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Content marketing is a broad term that includes types of content that promote your brand such as blog posts, photos or videos. Content marketing is a component of inbound marketing, which appeals to customers through articles, photos and experiences, rather than merely text-based ads.

Since there are many forms of content, there are also many ways to create it, often for free. For example, do you have writers on your staff who could craft articles about your products? Or do you have aspiring social media gurus who would be willing to source UGC? Creating content related to your brand and products is an easy first step toward reaching your audience with your brand messaging.

Social media marketing is important because it’s a way of reaching your audience where they are already consuming content. Social media advertising could include re-posting UGC featuring your brand, creating a hashtag tied to a new campaign, or even building an immersive house from Cheetos that encourages interaction and social sharing.

To get started with social media and digital marketing, make sure your brand has profiles on all relevant pages, such as a LinkedIn page, Facebook business page and a page for your business for Instagram. You could also consider sites such as Yelp or YouTube, if you want to share photos and videos of your brand, for example. Once you have your social media pages set up, make sure to post frequently and interactions with customers, taking note of events, holidays or popular social trends as an easy and cheap way to improve engagement.

Email marketing, similar to social media marketing, is another way to experiment with interactive marketing. Email is one of the earliest and most basic ways to communicate directly with your customers, sending them newsletters, promotions, discounts, follow-ups, new products and feedback requests. Being conversational can be beneficial in email marketing, as a way of displaying your brand voice to customers without sounding overly corporate.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important component of marketing, and a way to make sure your brand is getting attention from customers browsing for products. A cheap way to get started is to claim the profiles and domains for your brand name, ensure your location and hours are updated on maps and create a website. This will all help improve your ranking and ensure you show up in search results.

SEO is also a way to use digital analytics to measure the performance of your brand. For example, you can see where you stand and what the search volume is for related keywords and products. This can help you optimize your ad campaigns without spending a ton of money. For even more free help with measurement, Amazon Attribution offers metrics and insights on how non-Amazon marketing channels perform on Amazon.

Word-of-mouth marketing is positive communication about your brand between your customers, potential future shoppers or other audiences. It can be trickier to quantify and measure, but it still could be hugely beneficial to improving your brand reach. For example, you could start by responding to reviews and answering questions from customers online, improving your interactions.

You could ask colleagues willing to be brand ambassadors, sharing on social or with their friends. It’s also a great way to experiment with creative in-person marketing, such as by featuring your brand and products at classes, events or fairs.

Creative marketing, also known as “guerrilla marketing”, is a way of using surprising or unique ideas to reach customers. While it may not be completely free marketing, it’s a way to get the most out of your budget by making an impact with merchandise, pop-up attractions or experiential marketing.

There are tons of ways to use video marketing beyond just online video ads. For example, you could host webinars or live video streams to create a sense of urgency around your new product releases. It’s free to create a livestreams on Amazon using the Amazon Live Creator app, and you could also use free social media videos from UGC, or use live events as a catalyst for creating organic content. Especially if your audience has a high consumption of video, reaching them where they are with your own video marketing could be greatly beneficial.

Customer referral programs, giveaways, and discounts are all ways to encourage repeat visitors, drive customer retention and improve brand loyalty. A customer referral program is also a free way to grow your audience, such as by encouraging word-of-mouth recommendations or sharing coupons. For example, technology tool Quartile recommends the Brand Referral Bonus program as a way to help engage with shoppers.

To get started with advertising, Amazon Ads offers marketing webinars, courses, certifications, boot camps and videos in our free learning console. Here are four digital marketing courses to help start your education about free Amazon Ads products.