Companies spend billions on advertising globally, as seen by Google’s ad income. Undoubtedly, spending money on advertising and other marketing initiatives can be worthwhile, particularly for major firms with big budgets. Without this advantage, how can South-east Asian start-ups sell their goods and services and find customers? They should keep in mind the following three things:

1. Boost your site’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

The goal of SEO is to increase a website’s exposure in organic (non-paid) search engine results. SEO is a branch of digital marketing. It increases your website’s search engine ranks and increases traffic to your website. Utilising search terms or keywords that can naturally direct visitors to your website, creating links, optimising your website for search engines like Google, and promoting the benefits of your website in a way that search engines’ algorithms can comprehend are the main components of SEO.

Installing an SEO plug-in like Yoast SEO in the content management system (like WordPress) of your website is a good place to start. With it, you can add the target keyword (the search term you want your page or site to rank for) and the meta description (keyword-rich, concise sentences or phrases that will assist the search engine and its users in identifying your content) to every post. You can find more effective keywords with Google Keyword Planner.

Participating in relevant forums, being genuinely helpful there, and dropping some of your website’s links (such as a link to a blog post) are additional ways to improve the SEO of your website. Additionally, you can register for internet listings and request that your clients provide reviews of the business on online directories like Google+ and Yelp.

2. Produce great content

The greatest businesses in the world produce a lot of material, including blog entries, branded images and graphics, videos, and more, if you pay close attention to how they sell their products. It is one of the most efficient ways to reach your target audience because people regularly consume digital material. You may create your own blog using a free account, engage in guest blogging or writing yourself, and locate bloggers who are open to reviewing your goods all without spending a dime.

If done correctly, content marketing may work wonders for your company; just be careful not to commit the mistakes outlined in John Rampton’s article. He cites several examples, including the following: your material is too brief, you’re too promotional, you overuse industry buzzwords, you don’t use internal linking, and you don’t write with your target audience in mind.

3. Harness social media

You can promote your brand on social media for free by doing a tonne of different things. Be imaginative. Try to hold a giveaway competition, develop a reward or loyalty programme (for instance, one retweet or an Instagram photo shared by a customer earns them a 10% discount), request client testimonials on your Facebook page, and the list goes on.