9 Low-Cost Ways You Can Promote Your Local Business Online

Are you looking for ways to stretch and make the most out of your small business marketing budget? Thanks to the Internet, promoting your local business in Miami doesn’t have to cost a lot - as long as you know where to look.

Unlike the olden times when small businesses only had a few methods to market their products inexpensively, there are now all kinds of opportunities on the web, including Local SEO Miami.

Whether you’re starting a new business on a shoestring without any idea on how to advertise your products, or you’ve been in the business for years but your promotional methods are no longer working like they used to, you need to find proven and effective strategies to reach new customers in Miami without breaking the bank.

Fortunately, we know how you can do exactly just that.

Without any more delays, let’s get started!

What Are the 9 Low-Cost Ways You Can Promote Your Local Business Online?

1. Enlist Your Business with Big Local Listing Services (Free)

Today, everything starts with a search. It can be as simple as figuring out what and where to eat, or something a bit more complex like making big life decisions. Almost everyone relies on the Internet for answers.

As a local business owner in Miami, you want to take advantage of the fact that people are searching their way to you. You should make sure you appear when ideal customers look for you online.

But how?

Enlist your business with big local listing services.

Big local listing services, such as Google My Business, Yahoo! Local, and Bing Places allow your business to appear at the very top of search results whenever a user is looking for local information relative to your business.

This means prospects can easily find you. Plus, it puts you on the map!

All you have to do is fill out a form, register, and get your business verified. It’s that simple!

Doing so will also give you access to insights, such as what kind of searches users make before landing on your business profile, which you can use to further improve and grow your online presence.

2. Optimize Your Website for Local SEO Miami (Free)

Aside from enlisting your business in Google My Business, it’s also vital that you optimize your website for local search to ensure that it appears for relevant searches in your area.

Local SEO or local search engine optimization is the process of improving your site and its pages to make sure that they offer the following:

• The best answers to relevant local queries
• The best experience possible to local users
• Help search engine bots better understand what you have to offer to local searchers.

When it comes to local SEO Miami, we suggest you hire a professional because they certainly know how to provide the kind of results you want.

However, if you don’t have the financial means to afford one, there are several things you can do on your own to optimize your site for local search, such as:

• Claiming your business on GMB
• Putting your business name, address, contact information, and location on every page of your site
• Registering your business to local business directories like Yelp
• Researching local search terms and create local content around them
• Using a mobile-friendly web design

3. Create Social Media Pages or Accounts (Free)

Social media is a great way to establish a more meaningful connection with your audience by showing the social side of your business or your brand’s personality.

But, to do this, you need to make a business page first and optimize it so users who are interested in your products and services can find you.

You do want to consider where your ideal customers mostly spend their time online so you know which social media channels to prioritize.

Facebook has almost three billion users around the globe. For sure, most of your target audience are on this platform.

Here’s how to optimize a Facebook business page: ‍

• ‍Use your logo as your profile picture and make sure it’s high-quality.‍
• Use a video of your products, services, or a tour of your office as your cover photo. It can engage users and give them a hint of what they can expect from you.‍
• Complete your “About Us” or “Description” field with essential information about your business such as your contact number, email, website, business hours, a short description of your products or services, and other social media accounts.‍
• Fill out your business story section with a brief history of how your business came to be, include professional awards if your business has any, and a short FAQ. ‍
• Pick the right template according to your business type. For example, if you’re an online store, then choose the shopping template so you have access to features like a built-in shopping tab, which allows you to highlight your products on Facebook. ‍
• Choose the right CTA for your page, as it can get bring customers straight to your door.‍
• Add page tabs so a user can easily find what they want on your page without having to scroll through each of your posts. Your standards tabs should include Home, Posts, Videos, Groups. But, feel free to add buttons, such as offers to feature your current promos, shop to highlight products you want to draw attention to, and more. ‍
• Enable reviews so customers can leave ratings and encourage others to buy from you. ‍
• Invite your network of friends and family on social media to like and follow your business page.

If you feel confident handling another social media page or account for your business, you should try making one for Instagram, TikTok, and maybe even Pinterest - depending on your business type and industry.

Now that your business has a social media account, it’ll be easier for the local folks to find you on social!

4. Be Active in Social Media (Free)

After optimizing your business page or account, it’s important to stay active by posting regularly and engaging with your followers. Reply to comments, inquiries, shares, repost, and keep them interested by posting fresh content every day.

People nowadays use social media as search engines. They use it to look for local products, services, and local businesses. Having a robust presence on social media can help engage users, show up for relevant searches, and attract more leads.

But, first things first: You need to have a content strategy!

You can’t just post anything on your page randomly. Everything needs to be curated to establish brand consistency and to maintain your brand voice and image.

Create a content strategy for social media using these tips:‍

• ‍Identify a goal. You need to know what you want to achieve from being on Facebook, Instagram, or other channels. When establishing an objective or goal, you want them to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. ‍
• Establish the metrics you’re going to use. To identify whether your content strategy is working and whether you’re closer to achieving your goal, you need to establish the key performance indicators (KPIs) you’re going to track. You’ll know which type of content works and doesn’t work with your audience based on your chosen metrics. ‍
• Get to know your audience. To create content that attracts the attention of your ideal customers and resonates with them, you should get to know them on a deeper level. You can do this with the help of social media analytics, by creating buyer personas, and by interviewing your current customers. ‍
• Check out your competitor’s social media accounts to get an idea of what you should be posting too. ‍
• Create a content calendar to plan out what you should be posting on which dates, what types of content you should be making, status updates, promotional activities, partnerships, etc. This will help keep your page active and engaging to users.‍
• Start creating content. There are many creative tools you can use to make visual content for your social media accounts, such as Canva, Visme, PicMonkey, and more.  

Videos and images drive the most engagement, so look into making more of them.

People also love to see tips, hacks, quotes, behind-the-scenes, memes, humor, tutorials, user-generated content, and other forms of content that seek to entertain or educate brands they follow on social media.

5. Join Facebook Groups and Other Relevant Communities (Free)

Almost every niche has communities online or Facebook groups that you can participate in.

Join one and get involved in a thread of conversation, express your genuine thoughts, and share expert advice with regards to relevant issues and topics you’re knowledgeable at.

However, as much as possible, avoid promoting your business. You don’t want to seem like you’re only there for free marketing. Instead, be active in contributing value and building rapport with the community. This is the key to promoting your business passively.

6. Ask for More Reviews (Free)

Reviews, ratings, and feedback are incredibly important when it comes to promoting your business online. They serve as trust signals not just to users, but also to search engine bots that tell everyone you’re credible, reliable, and legit.

Social proof serves as a confirmation to buyers that they’re making a good choice. The more positive reviews you have, the more the bots will rank you accordingly, and the more people will likely buy from you.

According to TrustPulse, 83% of people trust reviews more than advertising. This makes social proof one of the best ways to promote your business online for FREE!

Now, the questions is: How can you get more reviews?

Here are some tips that can help:

• Ask your customers upfront for a review, rating, or feedback, and do it nicely.
• Follow up on your recent customers and ask for a review.
• Reply to every review you receive online politely, whether it’s positive or negative.
• Act upon recommendations and complaints, and let people know what you’ve done to solve them on social media.
• Send out an email to your email list asking for a review and in exchange offer discount codes, coupons, or freebies.

7. Start a Blog (Free)

If you have a passion for writing, then you might as well put that into good use by blogging.

Blogs are a great platform to showcase your expertise on matters that are related to your business, solve problems and address pain points your target audience might have. And, it helps with link building.

Just make sure your blogs discuss topics that your audience is actually interested in. Don’t forget to use the right keywords and optimize them for local SEO.

Optimized blogs rank well in search engine results, increasing your chances of driving more traffic to your site, attracting leads, and pushing leads further down the sales funnel.

8. Use Email Marketing to Reach Out to Prospects (Low-Cost)

According to GetResponse, eight out of 10 people will open a welcome email, generating 4x as much open and 10x as many clicks compared to other types of email.

Email marketing also generates an average ROI of 122%. That’s roughly $42 of profit for every $1 spent.

These statistics prove that email marketing is not only effective, but also a cost-efficient way of communicating with customers and get prospects to convert.

However, how can you build a permission-based email list of prospects who want your mailings?

By giving something they want for free, like free eBooks, tip-sheets, and a series of free courses.

For example, if you’re a health coach, you can offer prospects who sign up for your newsletter free workout videos. If you have nothing to give out for free, you can give discounts upon signup instead.

9. Run Facebook Ads or Other Social Media Ads (Low-Cost)

You might wonder: Why do you need to pay to promote your business on social media when you can do it for free?

Fair question.

Well, to be honest, organic reach is declining. This means that free marketing is a thing of the past and Facebook has now become a pay-to-play platform.

The same goes for other social media channels. If you want to appear in front of potential customers, you need to pay up.

Despite this change, however, businesses and marketers continue to use the platform to promote because it’s effective and it has a high ROI.

Running Facebook Ads and other social media ads doesn’t have to be expensive. You can run effective campaigns according to your budget.

What’s great about social media ads is that it allows you to layer your targeting to make sure that your promotions only appear in front of people who will likely become a customer.

In other words, no advertising dollar is ever wasted in a person who won’t ever be interested in what you have to offer.

A successful social media campaign can do the following for your business:

• Boost brand recognition
• Improve brand loyalty
• Increase conversion rates
• Boost search engine ranking
• Improve user experience and loyalty

Here are three of the most effective social media ad formats you should try:

• ‍Short-form video ads, like bite-size commercials, looping images, and real-life product demos, naturally grab the attention of users. ‍
• Carousel ads are highly engaging. They allow users to click and explore your products which is great for featuring product collections
• ‍Instagram Stories ads are great for flash sales and promotions because they trigger FOMO in users. They also tend to feel more natural because of how they’re embedded in the Stories section.

Looking for Local SEO in Miami?

Now that you’re aware of the different opportunities available on the Web, there’s no excuse why you can't promote your local business in Miami effectively. Try out these nine low-cost ways to advertise your business online without spending a fortune!

If that has become insufficient for you and you want more, you can contact the experts!

At Digital Resource, we can develop a local SEO Miami strategy for your local business so you can get more traffic, drive more leads, and make more sales to help your business grow! Check out our customer testimonials to know how we’ve helped hundreds of other small businesses succeed in promoting their business online and getting new customers.