How to promote a service business when you dont have much money?

If you know how to do forum Posting, Article Submission, Book marking, Social Media site's group Posting, then you can do these work at free of cost. On the flip side if you do not know you may need to expend much money. Thanks

Not sure anyone can help you. You are asking the same questions you've asked in other threads - but don't seem to take of the advice offered in those threads. In the past week you've had almost 60 replies on your threads - how many of the suggestions have you tried SINCE posting those threads?

Your standard answer to advice to "do this or that" is "I did that and it didn't work". Maybe you did it wrong...maybe you should try again. The answers won't change no matter how many times you ask the questions.

I'd suggest you go back and re-read all those responses and helpful suggestions and then take action on the advice. That's how you move forward.

Ok first you need to position your services, where are you on your consumer mind ?
It`s very easy to promote a great service so what is your impossible to refuse offer ?
what make you different ?
what is your impossible to copy advantage ?
does your service make WOW ?
are you adressing your client pain points with your special solution ?
do you know what make a client buy, how to adress the old brain ?
what is missing in your industrie that your competitor don`t offer ?

start answering theses questions, you`ll get a small idea of your situation...

Oh btw when you wrote "Its so hard to promote a service business without sounding like a typical salesman." i suggest you stop promoting and start helping your leads, prospects, clients..

it`s all about your attitude and how your position your business in the mind of your consumer..

Get involved in Facebook groups. Use the phone. Walk into businesses. Network. There are lots of ways but they take work. You're going to invest either time or money but you're already discounting paid ads just because you couldn't make them work in a small sample size so my guess is that you won't have what it takes to hustle and put the effort into marketing instead of money.

You tried a whopping four ads that didn't work, and now you're convinced that advertising doesn't work. Does that mean if four women turn you down for dates, you'll die celibate because asking women for dates doesn't work?

Guess the cat is out of the bag, folks. The only place on the Internet to sell services is Fiverr. All you folks running service businesses from websites best quit wasting your time and get yourselves over to Fiverr.

Hate to break it to you, LJP, but you just ain't that unique. You want to figure out how service businesses use their websites to promote themselves? Get thee to Google and start checking out how real B2B service companies present themselves.

And get over this whole "I don't want to sound like a salesman" schtick. Like it or not, you ARE a salesman. Right now, you're selling on a bottom of the barrel platform for peanuts, using a company that takes 20% commissions off the top.

The good news is that you want to operate in the B2B space, where there is a whole lot lower tolerance for the kind of inflated hype that likely gave you these misguided feelings about promoting yourself. You still have to be informative and persuasive, but you don't have to come off like some kind of midway hustler.

If you want to move beyond Fiverr, you either have to get over this hangup over promoting yourself or partner with someone who doesn't have it.

It probably won't be comfortable, but growth seldom is (remember puberty?)

Or you can cling to the idea that your service is somehow unique, and things that work for other service businesses will never work for you. And settle into your Fiverr niche.

I'll leave you with one more thing to mull over...

If your service is as good as you say it is, and provides the value you believe it does, what right do you have to deprive those who could be benefitting from it just because self-promotion is uncomfortable for you?

Selfish wanker...

My thoughts are get a job make some extra money then start a business and make a plan , there are 1000s of wana be marketers who have failed because of one small thing ! A PLAN, you have to treat a business like a real business not some money making machine...

You are looking at the start of min 8-10 hours for 3-6 months to see some real money , some will say thats bull shit but your call

Jason

If you don't want to look or sound like a salesman, then a business that primarily deals with selling (of your service) may not be for you.

Products and Services don't sell themselves.

On the internet...marketers do!

Just like John said...got to get over that hurdle or pack it in.

Not everyone can transform into an Entrepreneur.

You always have choices. You can create products and services for other companies but you will still have to sell yourself to them.

Heck, even a job requires selling (to a job recruiter / HR rep).

So if you are willing to start selling yourself (and services) online...where would your customers hangout...online?

Hi Lewis,

After a decade spent online, here's a secret I have learned to see blogging success....

"If at the beginning, you don't have much money, you will need to spend a lot of time learning your craft, practicing your craft, honing your skills, creating value and generously promoting successes in your niche, to build connections."

Example; as a newbie, I had little money to spend on my blog. So I bought my domain and hosting.

Then, I spent years learning, practicing my writing, following blogging pros, improving my blogging skills and then, creating and connecting.

Little money = Lots of time spent using free marketing tactics.

A lot of money intelligently spent = less time spent using free marketing methods

You can either get a part time job to fund your paid marketing campaign generously, or spend the next few years working intelligently, studying, practicing, and building a successful business on free marketing methods.

I have done the latter - largely - and cannot complain about my results.

Ryan

PS...I suspect from Kay's reply below that you have some major league, fear-based, mental blocks around success. Start meditating, Work on your mindset, on waking, and you will become more aware of your limiting beliefs, so you can ferret those suckers out. Then you can listen to and follow good advice, persistently, to lay a foundation for a successful business.

The best advice that was ever given to me was, "Don't promote your business, promote the BENEFITS of your business and your customers will find you. If you want to take it a step further... go to Amazon and purchase this book "Think And Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. You will be amazed on how quickly you can transform your business just by changing your mindset.

Good luck!

Thing is i dont have much money so i started off with small payments .... Oh btw when you wrote "Its so hard to promote a service business without ... You still have to be informative and persuasive,

Don't go for paid services.. we have various free sites for forum posting, bookmarking and directories submission.. add your link on these wesite.

For me, a blog was the most effective way to EDUCATE prospects. If you don't want to sound like a typical salesman, that's a great solution for you.

Also, learn SEO. You need time to promote a blog in your niche but it's worth it.

And learn Facebook Ads, too. I assume you don't have much experience in it, so there always is something to approve. And learn how to sent this traffic to build an e-mail list - this way you will be able to have contant with people much longer than after typical campain. You will gain more trust.

I appreciate all the feedback even the harsh words lol

You have low cost budget for the advertising so go with SEO ( Search Engine Optimization) this is organic thing but for that you need SEO knowledge.
Or you can enter in FB group.

You say you have a targeted niche (fitness). That is a huge market, not a targeted niche.

Maybe if you drilled down a little you could get your ads seen by the right people.

Men over fifty with an unwanted beer belly
Women who have just had a baby and want to lose the extra weight
People who sit at a desk all day and want to know a quick workout with big results
Women who want to improve their golf swing
Chihuahuas who want more energy to bite more ankles...

You get the idea.

With a narrow market you can tailor your ads to show the benefits to that particular group and improve who sees the ads.

Rose

Being active on social media is a must - use every platform.
Not a free option but you could post some flyers.

Hope this helps

And in the B2B space, simply add the words "Businesses who cater to..." to the beginning.

The question is basically: BE AN AUTHORITY.

That's belong to SHOW before what you have. The main difference between a churn and burn salesman and someone who will steady grow is related in increasing your authority.

How do you do?

Posting on forum, guest posting on blog, start your own blog, partecipate in fb groups discussion and that will increase yout authority if your material is good or will make u face the truth about your business instead

this is what you pay fiverr for man... they have the money and know how to market their website which attracts customers for you. Going to be A LOT more costly to try to market for one off sales than it is for you to give Fiverr their cut. Stick with Fiverr

There is the only way you should do blogging on daily basis, slide sharing, social bookmarking, blog commenting, ad posting, forum posting and much important is social media sharing. But all this will happen when you know clearly about these things.

Then you have to do social media optimization which means use social media.

heloo guys ..i want to promote my website product without investing money so how it will be happened?could anyone help me out?

NIce advice "The best advice that was ever given to me was, "Don't promote your business, promote the BENEFITS of your business and your customers will find you. If you want to take it a step further... "

HI Levis, all i can suggest you is to try to join Facebook groups, related to your offer, then try to make posts over there, and make sure not to spamming too much, you will sound just like spam, and it's very bad for you! Also, you could go for blogs, forums, and try to interact over there, and try to share as much as you can, like this, normally you could drive some good traffic! if you can also do it, then try to run a Youtube channel, with some videos, it will always be benefit to be everywhere. good luck !!

Sell books related resources : test-banks, solution manuals and instructor manuals, is one of best choice of online business. I tried it before.

I would suggest using all the Free Classifieds like Craigslist and Backpage. Also use social media like Facebook and Instagram.

Word of mouth is always the best advertising. As you're providing a service, ask your customers to recommend you in return for a discount on their next order. Failing that, a solo mailing to someone else's list in the same niche is generally good value for money. If you can find someone who sells a product that would complement your service (and has a responsive list) so much the better.

No it's not. Peep this... whatever your service is, see if you can package that information into a 50-page ebook, and sell it online for $7.

If you can't sell your $19 ebook to the folks in your niche, what makes you think you'll be able to sell a $100+ service? You can't escape the obvious problem that you're avoiding: you don't know how to market effectively online. First test yourself and your marketing skills and sell a $19 ebook on your website.

No need to give Facebook, instagram, and fiverr all your money for potentially bad results. Test yourself first with the easy ebook, then use the marketing strategies that you use to sell the ebook to sell your service.

This inexpensive marketing plan can lead to more traffic and higher customer retention, as such you can try blogging, email, info graphics, online video, direct/referring links

Sell books related resources : test-banks, solution manuals and instructor manuals, is one of best choice of online business. After one little period you will receive a lot of purchase email. What you need is to create website (so simple using ready templates for hosts like bigcommerce), and upload these resources and connect with some payment method like Paypal.
I have a lot of folders (> 4000) for many publishers :Wiely, Cengae, Person, ....

Thanks

Well, you can do a lot but what I really think that it is very important to track results. See what is more profitable for you. Content Mk, Social Media Mk, posting on forums, videos on YouTube, working with influencers - try them all. If you learn how to do them as an expert, costs shouldn't be a problem.

Creating value for an audience is one way to boost web traffic.

Facebook...make a facebook page, link that with your instagram and youtube accounts. If you can put in the effort, join various networking or blogging groups to promote your site and get likes for your facebook page. The more likes on your page, the more larger your post-engagement reach. Again, you can offer a free tutorial so they can register thru email, so you can start a list.