Marketing Strategies

The internet and social media platforms have made marketing more affordable than ever before, especially for small businesses. However, it’s still not exactly free and any online or offline marketing campaign does cost a good deal of money, especially if you want it to be truly effective. Starting a new business often requires taking out loans and getting one approved to fund your marketing efforts is actually quite easy these days, but it’s also important not to overshoot your budget. To balance things out, here are five budget-friendly marketing strategies that are not just affordable but also extremely effective.

Facebook Marketing

Facebook is a marketer’s paradise and in spite of all the critique the social media website has received for that, Facebook continues to be the best place for launching social media campaigns, be it for big or small companies. The tools are there for businesses to identify their target audience and marketing is so affordable that even a budget of just a few dollars every day is enough to get your business seen by thousands of potential customers on the social media site daily. Find free social media analytics tools to get more.

Tie-Ups

This is actually an old method and it still works like a charm, without putting a dent in your marketing budget. Tie up with other local businesses in a way that it’s mutually beneficial. For example, if you are selling furniture, it would make sense to tie up with a local remodeling company in a way that you offer coupons for each other’s services/products. The nature of the businesses needs to be complimentary though, and not competitive, of course.

Email Marketing

This is the modern equivalent of direct-to-mail marketing, only many times cheaper. What you need is the right content with unique customizations and you are ready to send your emails to hundreds of potential customers, as well as old ones. The only other thing you will need is, of course, a database of emails, but that’s not a very expensive venture, although it can take time to build a good email list.

Using Your Existing Customer Base

Whether you have a few old customers or new followers on your web page, it is possible to take their help and get quite a bit of marketing done through them. Some examples are as follows.

  • Ask for their email addresses to send them coupons and updates
  • Reward them with coupons or small prizes for sharing a certain number of your social media posts
  • Start a customer referral program and reward customers each time a new customer signs up through any of them

Contact Social Media Influencers

If you have a product/service that is reviewed/unboxed/advertised on a big YouTube channel, it will get instant exposure to millions of people at once, with a majority of them being your target audience. Getting influencers to advertise your product will, of course, not be free and the costs will vary, depending on how popular the concerned channel is, but if you can manage to get an unboxing or a review done by any of them, you don’t need to pay anything at all! Of course, this is not easy, and if your product isn’t received well by the concerned YouTuber, you will get a whole lot of negative publicity as well.

As a bonus tip, we would say create quality content that’s related directly or indirectly to your products/services and keep uploading it on social media sites and on your own blogs. Combine good content with excellent SEO and that’s an effective, continuous marketing strategy right there, without having to add significant bulk to your marketing expenses.