Find Business Opportunities And Spot Potential Shortages Early
Free Marketing Ideas looks for practical ways to help people and businesses get ahead. We search across the UK for unusual changes in demand and supply that could point to an emerging business opportunity or something that may become harder to find.
We also continue to share the free and low-cost marketing ideas that this site was originally built around.
What Are You Here For?
Business Opportunities
Discover products, services, skills and locations where there are signs that demand may be running ahead of supply. We look for evidence of real demand that businesses may be able to investigate and respond to.
Shortages & Early Warnings
See potential product shortages, tightening supplies and unusual demand that may be worth knowing about early. Some signals could create an opportunity, while others may simply help you prepare before availability becomes more difficult.
Demand Hunt Live
Real demand. Potential shortages. Emerging opportunities.
Our live tracker brings together the strongest signals we are seeing across the UK. We investigate the evidence so you can quickly see what appears to be happening now, what may be worth testing and what we are continuing to watch.
How We Find The Signals
Detect
We look for unusual changes in demand, availability, search activity, reported shortages, supply pressures and buyer behaviour across the UK.
Investigate
We check the evidence rather than assuming every trend, social media claim or reported shortage represents a genuine change in demand or supply.
Rate
Promising findings are assessed and tracked. Signals can strengthen, weaken or disappear as new evidence becomes available.
Get New Alerts & Marketing Ideas
Get updates when we uncover interesting new demand signals, potential shortages, emerging opportunities or significant changes to things we are already tracking.
We also share practical free and low-cost marketing tips and ideas, continuing the original purpose of Free Marketing Ideas.
We send updates when we have something useful to share.
Research, Ideas & Guides
When a signal deserves a closer look, we dig deeper into the evidence, what may be driving the demand and how the situation could develop. We also publish practical guides about finding, assessing and responding to opportunities.
The FMI blog also contains our latest low-cost marketing ideas, AI research and other practical business content.
More From Free Marketing Ideas
FMI began with a simple idea: finding practical ways to generate business without spending a fortune on advertising. Those resources are still here, alongside newer research into opportunities, changing demand and how AI is affecting the way businesses are discovered.
Low-Cost Marketing
Practical ideas based on methods I have used to promote and grow businesses while keeping advertising expenditure low.
AI Recommendations
Explore how AI systems discover and recommend businesses, and use the free AIRI assessment to see how well your own business may be positioned.
About Free Marketing Ideas
I’m Glenn Blackman MBA. I’ve spent more than 25 years marketing businesses, from well-known financial organisations to smaller independent companies, as well as building and marketing my own business.
Free Marketing Ideas originally grew out of the low-cost methods I used to generate business without relying heavily on paid advertising. More recently, the site has expanded into researching unusual changes in what people need, what they are struggling to find and where demand may be moving ahead of supply.
The common thread is: spot useful information early and find practical ways to act on it.
What Others Have Said
“An experienced professional of the highest integrity”
MV, Skills Trainer
“An absolutely key player on any strategic planning team”
LM, Managing Director
“An obvious expert in his field”
PM, Sales Director
How Ready Is Your Business for AI Recommendations?
Reading about how AI recommends businesses is one thing. Understanding how your own business performs is another.
Take our free Artificial Intelligence Recommendation Index (AIRI) assessment to discover how well your business is currently positioned to be recommended by AI systems. In around five minutes, you’ll receive an AIRI score out of 100 together with personalised recommendations showing where you can improve your helpfulness, credibility, visibility and authority.