The success of any e-commerce company highly depends on the marketing efforts its owner makes to ensure stable development and growing revenue. Along with a diversity of expensive options like paid ads on Facebook or partnering with influencers, the digital landscape offers many free (or cheap) business promotion examples.
Keep reading, and we’ll describe how to get a competitive edge and thrive in the market in 2025 and beyond.
Start writing!
Use the power of a printed word and a pinch of SEO magic to get close to users. Express personal thoughts and let other people talk about your brand. You'll develop trust and reputation in the chosen niche by sharing an expert opinion and making exciting content that caters to followers. Here’s how you can start.
Guest posts
Blogging for another website is one of the best ways to advertise your business and drive leads. Compared to paid ads, it doesn’t require any investments (we mean financial) except your time and creativity. Writing guest posts and attracting more traffic can bring positive results. Still, your efforts may take some time to be rewarded.
By posting articles for another company within the same industry (or a related one), you’ll receive access to a wider public and increase the attendance of your own website. Moreover, by providing links to the store from other resources, you’ll improve its SEO.
Product review blog
Consider adding a special section within a branded site for clients’ comments. Let users share their experiences interacting with and using your goods in real life. Buyers highly appreciate videos and photos, especially if they doubt whether to place an order at your shop. Posting positive customer reviews is one of the Instagram business promotion ideas to try (along with hashtags, giveaways, contests, etc.). Research shows that 92% of consumers read testimonials before placing an order. And 72% say positive feedback makes them trust a company more.
Instead of waiting while some users give feedback after purchasing branded stuff, you can also take everything into your own hands. Try to contact other influencers related to the industry and ask for a mutually rewarding deal. For instance, you can send them free items in exchange for a review, which they will post to their subscribers. If you offer a valuable item, they’ll appreciate it and launch a local business promotion to the loyal customer base.
How to deal with negative feedback if you develop a print on demand business?
Expert roundups
If you don’t feel like writing posts on your own or don’t have enough time for this task, you may seek third-party help. Find other bloggers and industry experts who can create content for you. For example, they may share some tips on decorating a house for the upcoming Christmas if you prepare an exceptional custom assortment for the winter holidays. Or they can post some unique recipes (while you sell kitchen stuff). Alternatively, they may add some topic-related stories and other valuable information to engage the public.
Expert roundups are cheap ways to advertise your business, as assistants can share such posts with other users, impacting brand recognition.
Interact with designers
Try to represent a company more visually appealing by collaborating with artists and creators. You can simplify complex data and make it shareable through various resources. Learn how to boost the brand’s visibility and grow the engagement of a wider audience.
Invest in infographics
Instead of using thousands of words for brand promotion, leverage the power of visual representation for important data you’d like to share with clients. Professional infographics may require extra investments, but they also have large potential for the company’s development. Your graphics may be so valuable that other resources would like to share them, building more backlinks for SEO.
Suppose you own a print on demand store and use DTG technology to create custom clothes. In this case, you can make an infographic about sustainable production using environmentally friendly water-based inks, add some statistics, etc.
To develop a catchy design on your own, consider tools like Piktochart. Define your goals/customers’ preferences and analyze niche trends. Infographics should solve the target audience’s pain points and be visually attractive and simple to understand.
Where to Find Images for Your Print on Demand Merch?
Include gift guides
Customers often search for unique presents related to a specific topic, like gifts for dads or mums. Many online magazines and news sites use this opportunity to attract visitors to their pages by providing special articles catering to seekers. You can apply one of two ways to promote the business: create your own guide and top it up in the search engine results, or try to be included in a popular one made by big figures like Glamour, Wirecutter, or Wired.
Publishers provide a list of product recommendations for a specific event, showcasing photos, descriptions, brand names, prices, and links to original websites. Getting into the right guide is a perfect online business promotion plan, which can help elevate attendance, improve SEO, and grow sales. Still, inclusion may require efforts because many entrepreneurs lobby to enter the list of best gifts from trusted sources. So the competition is high.
Communicate with your audience
The e-commerce environment provides dozens of opportunities for sellers to interact with their public. Interaction with potential clients is vital for developing lasting relationships, confirming the importance of your brand, and driving a company’s growth. In this part of our guide, we’ll describe three methods to promote business online for free and legal ways to reach customers wherever they are.
Focus on email marketing
Around 81% of companies worldwide use emails to drive conversions, with an average open rate (the percentage of subscribers who read messages) of 36.55%. Moreover, targeted offerings increase the index by 26%. 83% of online users confirm they happily share data for more personalized experiences and meaningful insights.
Statista reports that for every $1 spent on emails, entrepreneurs receive $36 in return. However, such campaigns are slightly more complicated than just making copies and hitting send. The most effective strategies are precisely segmented, tested, and refined for the best result. All this takes time, and sometimes, busy entrepreneurs don’t have enough resources to spend on developing successful ideas. Luckily, the task can be simplified thanks to the best business promotion services using AI for automatic mailing. You can explore tools such as ClickUp, Instantly, Seventh Sense, and others to craft interesting email content and send them for you.
Ask visitors to register for a mailing list via an e-commerce site or social media account. Describe all the benefits of sharing this personal information, like staying updated on the company’s news, fresh articles, trendy arrivals, and other content. Regular messages and notifications are one of the efficient ways to promote business through digital marketing. They help to build solid and lasting relationships with clients, keep them engaged, and ensure stable retention.
Email Campaign Ideas That Will Bring More Sales
Get on TikTok
With the significant popularity of social media channels, it’s hard to imagine a successful small firm that doesn’t make reels on TikTok. The Datareportal research states that the number of active users on the site reached 1.69 billion at the start of October 2024. Being a third social portal for advertising at a worldwide level (along with YouTube and Facebook), TikTok opens access to a new public for small e-commerce companies. Besides, here, sellers can reach the youngest demographics of online users aged between 10-19 years (25%) and 20-29 (22.4%).
How to advertise your business on TikTok? Consider making live streams, showcasing available assortment and sale in real time. Often, such broadcasting gathers thousands of observers who compete for an opportunity to buy limited offerings. Such social media promotion is an excellent method to accelerate fast growth.
Moreover, the app offers a beneficial feature that allows users to add a clickable link (a website URL) to a personal account. Customers can tap the source and instantly visit your landing page for more detailed brand information.
To add a link, you should do the following steps:
Ensure you have a business account on TikTok. If not, go to settings and switch the type. You should also already have over 1k subscribers to activate the function.
You can access an account page in the app by selecting the icon at the bottom right corner of the page.
Choose “Edit profile.”
Find a “Website” option and copy-paste your store URL, product catalog, or whatever you want to advertise.
Start a YouTube channel
With over 2.53 billion users, YouTube leads the list of the most visited platforms, offering entrepreneurs other ways to advertise their brands. In 2023, research showed that customers spent around 47.5 minutes daily watching videos on the platform. So why not use this opportunity to turn top business promotion ideas into life?
A video platform can strengthen an online presence, build trust among future buyers, add excitement and attachment, increasing traffic to the original website.
Compiling materials for your profile can uncover various topics. Think of themes that will be interesting for your audience. First, they will appreciate watching how your products look live (not on photos only). If you sell printed clothes, video how they look in various outfits: classic, casual, sport, etc. Or, if you make DIY decors, record how they fit in the flat. You may also upload a clip of your production process or the company’s appearance and development history.
To develop a YouTube channel and leverage small business promotion tips and tricks, take the following steps:
Sign in to the platform from your Google account.
Click on a profile icon →Settings.
Choose Add or Manage your channel.
Press “Create a channel.”
Confirm your choice.
If your company requires several administrators, you should choose a Brand Account. It will allow you to upload videos and manage other tasks on the channel by several managers.
That’s all! Now, you can use your profile to post video content and popularize a brand cost-effectively instead of paying for business promotion on Google.
small business promotion tips and tricks
Take care of automation
By reducing constant manual efforts in everyday processes, entrepreneurs enhance customers’ experience, positively impact website range, and save time and resources for more essential tasks. Utilizing specific software to reach your goals may improve refinement results and increase the company’s productivity. Let’s learn how to promote your business on Instagram, YouTube, or an original site with automated tools.
Optimize your website for conversions
Website optimization is vital for sales as it can help increase conversion even without additional traffic. Entrepreneurs should first pay attention to the product details page (PDP). It’s a special section where all the necessary information about the item being sold is placed. Such landing pages can include descriptions, photos, video demonstrations, prices, and client feedback. An effective PDP helps users better understand product features, measure its value, and enrich the online shopping experience.
PDPs can also improve an online shop's SEO if you add unique keywords to descriptions, titles, and tags. Also, check whether your selling page has call-to-action buttons like “Add to cart” and “Purchase.”
The Shopify Checkout tool can help store owners simplify the process of optimization on the platform. With integrated apps like Privy, sellers can create pop-ups with free shipping offerings or discount prices activated after the customer shares an email address.
Create micro-content for social feeds
When writing posts for social media pages, you should consider the peculiarities of customers' behavior. Often, they launch online platforms for quick information, having some time between daily tasks, when resting at work, or standing in line to meet a doctor. That’s why representing vital content in bite-sized format is preferable when promoting business on Facebook, TikTok, etc. Offering a quick experience for potential buyers, you’ll increase the chances of being remembered and free up time for other entrepreneurial tasks.
Let’s say you merchandise pet accessories. In this case, you can engage the audience with short stories about games they can play with beloved animals, permitted food, or pet care advice. Make 40-second videos or visually appealing images with infographics, which require 1-2 minutes to read. Short-form content perfectly suits the modern on-the-go digital lifestyle and offers several benefits:
Attention Grabber. The social media environment is focused on quick scrolling. When cleverly written, bite-sized posts attract readers at first sight and give them valuable insights within the first seconds. For instance, you can add business promotion captions for Instagram, like “At [brand name], our best asset is our people.”
Shareability. The simple nature of micro-content makes it easy to share between social media users. Thus, business owners activate the chain of spreading brand awareness with well-aimed memes, eye-catching visuals, and quick tips.
Consistency. Regular and frequent content allows subscribers to keep your brand in mind without overloading it with information. Bite-sized posts engage the target audience, helping your brand become a part of customers’ everyday lives.
Tip! You can repurpose long talking videos into shorts and post each new part daily, increasing subscribers’ interest. Try to use AI tools like QuickVid or OpusClip to get viral clips in a single click.
TOP Ways ChatGPT Can Help You to Develop a Print on Demand Business
Manage print on demand fulfillment
One of the best ways to make customers spread the news about your brand by word of mouth is organizing a smooth fulfillment process that works like a clock even when you sleep. That means no delays with order acceptance, no misunderstanding about available stock, and improved customer experience. Specialized automated tools like PodZa from MPS allow POD entrepreneurs to organize a multichannel e-commerce business connecting all the partnering online shops, reducing expenses and improving profitability. App integration will help print on demand services optimize the following tasks:
Create product collections with descriptions and images, design mockups, and let affiliate stores download them into their own listings within seconds.
Automatically receive orders from all the connected buyers, minimizing the human factor.
Share shipping costs and fulfillment fees and allow customers to track parcels with additional app integrations.
Calculate discount prices, generate invoices and revenue reports, and much more.
Utilizing automated tools for streamlining order fulfillment is a win-win go-to-market strategy for businesses. It may attract other entrepreneurs to work with your brand within a dropshipping model, which allows you to build a strong foundation for future company growth and thriving.
podza automation
To sum it up: the best ways to promote your business
Consistency, creativity, communication, and automation are key to effectively advertising business in 2025. Numerous cost-effective strategies can enable companies to scale without large marketing investments. Content-driven techniques prioritizing SEO, like guest posts, product review blogs, and expert roundups, can improve brands’ online visibility, drive traffic, and build a reputation within their industry.
Social media promotion on TikTok and YouTube provides wide opportunities for organic growth. Sellers can interact directly with their subscribers through live streams, videos, and bite-sized content. Segmented and streamlined personalized email marketing can significantly boost customer retention and conversions. Besides, it offers one of the highest returns on investment in digital advertising.
Streamline your operations, including website optimization and order fulfillment, and your brand will automatically promote itself. These high-impact methods and dedicated software can help entrepreneurs maximize efficiency and enhance their company’s reach.
Software Development for Your Company's Growth