One of the most frequently asked questions I get is ‘How can I support your small business?”, so I thought to write a blog post all about ways to support a small business for free. There are so many ways that you can show support even if you cannot afford their products or they aren’t up your street, so I thought to write 5 ways that are the easy, quick and most importantly free. Of course you can always use these ideas as extras if you are a current customer of the brand, just to show how much you support them!
These tips on how to support a small business for free will all be related to Indigo Rosee Beauty, because obviously that is my small business and I can only speak about my experiences. However, you could relate this to any small business, and I use these for my friend’s small businesses and blogs.
These photos are from my July Tenerife trip so are quite old now, but they are ideal for this blog post as its all about supporting your friends and followers!
Like, comment and share
In my opinion, the best way to support a small business for free is by engaging with their posts on social media. The best way to grow a small business now is through social media but that is impossible unless people choose to engage back. Its quick, its free and its easy to like and comment on a post, and it really helps reach and engagement for the business. Better still, sharing their Instagram posts to stories will allow my business to reach your followers too, who might be interested in the product. A great example of this is my lovely friend Alyssa shared my lashes on her story, which resulted in a lovely customer from Japan to order my lashes. How cool is that? I would have never have received that international order if it wasn’t for Alyssa, and shows just how useful communication on social media is.
If you have purchased… Share your products and leave a review!
Obviously you need to buy the products first to do this tip, but it doesn’t cost you any extra so I have included it on the list of how to support a small business for free. It honestly means so much to me when I see customers showing off their products on their social media and, as I mentioned in the previous tip, it all helps to reach new potential customers that are following you. I try to repost as many customer photos as I can on Instagram photos to say thank you! In addition to this, leaving a review is something that not many people do, but definitely helps when people stumble across the Facebook page. I’m trying to build my Facebook page (at the moment it only has around 200 likes) and leaving a review over there really does help show potential customers how great the products are. Plus its entirely free!
Spread the word!
Word of mouth is one of the biggest ways to get your business out there, so the more people that are helping spread the word the better. Telling friends and family about a new business that you have discovered is without a doubt one of the best ways to support a small business for free, and it might increase sales for them as well. A really good example of this is from my lovely friend Pippa who, although isn’t a lash wearer, took it upon herself to tell her friend about my business, who then proceeded to purchase my lashes and is potentially placing a large order for her clients. It goes to show just how much bringing it up with your friends can have such a positive impact.
Be a cheerleader for the products and business
The thing I often want most is support. I know not everyone can afford my products or even wear lashes themselves, but knowing that they are cheering me on just helps. Its quite a lonely world and social media often feels like a ‘one way street’, so having people communicate back to me and regular faces appearing on my feed really helps me feel like I’m doing some good. I always get so nervous before new launches in case nobody wants to buy them, so knowing that there are genuine people that like my products (and vocalise that!!) honestly really helps me. In a sea of “PR?’ DM’s, the one genuine message of kindness does always make my day, keeps me working hard and is such a good way to support a small business for free.
Lend a hand when you can
As much as I am a one man band (and pretty proud of that fact), sometimes you do need a bit of help. As a small business I can’t afford to pay someone to help me (plus I don’t need it most of the time), so having people willing to lend a hand really doesn’t go unnoticed. My nan is an angel and constantly supports me by taking parcels to the post office if I am unavailable and always helps me when its a two person job (such as the wedding fair earlier in the year). However, even if you don’t live nearby, there are always ways you can lend a hand, offer your time and support a small business for free.
For instance, when I went on holiday earlier in the year I had nobody to take over the socials for me whilst I was away. Instead, lots of my customers came together to create a 7 day ‘takeover’, where one person managed the stories each day. It was such a fab idea, meant that I could relax and supported my small business. I was so grateful that everyone gave up their time to create the stories all week! When things like this come up, maybe consider offering your time as a way to support a small business for free.
I hope that these 5 tips on how to support a small business for free were helpful, and have given you some inspiration for how to help your favourite small brands to succeed on social media. Are there any that I have forgotten? Thank you so much for reading this, and for supporting my own blog and small business. I think I might do another version of this post next month about how to support a blog for free, as I don’t think many people understand just how I earn money from my blog! Let me know if that is something that you would be interested in reading.
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