10 Low Cost Marketing Ideas For Any Businesses

Marketing is vital to any business, but it is not easy to do on a tight budget. While many small businesses often have limited marketing resources, that doesn’t mean they should give up on creating a memorable and effective presence online. 

Are you a small business owner wondering how to advertise your business on such a small budget?

Here are some low-budget marketing ideas that can be just as effective as not-so-affordable campaigns:

1. Start a Blog
2. Submit Guest Posts
3. Offer up Your Expertise
4. Give Away Freebies
5. Host a Community Event

1. Start a Blog

Blogs are relatively easy and inexpensive to create. You can use your blog to share information about your products or services, share industry news and tips, or showcase your company’s unique voice and personality. Whatever approach you take, a blog can effectively connect you with your target audience as you promote your business.

These are a few tips to get you started:

• Choose a platform. There are various blogging platforms to choose from, each with unique features. Visit software and product review sites to compare the different platforms and determine which is right for you. 
• Find a niche. What are you going to write about? Of course, your topic must be relevant to your business. It should also be something you’re passionate about and will interest your target audience.
• Produce killer content. Write content that is so good your audience can’t ignore it. Your blog’s content must be informative, entertaining, and inspiring enough to make people notice your small business.
• Promote your blog. After publishing a few posts, start promoting your blog on social media and other online channels to attract readers and followers.

2. Submit Guest Posts

Guest blogging entails writing posts for other blogs in exchange for a link to your website. Writing guest posts is a great way to get your name and business out there. By writing articles for other people’s blogs, you can reach a whole new audience and promote your business to a broader audience. Guest blogging also helps generate traffic and leads for your site. Best of all, you can do it yourself without hiring a pricey marketing agency.

Research is vital to writing guest posts. To find suitable blogs that accept guest posts, you can:

• Google blogs or use any other search engine.
• Use social media sites such as Twitter and LinkedIn to find blogs you can guest post for. 
• Ask other bloggers if they know of any blogs that you can submit a guest post to.

After finding potential blogs to guest post for, read through the blogs’ posts to get a feel for their style and content. Follow the instructions on the blog’s website for how to submit a guest post. Use residential rotating proxies while researching to stay anonymous and ensure that your IP address is not blocked or banned by the blog’s server.

3. Offer up Your Expertise

Sharing your knowledge can help you build credibility and gain the trust of potential customers. This low-budget marketing idea — whether through giving a talk at a local event, writing an article for a trade publication, creating video tutorials, or airing podcasts — can get your name out there and attract new clients. Best of all, getting started won’t cost you a lot of money. 

4. Give Away Freebies

Giving away free stuff seems counter-intuitive to market your business, but if done right, giveaways can be a highly effective way to build interest and awareness for your brand. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, either.

There many things you can give away for free, from branded T-shirts to stickers to webinars. And if you choose your freebies wisely, you can generate a lot of leads and sales from people interested in what you offer.

5. Host a Community Event

Sponsoring a community event is a great way to get exposure. It is also an amazing method to build relationships with other businesses and community members. Compared to other marketing initiatives, such as advertising or PR, hosting or sponsoring an event is a relatively low-cost way to reach your target audience.

Keep these in mind when choosing an event to sponsor or host:

• Ensure that the event is aligned with your company’s values. 
• Make sure the event is likely to attract your target audience. 
• Make certain you have the resources to commit to the event.

The average American is exposed to around 4,000 to 10,000 ads every day. That’s a whopping figure, yet it’s no surprise. Many businesses have skyrocketed their advertising budgets to make the cut. But not every business has the resources.  

Good thing there are many ways to market a business without breaking the bank. This article teaches marketers and business owners how to effectively drive organic traffic, build a following, and create loyal customers.

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Let’s read few more inexpensive marketing ideas for big results

1.  Leverage Google Analytics  

One way of driving organic traffic is through search engine optimization (SEO). But it’s not enough to apply its best practices. Marketers also need to assess if their SEO strategy has been paying off.

This can be done through tools like Google Analytics. This free tool allows website owners to track online traffic and understand visitor behavior. Using it will enable businesses to learn which pages work and which ones need improvement—helping them better optimize their website for their intended audience.

Plus, brands that complement their marketing with paid advertising can link their Google Ads and Analytics accounts to streamline reporting. However, this can be added work for marketers, so many companies hire a reliable Google Ads agency to handle their advertising separately.

2.  Revamp SEO Strategy

After using Analytics to evaluate their website, it’s time to do the hard work of enhancing their SEO.

SEO involves various methods that depend on every industry. For instance, collecting backlinks may work for a consultancy business, but not so much for an e-commerce website.

To create a winning SEO strategy, marketers should get started with the following tips:

• Get a benchmark of their SEO. Specific metrics that need to be assessed include organic visibility, traffic split, and keyword rankings. This can be done by using analytics tools like Google Analytics, Semrush Organic Research Tool, and the like.
• Set realistic goals and KPIs. When setting an SEO goal, use the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound) method.
• Do comprehensive keyword research. Businesses should define their website’s primary keywords and insert them in pillar pages—major topics that serve as foundations for clusters of page contents.
• Build cluster content based on long-tail keywords. For instance, a yoga class subscription site can build cluster topics relevant to keywords such as “yoga class for beginners” or “what to expect from yoga classes.”
• Optimize content through on-page SEO techniques. This includes using title tags, header tags, internal links, and meta descriptions.

SEO results don’t happen overnight. Marketers must understand that SEO is an ongoing trial and error process.

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3.  Market Products Accordingly

E-commerce is expected to boom by over 50% over the next four years, amounting to $7.4 trillion from $4.9 trillion in 2021. It’s safe to say it’s a great industry for budding businesses.

But one of the most common mistakes they make is applying cookie-cutter marketing to their specific product niche.

Before choosing the best product to sell, marketers should ask these three questions:

• Is it a “candy-like” product? These products bring immediate pleasure and usually come and go.
• Is it like a vitamin? These products can last a long time because they solve an emotional need.
• Is it like a painkiller? These products solve an immediate need, which means they’re evergreen.

Marketers need to assess which of these products their offering belongs to. There’s no best product to market as long as it’s executed properly.

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4.  Take Advantage of User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) is social proof, increasing a customer’s trust in a business. UGC boosts conversions by 10% when included in the buyer’s journey. This means sharing UGC on their online platforms is another free and effective way to market their products.

There are plenty of places to look for authentic UGC. These include regularly visiting the company hashtag for customer posts, scouring social media for comments, or even looking at internet forums like Reddit.

Building an inventory of high-quality UGC helps influence potential buyers, who are less likely to be biased like branded content.

5.  Build an Email List

Photo by Tumisu from Pixabay:

Email marketing is not dead. It is the opposite. It continues to be one of the biggest drivers of ROI, gaining up to $36 for every $1 spent. Entrepreneurs who don’t have an email list are missing out on a lot.

But how do they get started? These steps will help them set off on the right foot:

1. Create effective calls to action (CTAs) for their landing pages.
2. Apply pop-ups for every page, whether timed or scroll pop-ups.
3. Use timed pop-up surveys to get users to sign up.
4. Pitch email newsletters on social media accounts.
5. Publish more landing pages depending on the customer’s needs.

After collecting emails, marketers can use email marketing tools that help them create professional emails or track their performance.

6.  Build a Community

Public forums are a great way to connect with customers on a personal level. Aside from building customer trust, it’s also a zero-cost way to market a business’s product or service.

Marketers can create Facebook groups to engage with existing or potential customers. The key is to share valuable content that their followers need—not branded content that may only put them off.

7.  Host Competitions Online

Competitions are a great way to engage followers and get them to purchase from a business eventually. Marketers can host social media contests and give away free prizes, including a product bundle or a free 1-month subscription to a service.

These contest mechanics are great examples to consider:

• Have users like, comment, or share a post to boost its reach.
• Ask a question. The comment with the best answer wins the prize.
• Have followers post why they would recommend a business’s product.

The goal of social media contests or giveaways is to spread brand awareness and boost customer engagement—all without spending a fortune!

8.  Attend Local Events

Not all marketing topics have to be online, especially now that the pandemic has started to die down. People are excited to attend local events and get away from their desktops for once.

Attending local events like craft fairs, workshops, and networking events is not only a low-cost way to market a brand. This also allows businesses to grow their network.

Entrepreneurs can start hosting their own if no relevant business events are coming up. It doesn’t have to be expensive. They can look around for free spaces to host an event, such as a public library.

During the event, it’s important to bring marketing materials along. These include business cards, brochures, or flyers.

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1. Give referrals and ask others to join your program.
2. Create a website for your business.
3. Become a member of a professional or commercial group. This is merely a more particular form of networking, and it’s a terrific method to meet new people in the business world.
4. Attend business mixers or trade shows in your area.
5. Include promotional materials with your bills. Why not include a promotion in a paper you’re sending out anyway?
6. Involve the media (including social media) in your big openings, moves, or charity activities to get free publicity for your company.
7. Set up a Facebook page for your company.
8. Use Twitter to promote your company.
9. Promote your business on Pinterest.
10. Discover how to make a persuasive sales presentation that convinces people to buy.
11. Make cold calls.
12. Use your vehicle to promote your company.
13. Attach a business card holder on the side of your car.

The Best Things in Life Are Free

Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. The most effective marketing methods, such as creating a Facebook group, submitting a guest post, or starting a blog, don’t cost much. Marketers don’t always rely on advertising to get their products out there. The key is in trying out the above marketing tips and applying which ones work best for their business.

In this era of tight budgets, the ability to make do with whatever resources you have — no matter how small — is essential. While some of these marketing ideas may be difficult to implement at first, they will be well worth the effort in the long run. By following these tips, you can get the most bang for your marketing buck and reach many potential customers.