Looking for budget-friendly marketing tactics to promote your business?
Are you a blogger? Do you provide a service?
Are you a new entrepreneur? Have an e-commerce store?
Do you want to grow your business but you have very little money, if any at all, for marketing?
If you answered yes, to any of these questions you’re in for a treat!
Marketing can be expensive. But you don’t need to break the bank with your marketing budget (or the lack thereof) if you know where to spend it.
It’s time to get your marketing strategy on point – with your existing budget! . . . Read this post and start implementing some of these strategies now!
Within this article
Things to Consider When Creating a Marketing Strategy
With so much competition out there, you need to have a great marketing strategy for getting the attention of your ideal audience/customer (aka avatar). Consider the following when creating your marketing strategy:
- Set Clear Goals – What are you looking to achieve? Convert leads? Build an email list? Brand awareness? Be sure to identify this from the beginning and modify it as you see fit.
- Repurpose Content – use the content that you have already created and re-use it in a new way on a different platform.
- Optimize Your Website – website speed, being mobile-friendly and duplicate content are important things you need to be sure are good. Also, your site must look professional & trustworthy, products and services must be set at the price point, content must be valuable.
- Stand out – Only you can deliver a message or sell a product/service the way you do it. How can you stand out and be different?
- Create Bundles – I mean who doesn’t love a good deal? This is a great way to introduce a tripwire.
- Be an Expert – be the go-to for your niche!
- Provide Excellent Customer Service – great customer service can go a long way. When you think of receiving great customer service as a consumer, how does it make you feel and think about that company?
- Be consistent – this is super important! Consistency is key! Learning how being consistent can help with your marketing efforts.
- Listen to what your audience wants – give the people what they want . . . not what you want!
Side Note: While these methods are budget-friendly, some of these methods may take time to produce results. Generating organic traffic requires a lot more time to develop [mostly but not all the time]. If you prefer a faster approach, consider paid ads.
This post may contain affiliate links which means I may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that I’ve recommended – at no extra cost to you, of course. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. You can check out my disclosures here.
31 Affordable Marketing Tactics for New Entrepreneurs
Collaboration
Collaborating with other entrepreneurs is very beneficial – to everyone involved. This can be a great way to connect with your like-minded small business owners and reach other audiences.
1 – Freebie Swap
This can be done in a couple of different ways. You can do this with one or more other contributors. My favorite way is by joining a small group of other entrepreneurs [that have the same target audience you do] where everyone offers a freebie to everyone else’s audience.
2 – Create an Affiliate Program/Referral Program/Brand Ambassadors
Search for brand ambassadors and offer them your products and/or services in exchange for promotions of your products and/or services. If selling a product or service, find bloggers that are willing to post about your products and/or services for a small budget or in exchange for products.
3 – Agree to be interviewed on a Podcast
This is a great way to reach other people’s audiences. You’ll have the opportunity to provide value, network and grow your audience. Share it with your audience and potential customers.
4 – Social Media Shout Outs
This can be an effective way to grow your following. You’ll have to manually find influencers, bloggers, etc and take a look at their audience to determine if it fits your criteria.
Search Engine Optimization
5 – Get featured
Write articles for your professional journal/local newspaper by contacting the editor to obtain a calendar of topics for the year. Also, respond to HARO requests.
6 – Create valuable infographics
Once you create valuable infographics using your best-performing content, reach out to entrepreneurs with your ideal audience and pitch them. Encourage them to provide your valuable asset for their audience since it’s beneficial for them. Use Canva, PicMonkey, or Photoshop to design great infographics.
7 – Start a blog
Starting a blog is a great way to increase brand awareness, connect and build an audience. You will need to publish articles that solve a problem, entertain, and/or inspire your targeted audience. Create valuable evergreen content and promote it using some of the ways listed below.
8 – Write Guest Blog Post
If you go this route, you’ll basically write well-written articles on topics within your niche. Not only does this provide content for that blog’s audience but you get exposure to a new audience within your niche and build your website’s domain authority.
9 – Your Website
Your website needs to be optimized for so many different elements [ie. speed, user friendly, converts well, etc].
10 – Implement an Effective SEO Strategy
Regardless of what platform you’re using, you want to apply SEO as your go-to marking strategy. Doing keyword searches thoroughly is a big part of that. It’s the ultimate way to create organic [mostly passive] traffic.
Search Engine Optimization
11 – Create Videos
Use Facebook Live, YouTube, IG TV, Insta Stories, Zoom, etc to create FREE how-to tutorials videos related to your niche.
12 – Create, build & nurture an email list
The list should be of your targeted audience.
31 Budget-Friendly Marketing Tactics for Any Small Business
Follow Up
13 – Social Proof
Encourage Customers/Clients to leave reviews or send testimonials.
Compile a list of reviews/testimonies and/or success stories from existing customers/clients, experts, and/or local celebrities. Use them on your website & your social media platforms. Use them to spice up your marketing.
14 – Send Shout Outs/ Send congratulations emails
Collect birth dates from your audience/customers/clients. Send happy birthday emails/shoutouts. Depending on your business, niche and budget, you could send actual gifts and/or cards to customers/clients for Holidays and/or Birthdays.
(For Holidays, you can add a message like . . . “We’re thankful to have you as a customer” – Thanksgiving // “We’re lucky to have you as a customer!” – St. Patrick’s Day, etc ).
In person & Virtual Events
15 – Attend virtual & local summits, conferences & events
Local groups and organizations. Networking with other entrepreneurs and your target audience is a great way to increase your brand’s visibility. Also, contact someone you know and ask for an introduction to an organization. Also, think about contacting someone you know and ask for an introduction to an organization.
16 – Webinars
Invite potential customers/clients to a FREE webinar or do a live session to teach them something related to your niche.
17 – Speaking Engagements
Speak at events and conferences (Ex. Civil events, Professional Meetings, Conferences, etc).
18 – Attend conferences and events to network
Take business cards. Give everyone 2 cards – one to keep and 1 to give away. Plan to meet 3 new people in every networking event. If you are selling apparel (ex. T-shirts) be sure to wear one. Remember to only attend events that are related to your niche.
19 – Virtual Summits
Hosting a virtual summit is the fastest way to increase your visibility, income, and impact. It’ll basically help you get your name out there, reach new audiences, attract new customers and leads, and skyrocket your revenue.
2o – Host a local event
Be sure food and drinks are served to encourage a more social atmosphere. Consider wearing a T-shirt from your brand. (Ex. Small gatherings at a hotel, a summer picnic, party at your home, etc).
Miscellaneous
21 – Leave Reviews
When you purchase things online and are able to submit a review, be sure to post a picture of the item you are submitting the review for and add your brand’s website address and/or tag name to the photo.
22 – Refer business/clients to trusted referral sources
It will help build trust and create long-lasting relationships with customers/clients and other businesses. You want to be able to help your customers/clients locate other professionals/brands who can do something you are not able to.
23 – Ask your existing customers, clients, and audience for referrals
A good way to do this is to send a thank you message and offer an incentive for referrals. You also, consider sending handwritten thank-you notes.
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Social Media
24 – Create a FB group
If you decide to go this route be sure to create a FB that will provide VALUE to your ideal audience/customer/client. The group will need to be engaging and it will take time to build a successful group {that actually converts).
25 – Post in FB Groups
Find FB business pages within your niche. Preferably, groups that have an engaging targeted audience – this number will vary. Make a post as someone from the community – NOT someone selling something because if you try to sell something, the owner/admin of the group will ban you.
You will post something like “Hi, ladies! I’ve been thinking about buying _________ but I want to see if any of you have bought this before and what you guys think.” Then, everyone in the group will click through to your website – because remember you are not selling anything. You’re simply asking for help (asking for everyone’s option) – everyone likes to help!
So, they will click through to the link and see that it’s a great product! The admin of the group it’s gonna know that it’s your website. If you’ve done your research and promoted a product, your site is set up properly, products are priced at the right price, is trustworthy, your product description is on point then you should get sales.
26 – Email Signature
Use your email signature line to promote something new happening with your business (ex. Launching a new product, hosting an event, etc).
27 – Business Facebook Page
There are several things you’ll want to do in order to utilize having a business Facebook page. I’ll create a checklist to make it easy.
28 – Business Instagram Page
Your ideal audience should be able to read your bio and know exactly why and if they want to follow you.
29 – Business Pinterest Page
Your ideal audience should be able to read your bio and know exactly why and if they want to follow you.
3o – Tik Tok
A short-form, video-sharing app that allows users to create 15-second videos – on any topic. It offers a variety of music and song snippets and gives you the option to add special effects and/or filters. This platform became extremely popular during the pandemic. Some people have generated a ton of attention on Tik Tok. I personally have yet to try it – and probably won’t. Ha!
31 – Clubhouse
This marketing tactic has grown really popular over the last year or so. It’s basically a social network app – a live audio platform. Individuals are brought on the stage [given a mic to speak] to answer or ask a question and you’ll hear them actually speaking. You will have to be invited into Clubhouse by someone that’s already a member. A lot of small business owners love using Clubhouse for networking!
32 – Partner with FB Group Owners
Find FB groups in your niche. Preferably groups that have a large number of members and are engaging (ie. 5+ posts a day). Reach out to the owner/admin of the group and let them know that you just started a business (based on _____ niche) and you would like to partner up.
Let the owner/admin of the group know that there is great earning potential.
“I will handle all the processes, products, and fulfillment. All you have to do is allow me to market through your group and you will give them 50% of the profits made within your FB group.”
This is gonna allow you to promote your products/services through someone’s group and market essentially every day (depending on what’s agreed). If your site is set up properly, products are priced at the right price, is trustworthy, your product descriptions are on point then you will convert many sales from those members in the group.
31 Budget-Friendly Marketing Tactics for Any Small Business
33 – Ask your existing customers, clients, and audience for referrals
A good way to do this is to send a thank you message and offer an incentive for referrals. You also, consider sending handwritten thank-you notes.
34 – Answer questions on Quora
Quora is the most popular question and answer website, with questions about almost every topic.
35 – Use LinkedIn Groups
Find groups with relevant interests and target them with your quality content for those interests.
36 – Reddit
When using this method, there needs to be an obvious thread of relevancy. The goal is to ask for feedback on something like your product idea or post you want to spread around Reddit – not corporate promotion/marketing.
37 – Submit press releases
To the media regarding your major consulting engagements, awards, published articles or books, or professional appointments.
Next Steps for Budget-Friendly Marketing Tactics for Any Small Business
Any combination of these affordable marketing tactics can really make a big difference in your business. It’s a matter of testing which of these methods work best for you and your audience – do this by creating a marketing strategy.