In a tight economy, the first thing that business owners usually do is cut the marketing budget. However, your business can’t operate without marketing as you lose out on creating potential leads and communicating to customers.
Thankfully, having a big advertising budget isn’t necessary as there are affordable marketing options that you can implement to continually communicate your product or service to the right audience. Here are 5 tips on how to market your business on a shoestring budget.
1. Find opportunities within your local community
Does your local community have organizations that can use your business as a sponsor? How about supporting the charity run? Non-profit organizations are always looking for sponsors who can provide not just funds, but goods for their events in exchange for on-ground advertising (distribution of fliers, inclusion of logo in marketing collaterals, brand mention in the program etc). If your business caters to people with active lifestyles, this could be a great and affordable marketing initiative for you.
The strategy is to think about your business and its costumers and find activities or events where they would most likely be participants of and proactively ask the organizer for sponsorship opportunities.
2. Speaking opportunities
There are many organizations that are looking for qualified experts to speak in their events and seminars. Though a lot of people hate public speaking, it’s a great opportunity for you to market your business and build your credentials as a thought leader in your industry. So, take a deep breath and volunteer to be part of a talk… The more you do it, the easier it gets.
3. Cross-promote with other businesses in your community
Most communities usually have an organization that caters to small businesses that operate within the area and networking events are regularly organized. By being a regular participant in those events, you will not only be able to get to know other business owners, but, you will also have the opportunity of collaborating with them. Perhaps bring up the idea of cross-promoting each other’s companies in newsletters, fliers and social media pages? This will both help you reach a wider audience.
4. Take advantage of free online tools
Aside from religiously updating and creating meaningful connections with your customers through your business’ social media profiles, there are other free tools that you can take advantage of to create buzz for your business. Help A Reporter Out (HARO) allows you to connect to reporters who are looking for content for their publications. By singing up on the website, you will receive daily feeds of items, products, and resources that reporters are looking for and actively respond to their requests.
5. Ask for referrals
There’s nothing wrong about asking for referrals. Most people are more than willing to give a referral when asked. The problem is, people are just too shy to ask for one! Referrals are probably the best way to get your foot in the door of potential customers. So, if you’re not asking, then, you’re missing out on opportunities.
These 5 inexpensive marketing tactics can help get the word out on your business, engage with your customers and generate leads. While it doesn’t come with a big price tag, it does entail a lot of time and effort from your end –a small investment to make to ensure the success of your business.
If you’re looking for cost-efficient ways to market your business in the digital space, send us an email at sayhi@jlouistechnology.com or call us at +1 (516) 847 4707.
