8 Effective Low-Budget Online Marketing Ideas for your startups

To get tangible results from your business, you must market your business; and to market your business, you need to spend and spend. But what happens in a situation when you don’t have the excess $$$ to create awareness about your product, do you quit? Of course not…

Your primary aim is to make a profit from your establishment, and since you don’t have the budget for huge adverts and for other top marketing campaigns like TV ads, billboards, mass mailing, PPC, SEO and so on, here are some effective low-budget marketing ideas that can soar your later profits.

#1 If you have a car, use it:

This is one of the most effective ways to create awareness about your small business. Actually, hiring someone to paint your brand on your car will surely cost you more; but you can cut cost doing it yourself — it doesn’t have to look too professional.

Whenever you drive around town and bump into go-slow, potential customers will sure spot and read about your services or products. And if they are interested in them, they’ll definitely get in touch.

E.g If you’re a pet groomer, you can draw a dog head, and beside it, list your services, etc. More importantly, don’t forget to put down your contact too.

#2 Word of mouth marketing:

This is cheap, but its potential can never be underestimated. As a small business owner, it cost you nothing to talk to people about your company and what you offer. Don’t be scared or feel embarrassed about it. Use your mouth to advertise your company in meetings and some social gatherings. Meanwhile, don’t be too pushy about it.

Note: The manner in which you tell the world about your company might create some perceptions on your customers’ minds. So, be creative about it.

#3 Leverage the opportunities of business partnership:

Oh yes! A business partnership isn’t a bad idea. Teaming up with a business owner related to your niche is a whole new advantage to both of you.

In this regard, it is wise not to partner with your competitors, but with someone offering some services that will facilitate mutual gains. For example; a home appliances seller can partner with a home appliance repairer. A pet groomer can partner with someone offering home janitorial services. And a fruit juice store owner can also partner with a confectionery maker etc.

#4 Publish killer content on your website:

Content will always be king. And on this note, I’m not saying that you should hire anyhow writer; because if you do, you might end up getting anyhow result.

Remember your content speaks for your business. Any mistake in this area might ruin your whole online marketing effort. On the other hand, there are great content curators out there that are not too expensive, yet they still produce quality content; those are the people you should hire to handle your content writing services especially if you can’t handle it yourself.

#5 Social media is also effective:

Bringing your business on social media is another affordable way of creating awareness about it. Although you can pay for advertising and this can directly land your business in the presence of several potential customers, but that will cost you more. However there are some other ways you can do free social media marketing, and one of them is by creating a business page for your small business.

Actually, some social media allows you to create a business page. Once it’s created,  encourage your customers to leave their reviews on your profile, so that potential customers will see what people are saying about your services or products.

#6 DIY infographic is a sure fire too

Nothing grabs people attention like infographics. They are pure eye candy that has proven to be one of the most powerful marketing tools. As a matter of fact, it is one of the surest ways you can earn referral links and boost blog traffic.

This will cost you more if you decide to hire someone to handle the design. Interestingly, you don’t need a degree before you can create one. In other words, you can sure do it yourself. A good resource that can teach you the how-to from scratch is Visual.ly. They will coach you from the start.

#7 Memorable online local contest does the magic:

This is another strategic way to create awareness for your company. While this might cost you some money, you sure will get it back in more folds from both existing and prospective customers.

Since you’re running your business with a low-budget, don’t spend on expensive reward prices. Go for some less expensive rewards like some fancy backpacks that might just go round for the contest draw.

#8 Start a customers referral program:

Customers referral program or campaign is another great ideas. You don’t have to spend extremely high on this too. All you need to do is to offer incentives to customers who introduce your business to whole new customers.

Do you know that people are naturally moved and inspired by incentives? For instance, In this case, you might decide to give some free product or services or even some discount to your customers as you see fit.