It’s often said that you have to spend money to make money, and this is very true for marketing. However, we understand that as a startup or small business, it can be hard to effectively market your company with a small budget. But don’t worry- there are a ton of free or low-cost marketing tools out there. Here are some low budget marketing ideas you can try out!
1. Start a blog
Content marketing is a great way to promote your business. Publishing helpful, interesting or engaging content onto your blog shows that you’re knowledgeable about your field. If your blog posts are engaging enough, people will come back time and time again to read your articles, so make sure you draw them in! If you do it right, you could be seen as a great resource for your niche and provide great SEO benefits for your website. People will start to trust your advice and will be more likely to buy from you!
2. Social networking
Get your business onto social media! More and more people are beginning to head to social media to search for businesses, so it’s important to have this presence. Find out where your target audience hangs out online, and use these social platforms to engage with other people in your niche, as well as your target audience. If your target market uses Twitter and Instagram, for example, get involved with hashtags such as #MondayMotivation and #ThursdayThoughts so that your content can be found easily by new consumers.
3. Make your own infographics
Infographics are an awesome marketing tool. Consumers find them easy to digest and are more likely to share them because of their colourful images. You can create your own infographics using Canva quite easily for free. Hubspot also has some great templates you can use.
4. Recycle old content
Perhaps you have a series of blog posts that could be made into an e-book, or maybe an article you shared last year did really well- share it again! There’s nothing wrong with refreshing old content and making it relevant for right now.
5. Attend networking events
Networking with others in your field helps you build great connections. Sometimes who you know can be vitally important in getting your business off the ground. Enterprise Nation hosts events quite frequently and they are a great way to meet other like-minded people and share tips and inspiration. These can range from typical networking meetups to helpful workshops.
6. Press releases and contributing articles to magazines or blogs
Securing a press release is free of money but can cost in time. It can take a lot of work to learn exactly how to write a great press release, and how to convince journalists, editors and bloggers that your story is worth publishing. However, once you’ve achieved this, press releases can be valuable in getting your name out there. I would recommend engaging with key journalists in your industry and trying to build a relationship with them. You can also submit articles to online magazines and blogs- many are always on the lookout for contributions; have a look on their websites for pages such as “share an article” or “write for us.”
7. Email marketing
An email list can be a business’ greatest asset. With it, you can send new releases, promotions or whatever it may be, straight to the inbox of everyone on your mailing list. ActiveCampaign is a great tool where you can create automated emails, or send one email to a large volume of people with the click of a button. Keep your email list engaged by sending monthly newsletters or helpful content.
Did you find this article useful? Do you have any other low budget marketing ideas? Leave them in the comments section down below- its great to network and share ideas!