Low-budget marketing ideas prove marketing is more about creativity than a business tangled up in budget constraints.
You get the picture, right?
But relying on freemium materials for your small business marketing is not a bad idea. There are several digital platforms and a few community-community moving tactics to make the storefront crawl with customers.
Start with Google My Business Account
A small business moving up the ladder first needs to make themselves visible. A low budget marketing tactic would be through Google My Business profile. You can set up a Google My Business Profile for free. When searchers in your locality look for products related to your business, it’ll show your shop first.
You can showcase your business location using Google Business Profile. But you’ll have to take an extra step to showcase your business on the Google Map Listing. Your business needs a Google My Business Account for that. Your business only gets verified ownership of the store through a Google My Business Account.
Post & Engage
Go big on social media if you have the time. Certain types of small businesses, like cafes or restaurants, must maintain a social media presence. It helps customers build a sense of familiarity with the business.
They want to share their Saturday brunch photos on Instagram and tag the restaurant where they had it. So, having a cozy and beautiful cafe isn’t enough. You have to do more and post about your business on social media.
From sharing content about your food to sharing pictures of community events and small video clips, you build a sense of familiarity with people. In turn, this helps build trust and engagement, helping your business get recurring customers.
Now, even if you aren’t going big on social media, it helps to post frequently rather than stay dead and offline. That’s why it’s mandatory to have your social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and other social media channels your customers use.
Now, what to do to leverage this low-budget marketing? Here are a few things you can do –
- Promote blog posts.
- Talk to your audience in a direct voice to share your brand personality.
- Run polls on social media and request others for feedback.
- Take snippets from your long-form content and create short posts. This applies to your Video form content as well.
But remember, social media requires consistency. You’ll see the engagement if you create regularly and respond more. Tag People, Use Hashtags & Comment.
In 2024, marketing is about more than showcasing your products to your customers. White, that’s the objective; how you do it makes a lot of difference. When taking your business on social media, start to use tags and tag your customers, neighbors, competitors, brand evangelists, businesses, and potential clients.
Make your audience the promoter of your company while you do the cheering. Visit posts where your customers are tagging you and respond to their thoughts. If they are happy with your brand, cheer them up. Do they have any concerns? If yes, respond to those close calls and provide solutions immediately.
No, hashtags alone aren’t enough to get your business the visibility you are dreaming of getting. But it’s also not something you should avoid. When low budget marketing channels like Twitter or Instagram, make use of all the tools you have at your disposal. Hashtags let your business stay relevant on social media.
However, remember that when you use hashtags, you must use the relevant ones and the ones you can make relevant. In Fact, your business can participate in a recent trend with a creative copy.
LinkedIn isn’t Just for Job Hunters
LinkedIn is where you can share your thoughts and leadership and build an opinion. Well, that’s not the end of it. You can’t just build some connections and leave the platform for good.
Instead, communicate with other people in the industry. Working on a B2B platform? In that case, share your expertise in your services and how you solve problems for your clients. Engage in conversations, write blogs, and share your content on LinkedIn. Join different forums and also share other people’s content.
LinkedIn is where you educate your potential clients, build brand awareness, and appreciate others to also share their opinions.
Events & Competition
Surprise your Customers with a Competition. A good way for small businesses to get their brand out there in the local market is through competitions like this. Running a local restaurant? Start an eating competition. Do you have a bakery in the local market? You can try a baking competition.
All of these fun activities will keep people coming to your doorstep. Make it a low budget marketing by introducing free products or a product hamper as gifts. You may think that you are giving your products away for free. So, what’s in it for you? Well, for participation, you can ask people to take pictures, put likes on your social media channels, or tag your business on social media.
Ask Friends & Family to Help
If you have asked your friends and family for opinions on starting a business, it won’t hurt to ask them for marketing. Your friends and family can be strong advocates of your brand. They can join your militia of marketers.
Also, your marketing should be good enough for your closest people to be free advocates of your brand. You can hand them flyers, business cards, and different other tools. Yes, it’s inexpensive and a great way to promote your business.
Low Budget Local SEO
Google’s algorithm isn’t the enemy of the marketers. It’s only trying to make businesses, pages, and content relevant to the searchers. All you have to know is what’s relevant to the searchers.
Try to stay relevant using Local SEO tactics. Use location-relevant keywords with high-quality SEO-friendly keywords that match local search terms. However, this might take some time for your business to go up the SERP. But the investment you make now has a long-term benefit.
- Start by adding location-based keywords to the titles, body content, headings, etc, for the main website.
- Get your business listed on the online directories. Ensure your business website has the relevant information and the relevant keywords.
- Publish blogs and pages that are relevant and important to your business.
Referral Programs
Referral programs are useful and affordable. There’s no better marketing than having your customers do it for you. A good way to spark it is through referral schemes. You can increase sales in the long run by setting up a more dedicated referral scheme.
It’s a low-budget marketing tactic compared to the huge campaigns you may want to spend on. However, remember to factor in the amount you’ll spend by providing discounts through referrals. Unless your business can withstand the expense, taking a step back is better to take a step back.
Free Ad Promo Credits
A little bit of investment coupled with free ad promo credits and your PPC skills can make a lot of difference. In fact, you’ll find coupons available from different hosting service providers to help you run ads on discounts as part of their membership offerings.
You can hire a PPC expert or brush up on your own skills as a PPC expert to work on the advertisements.
But Before You Start…
It’s imperative to get the basics of marketing right. Small business marketing isn’t easy, and you may have to do a lot on your own. Start by understanding the unique selling proposition of your business. What makes your business stand out? It can be a service or a special feature of a service. It can be a special feature or a service that only your business offers.
Work on your pitch as a business, do your market research right, and most importantly, kill on social media. We mentioned some great low-budget marketing tactics you can apply to your business. You are free to give your feedback on the same. Thank you for reading.
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