Low Budget and Free Marketing Strategies You Can Use Right Now

Most small businesses have one common characteristic. They have a low marketing budget. This makes it difficult to promote the business. It is practically impossible to compete with the larger firms if you were to use the same strategies they do. You cannot rent a billboard in Sydney or buy a TV ad to air during the Superbowl. However, this does not mean you cannot be creative with what little you have.

There are numerous ways to market the business that are free or very affordable. So, you only need to invest your time to make them work. This is what we will focus on.

Post On Social Media And ACTUALLY Engage

One of the most accessible ways in which you could grow your business as you express brand personality and you build trust is to increase engagement on social media. Building a community allows you to grow without having to worry too much about money investments.

Business accounts can be created on social networks like Hiqy, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. Use these to:

• Promote blog posts so website traffic is increased.
• Talk to your followers and buyers to express brand voice and increase engagement.
• Create informational posts with excerpts from your long content.
• Run polls to find out what your target audience wants/likes.

The trick is to stay active and be proactive. Your main focus should be consistency, commitment, collaboration, and community.

Since we are discussing social media, you should also take full advantage of hashtags. These are available on social networks like Hiqy, Facebook and Twitter.

Use trending or broad hashtags to reinforce brand identity. Then, look for specific hashtags that are used by people in your target audience. If you run a local business, also take advantage of location-based hashtags.

Take Full Advantage Of LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social media website that is almost always underutilized by small business owners so we should highlight it. They simply add some network connections and share posts from time to time. Instead of taking this approach, think about how you can start conversations with those connections. You can join forums and contribute to them and you can share the high quality content of others (and tag them).

When you enable others and you educate potential customers, you gain respect and trust. You also build the brand.

Tag Brands And People On Social Media

Tagging is a feature on social media that most small businesses do not even think about using. You can tag brand evangelists, loyal customers, and neighboring companies. You can even tag your vendors to broaden your organic reach and potentially reach a brand new audience. This can help you to grow your exposure and you might even get some new clients.

Besides you tagging others, you can also encourage followers to do the same with your accounts.

When you tag someone else on social media, you expose the brand to the network of that specific user. This is actually a very effective way to grow your followers and engagement without having to pay anything for it.

Do Your Own Local SEO

Contrary to what you might think, for many SEO tasks, you do not need to hire someone else. You can do it yourself. Local SEO is an example of that. You can do several things for free, although it will take some of your time. However, if you keep working on it, you get long-term benefits that can be really important for small businesses.

You do not have to do everything that local SEO entitles. You can simply focus on the most important tasks, like:

• Using location-based keywords to headings, titles, and inside body content. For instance, if you run a coffee shop in New York, you can add keywords like “New York coffee shop”. You can be more specific and use highly-targeted keywords like “Brooklyn coffee shop”. Even adding the street where your business is located can help.
• Get your site listed in relevant local online directories. Just make sure you add identical information about your address, phone number, and business name everywhere.
• Publish blog posts and even social media posts that are very specific to the areas your business serves.

Speaking about local SEO, make sure you create your Google My Business account. This is a free listing that lets the business appear on Google Maps. You can look online to see how to optimize the profile and verifying your ownership is very simple.

Create A Solid Email Marketing Plan

With email marketing, it is easier to engage your visitors and maintain closer relationships with current customers. While this strategy is not new, it is still very reliable and effective. And you can get started for free. After the email list you build grows, you can start investing a small part of your budget and then gradually grow.

In your email marketing plan, you need at least a few basic elements. They are:

• Your subject lines – Try to stand out and put creativity to good use in subject lines since they are the most important part of the email you send.
• Call to actions – Every single email you send needs to encourage readers to take some sort of action.
• Performance tracking – In order to reap the benefits of email marketing, you have to track the performance of the emails you send. You should also run A/B tests so that you can fine-tune your messages for increased conversions.

Obviously, email marketing is very complex. But, you do not have to do everything. Some very simple ideas to consider include:

• Create bonus content or a discount campaign that could only be accessed by new newsletter members.
• Nurture subscribers with emails until they become customers. Do this slowly and never push your products.
• Start promotional email campaigns by using free services. For instance, MailChimp is completely free until you reach a larger number of subscribers. By that time, you should have more money available to grow your email marketing plan.

Use Free Ad Credits

It is close to impossible for small businesses to run large ad campaigns. So, business owners make the mistake of completely neglecting ad networks.

What you should be aware of is that there are several coupons and discounts you can take advantage of. For instance, when you sign up for Google AdWords, you receive free credit you can use to advertise your business. And when you buy a web hosting service, you might receive some advertising discount codes.

If you are to use ad credits though and you do not have experience, make sure to start small. Test your ads and see what works. Spending your entire budget fast without fine-tuning ads is just a waste of your money.

Consider Applications For Business Awards

In most industries, there are business awards that you can win. This gives you an official online badge that can be placed on the site. It will boost your credibility and can lead to increased sales.

When you cannot find awards to sign up for, you can always host your own. This brings in attention from other businesses in your industry. They will apply and as a result, you get brand new connections you will be able to use in the future.

Start PartnershipsWith Other Industry Businesses

One of the most effective ways to grow your small business is to team up with other industry businesses that are related while not being a direct competitor. You can start joint projects with them that would benefit both sides involved. Do this locally or even offline with an event. Promotional giveaways and webinars can also work.

The great thing about partnering with another small business is that both get more exposure.

With the use of industry partnerships, smaller business owners can access the technology, customer bases, and know-how of others. However, it is very important that the partnership is profitable for both parties. You need to clarify expectations, choose complementary businesses, see how they can work together, and then make things official through a contract after several conversations.

A simple example of a profitable partnership is when you run a workout supplements store and you start working with a nearby gym. The gym can refer customers that need supplements and you can refer gym members. This type of deal can be highly beneficial for both the gym and the supplements store and can be combined with extra strategies, like discounts.

Post Videos To Help Your Target Audience

The world is slowly but surely moving towards video content as the most popular content medium available. The problem is that creating professional videos is expensive. Fortunately for small businesses, hiring professionals is not always a necessity. In fact, it is very easy to start a DIY video marketing campaign. There is a huge possibility you already have all the tools you need.

The great thing about videos is they can demonstrate how to use your services or products. They can also show many other things that are related to your business. However, in order for your videos to work, you need to create a connection with the target audience. To do this, focus on:

• How-To videos
• Instructional videos
• Product demos
• Interviews with industry experts
• Interviews with staff members
• Behind the scenes footage to show what happens during your events or at work
• Informational slideshows

When you create the video, make sure to add some sort of unique personal message or branding message. Stay transparent and always use a call to action at the end of the video. Then, distribute all videos you create wherever you can, like on YouTube, Facebook, and even on your site.

Recycle Old Content

Even if the business is small and new to the market, there is a very strong possibility it already created a lot of content. And when you have something that was effective in the past, it can be repurposed.

As an example, you can turn your webinar into a series of video tutorials. You can also transform related blog posts into eBooks to hand out to new newsletter subscribers.

Re-promote and mashup old content. This is usually free to do and only requires some time. Just make sure that what you create is fresh and respects all core small business values.

Attend Networking And Industry Events

Smart business owners realize the fact that networking was and always will be a great way to meet new people who would help achieve growth goals. Even so, the number of people participating in industry conferences or trade shows is going down. This is a shame since such events bring several business minds together. You can easily find brand new marketing strategies to use to grow the business.

Industry events are also very good to meet people like you. Use them to develop B2B contacts. And you can even sharpen your skills with the use of seminars held at these events. New information about promoting businesses is always available when you just attend and you keep your ears open while you network.

Create A Simple Customer Referral Program

This is one of the simplest and most effective ways to get more customers. And you can easily use it regardless of how large the business is.

The premise is simple. You just offer some sort of free service, a free product, or other rewards for when someone refers a new customer. Word-of-mouth marketing is so much more effective than what many think. Customers who will be referred by others will be friends and have a very high value.

Remember that referral marketing is a very effective low-budget tactic. Three quarters of customers see word of mouth as the main factor they take into account when they make a purchasing decision. Also, those referred by friends are actually 4 times more likely to end up buying something.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, you do not need a large budget to promote a small business. Ideas like the ones above can always be used and bring in very good results. And there are many others to consider. Just keep your eyes on new ways to promote your business and you will find marketing options to consider.