How do I promote my website without marketing?

This fascinating question was asked to me on Quora, how to promote my website without marketing? The fascination aroused from the idea that Marketing and promotion are separate things; they are the same.

Let me explain; when you promote your website by sending a link to a friend, or open up the website on your mobile screen, my dear friend, you are indeed marketing.

So, a better question may be how to promote a website without spending too much money or on a small marketing budget. I have been running an eCommerce marketing agency for 17 years, and in my experience, there is nothing like free marketing! Everyone has to pay the price - the price can be your time, money, labor, expertise, hiring an agency, or self-promoting.

The simplest way to do self-promotion for your website or services is to be your own Brand Ambassador - be the one who is always talking and sharing meaningful stories about the benefits of your website or products or services you are selling.

A couple of things that can help you:

1. Identify who gets benefited by your product or services.

2. Identify where these people spend time; since everyone is on social channels, you can know which channels they follow: Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Quora, etc.?

3. Start creating meaningful content that gets the attention of these people, primarily identify their challenges that your product can solve, and try to put that content in front of them.

4. Engage with these users, answer their queries, take participation in their ideas, understand them and build a rapport

5. Ask for their permission to demo your product or send them samples to make them aware of your offering.

The above tasks seem simple, but they are not easy; you have to be consistent in your efforts and build your fanbase; after all, you are the Salman Khan or Amitabh Bachhan of your brand :)

Let me know how you found these suggestions, and I would love to contribute more.