For your business5 min read

10 free ways to get more customers

Paid ads work, but they stop the moment you stop paying. These 10 strategies build momentum that keeps working for you — often for years.

Step-by-step

Optimise your Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the free listing that puts you on Google Maps and local search results. If you haven't claimed it yet, go to business.google.com and do it today — it takes 15 minutes and is the single highest-return task on this list. Fill out every field completely: business name, category, service area, phone, website, opening hours, and photos. Add a detailed description using the keywords your customers actually search. Update it regularly — businesses that post and respond to reviews are rewarded with higher placement.

Ask every customer for a Google review

Most happy customers will leave a review if you simply ask them directly and make it easy. The moment a job is done well or a customer expresses satisfaction, ask: 'Would you mind leaving us a quick Google review? It really helps the business.' Then hand them or send them a direct link to your Google review page — find it in your Google Business Profile dashboard under 'Get more reviews'. Automate this by saving the link in your phone to copy-paste into a follow-up message. Even 2 new reviews a month adds up to 24 in a year — enough to significantly outrank most local competitors.

Post before-and-after content on Instagram or TikTok

If your work produces a visible result — a clean house, a fresh haircut, a tidy garden, a painted room, a finished tattoo — before-and-after content is your most powerful free marketing. It requires nothing but your phone camera and 2 minutes. Post consistently: even 2–3 times a week compounds over months. Use local hashtags (#YourCityHairSalon, #LondonCleaning) to get found by local accounts. TikTok in particular distributes content to people who don't follow you yet — a single video showing a dramatic result can generate dozens of enquiries. You don't need a large following to get results.

List on free directories

Beyond Google, several free platforms send consistent local leads. Yelp is the most well-known and still drives significant traffic, especially in the US. Nextdoor is increasingly valuable — it's hyper-local and word of mouth on it is trusted. Bark.com connects you with customers who've actively requested quotes in your service category. Thomson Local, FreeIndex, and Yell (UK) are worth setting up even if they feel old-fashioned — they drive long-tail search traffic and strengthen your local SEO. Creating a profile on each takes 10 minutes and then works passively.

Create a simple referral incentive

Word of mouth is the oldest marketing in the world, but most businesses leave it entirely to chance. A simple, explicit incentive changes that. 'Refer a friend and you'll both get £10 off your next booking' is easy to understand and easy to share. Put it in your email footer, mention it at the end of every service, and include a card in your thank-you message. Don't over-engineer it — the simpler it is to explain, the more likely people are to actually do it. Even if 1 in 10 clients refers someone once a year, that compounds meaningfully over time.

Leave business cards in complementary businesses

Physical cards still work. Identify the businesses your ideal customers already visit — a dog groomer might target vets and pet shops; a personal trainer might target health food stores and physio practices; a photographer might target wedding venues and florists. Ask politely if you can leave a small stack of cards. Offer to display their cards in return. This costs nothing but a few cards and a conversation, and can produce a steady drip of enquiries from warm prospects who've already been pointed in your direction by a trusted business.

Partner with non-competing businesses for cross-referrals

A formal cross-referral arrangement with a complementary business is one of the most underused free marketing strategies. Think about who serves the same customer at a different point in their journey: a wedding photographer and a wedding florist; a plumber and an electrician; a bookkeeper and a business solicitor; a personal trainer and a sports massage therapist. Agree to actively refer each other — not just 'mention if it comes up' but actually recommend. A weekly referral from a trusted business partner can change your growth trajectory at zero cost.

Answer questions in local Facebook groups

Every local area has Facebook community groups where residents ask for recommendations. Join the groups covering your service area and set up a notification for keywords relevant to your business ('anyone know a good cleaner', 'recommend a plumber', 'looking for a dog walker'). When those posts appear, reply helpfully and offer your services. Don't spam — genuine helpfulness is the key. After a few months of consistent, useful engagement, you become the known expert in your category in that community. This is slow but the referrals are warm and high-converting.

Start collecting email addresses

Email is the only marketing channel you own. Social platforms change their algorithms; your email list doesn't. Every customer who gives you their email is a long-term asset. Ask at booking, add a simple sign-up form to your website, and offer something small in return (a helpful guide, a first-time discount). Then send a short, friendly monthly update — what you've been working on, a seasonal offer, a useful tip. You don't need to send it every week. Even 4 emails a year keeps you top of mind and consistently generates repeat bookings and referrals.

Create a Google Business post every 2 weeks

Most business owners claim their Google Business Profile and then never touch it again. Google rewards active profiles. Create a short post every 2 weeks — an offer, a seasonal service, a recent review, a project photo. Posts appear directly in your business listing on Google Search and Maps. This takes 5 minutes and is a free visibility boost that almost no competitor bothers to do consistently. Over time, a consistently updated profile outranks stale ones in local results, especially for 'near me' searches.

Common questions

How long before these strategies produce results?

Some produce results immediately — asking for reviews and posting in local groups can generate enquiries within days. Others take months to compound — consistent social content, email list building, and local SEO. Don't expect overnight results from everything. Do all of them simultaneously and after 3 months you'll have multiple streams producing leads.

Which one should I start with?

Start with Google Business Profile if you haven't already — it's the highest-return task and takes the least ongoing effort. Then build a review habit. After that, pick whichever channels feel most natural for your type of business: visual work suits social content; service businesses suit local groups and referral networks.

Do I need to be on every social media platform?

No. Pick one and do it consistently. For most service businesses, Instagram or Facebook is more than enough. TikTok has extraordinary organic reach if you can create video content. LinkedIn works for B2B services. Spreading thin across five platforms and posting sporadically is worse than being excellent on one.

Is it worth paying for Bark, Checkatrade, or similar lead platforms?

The free listings on these platforms are absolutely worth doing. Paid memberships are more variable — they can work well in some service categories and locations, and poorly in others. Try the free listing first. If you're getting unsolicited enquiries from it, consider upgrading.