It doesn’t matter how good your product is if nobody has heard about it.

You can have the best products and services in your industry. You can have an impressive website. You can have the experience and knowledge that your customers need. You can have all the elements that it takes to grow a business but it won’t happen without good marketing. 

Your marketing plan and efforts are what separates a successful business from those that won’t make it. You can’t generate revenue if no one sees what you offer. You’ve been exposed to good marketing and it’s the reason why you’ve purchased products and services. You see it every day from big brands and companies. 

Marketing can be expensive. You can pay for advertising and hire professionals. But, there are also ways to market your business for free and these strategies can be highly-effective if implemented. You can use these strategies right now to grow your customer base and bring in more sales.

1. Get interviewed on podcasts.

According to Podcast Insights, 44 percent of the U.S. population has listened to a podcast. On average, 73 million people in the United States listen to podcasts every month. The numbers are even more staggering when you factor in global listenership.

This creates a great marketing opportunity for entrepreneurs.

You have the opportunity to pitch a podcast, get interviewed on that show and market your business to new potential customers. Podcast listeners are great because they’re engaged. They are likelier to subscribe to the guest’s email lists, follow the guest on social media and seriously consider buying the guest’s products and services.

There is no shortage of podcasts you can pitch but many entrepreneurs get it wrong when they pitch. They send pitches that lead with who they are and what they do. No one cares. Instead, lead your pitch with the specific value and takeaways you can bring to that podcaster’s audience.

Show them how you’ll educate their listeners on your topic. You’ll get your chance to promote your business at the end of the show after you’ve added value. That’s how marketing should work, anyhow. You can find shows looking for guests using free services such as Radio Guest List. You can also find shows on iTunes that match your topic and start pitching. Again, lead with what’s in it for the podcaster.

2. Leverage large audiences. 

If neither your online audience or potential customer base offline is very big, then go where there already is an established audience. The idea is to take your expertise and train someone else’s large audience. That entrepreneur would be willing to agree to this kind of arrangement because of the value their audience would be getting. 

You can train in large Facebook groups. You can create content for large media publications that get millions of monthly visitors. You can do joint-webinars. There are many ways to leverage an already established audience and create a win-win scenario. Use this strategy. It’s free and can get you exposure to millions of people rather quickly.

3. Go deeper with your content. 

Not enough entrepreneurs harness the power of strong content. Good audio, video and written content can be leveraged and repurposed. While it can take some work on the front-end, content will pay dividends to your business by helping potential customers to know, like and trust you. It starts the buying process in their mind. Good content gets shared in many places, which creates word-of-mouth marketing for you. That’s a warmer way to market. 

Don’t skimp. You can give away a lot in your free content and customers will still buy to get handholding and/or the next steps. Creating good content is free and will market your business far and wide when distributed on social media, through media exposure and to your email list.

If this is going to be a year of explosive growth for your business, you’re going to need to step up your marketing. The good thing is that you can use these three free strategies, and many more, to bring new eyeballs to you and your business. 

Get clear on what you offer and who it’s for. You can then find that group and show them why they should pay attention to you. Use marketing because it works.

Article written by: Kimanzi Constable