Starting a new business is hard work—we’re not going to pretend otherwise. But something that can make the process feel less gah-inducing is getting advice from people who’ve been exactly where you are. Welcome to View From the Inside, a new series where we’re sharing pro tips and best practices that’ve helped founders get their big ideas off the ground and take them to the next level.

Over the past few years, many entrepreneurs have focused their sales strategy on digital marketing and paid ads. In 2020, an estimated 76 percent of businesses used digital marketing tactics to reach new customers, up from 57 percent in 2019, according to Clutch's 2020 Small Business Digital Marketing Survey.

Of those, the report found that 44 percent of businesses used paid advertising, such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads, to reach new customers. Suffice it to say that relying heavily on social media and paid advertising is a common practice. But with these channels becoming increasingly saturated (not to mention expensive), you may be looking for advice on how to market without paid ads in order to increase sales in more creative and cost-efficient ways. 

You should know that plenty of small business owners find success without spending money of paid ads or social media, and these female entrepreneurs below, all of whom are members of the entrepreneurial community Dreamers & Doers, are proof there are other viable alternatives to quickly and effectively boost sales.

Whether utilizing search engine optimization (SEO)—only 63 percent of small businesses invest in SEO at the moment—building out a referral network, or donating gift bags to charity events, they’ve been able to drastically increase their sales, expand their customer base, and strengthen brand credibility, all without a single dollar spent on ads.

13 female entrepreneurs share their best advice for how to market without paid ads

Ankita Terrell, co-founder of My Founder Circle

I formed collaborations and built out a referral network. This helps me serve my audience more powerfully. When something is out of my wheelhouse, I refer the lead out, knowing they will be well-served and supported in their goals. Similarly, I've helped my referral partners see the gaps I can fill in serving their audience. I get almost 30 percent of my business through word-of-mouth referrals. It's powerful! 

Desiree Almodovar, founder of The Inlay

One of the most unconventional ways we've advised some clients to reach customers is through mailers. It sounds so dated, but we've seen clients have huge success with this, increasing sales by as much as 27 percent. 

Rachel Beider, CEO of PRESS Modern Massage

I have offered my existing customers small gift cards that say "$20 toward your next session" with a "to" and "from" section. Creating a special referral card for our clients has resulted in a steady increase in sales by expanding my customer base and creating brand loyalty.

Melissa Unsell-Smith, CEO of Catalytic Icon

Every 90 days, I re-evaluate my client's most pressing pain points. I spend a few hours perusing online forums or communities where my ideal clients are participating in conversations. I aggregate the data across platforms and use an AI summary tool to summarize comments and reviews. This is an exceptional way to modify my value proposition and to make offers that resonate with my ideal clients. I typically see a five percent to 11 percent increase in conversions each time I do this exercise.

Ari Krzyzek, CEO of Chykalophia

Through partnering with a local business incubator, I connected with potential customers and showcased my expertise in branding and UX strategies for high-performing websites, which led to increased sales. Additionally, speaking engagements allowed me to demonstrate the value of my services, which resulted in more conversions. In the first year of leveraging these two strategies, I increased my sales by 32 percent.

Ariel Schiffer, CEO of Dreampro LLC

Most of our leads come from people searching on Google. Our SEO strategy accounts for 65 percent of monthly leads that came through our door in the last year alone for our $20,000-and-up high ticket retainer course packages, accounting for more than $120,000 in sales from this statistic alone. In the last two months, every one of our long-term retainer clients have all come from SEO/Google.

Angelina Handayani, founder of Mahisi

Selling wholesale has allowed me to sell my products in bulk directly to boutiques. My sales increased 4,443 percent even with a lower margin than selling retail. In addition, through wholesale partnerships with boutiques, I was able to increase brand awareness, which led to the products getting into customers’ hands without any additional marketing expenses.

Laura Nespoli, strategic storyteller at Meshin Movement

One hundred percent of my 2022 revenue was brought in through partnerships, not marketing. Partnering up with brands whose services and stories are complementary to yours connects your brand to a loyal audience that is already paying attention. If that isn’t valuable enough, you become part of a story people are already following, giving your brand credibility and appeal with the halo effect of their affinity for the partner.

Meredith Reed, co-founder of Rexxy

Our agency launched an affiliate program for a client that brought in over $170,000 in affiliate-generated revenue in the first month. An affiliate program leverages the selling power of the people who love your brand by creating a system for incentivizing and rewarding people for recommending your product to their personal network. Since your affiliates are paid solely on commission, your brand can avoid the risk of making a large upfront investment on ads without any guarantee of conversions. 

Jordan Schanda King, founder and CEO of Easy Scaling

In just the five days of offering a freebie bundle, I grew my email list by about 1,500 people and made about $2,500 from template/course tripwire sales. This doesn't factor in the lifetime value of those sign-ups, as several of those original leads have converted to my membership and my high-ticket mastermind.

Tamara Kostova, CEO of Velexa

Channel strategy is the name of the game. By partnering with brokerages who wanted to seem more innovative, we were able to push our technology platform along their execution services. By architecting a deeply integrated revenue share and commission structure, we were both able to win. Currently one out of three of our multi-million dollar platform deals come from partners.

Julie Shen, founder of Springstead

A strategic partnership is a great way to drive growth. When we wanted to pursue a new media initiative, we didn’t have the distribution or operational infrastructure, but we had amazing IP and storytelling. On the flip side, our partner had immense infrastructure but needed more content creators. We were able to launch a first-of-its-kind project that reached 10 million downloads with no upfront funding or investment. We were revenue and profit positive and the content was optioned into a docuseries by a streaming network.

Emily McDonald, founder and CEO of The Stylist LA

We had major success with building a brand rep program that involved gifting products to specific people in our target market who were interested in spreading the word about the brand. We accepted 15 brand reps a quarter, and we gifted them free subscriptions, as well as monthly calls with me as the founder to ask any questions, get career advice, and discuss anything on their minds. We encouraged the brand reps to be involved in our inventory buying processes, we asked for feedback on marketing, and we tried to really involve them in the company. In return we asked that they spread the word about our company to their friends. We also asked that they create content for us and provide feedback on our product. We had 30 brand reps in 2022. Their sharing of our brand brought in 12 percent of all new users. The cost to us was just the cost of our time to run the program and the free product that we gave them.

This article was written by Gesche Haas, founder and CEO of Dreamers & Doers.