost every corner of the globe. Today, there is not a human being who does not gaze at a small screen to check for information, and placing your brand’s presence in strategic platforms will get you ahead.

Utilizing social media networks to connect your brand to users will help your efforts without investing too much on advertising, and marketing.

Listing your startup will be another great way to have your brand featured. Do keep your website and blog current. Customers will look up this information. Having it optimized for all major platforms will grow your brand’s reputation, and help you generate more sales.

—

DISCLAIMER: This article expresses my own ideas and opinions. Any information I have shared are from sources that I believe to be reliable and accurate. I did not receive any financial compensation in writing this post, nor do I own any shares in any company I’ve mentioned. I encourage any reader to do their own diligent research first before making any investment decisions.