25 Aug 5 low-budget Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses
The expansion of social media in the past decade has led to some new marketing opportunities that are surprisingly cheap. They include but aren’t limited to, organic growth through social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. On the other hand, some classic techniques, such as cold calling, are still affordable and effective. For some marketing methods, like SMS messaging, the right tools can make or break your campaign.
While you’re running a small business, every dollar counts. You know you need to spend some money on marketing to reach your ideal audience, but the cost can feel daunting.
Luckily, there are a variety of cheap marketing ideas you can try. Many of them are even more effective than expensive options. In this blog, we’ll explain how you can market your business, even on a budget.
Cheap Marketing Ideas: What can you do at a low budget?
Some cheap marketing ideas are very easy to implement but require a little time and patience. Others require hard work but offer fast results. And, some simply require the right tools. All of the ideas listed below are proven to work and are worth the effort if you want to save money.
1.Organic Social Media Growth:
Paid marketing, such as Facebook and Instagram ads, is not the only way for businesses to leverage social media. Organic marketing includes methods such as posting or tweeting content that drives engagement. For example, users are likely to share posts that contain entertaining or educational content. These shares can lead to greater brand awareness.
One crucial aspect of organic social media reach is building trust with your audience. Customers are perceptive than they used to be when it comes to advertising techniques. Millennials are particularly wary; in a survey found that 84 percent of them don’t trust traditional advertising.
The good news is that organic social media marketing can be more effective than paid marketing. Typically, this is because consumers find it more authentic.
Organic social media growth is also one of the cheapest marketing ideas for small businesses. Content marketing costs an average of 62 percent less than traditional marketing.
Some organic methods are free, while other Social Media Management tools involve a small cost, such as offering a discount to new followers. Software that allows you to automate tweets or other posts is often affordable.
2. Build and Engage Facebook pages and groups:
A Facebook page is a great platform to reach potential customers and form relationships that lead to repeat business. But simply creating a page isn’t enough. Interacting with other pages and groups is key to getting the most out of your social media marketing strategy.
Liking, sharing, and commenting on other users’ posts can attract attention and might even inspire people to visit your business page. Be careful not to spam anyone with posts or comments. Instead, interact naturally. Humor is a great tool to use here, especially for less conservative industries.
Facebook is also a great way to find out what customers think of your product or service. Pay attention to what your followers are saying.
3. Mass SMS Messaging:
People are spending unprecedented amounts of time interacting with their smartphones. Most people spend hours each day looking at their phones. You essentially have a captive audience for each marketing SMS message you send.
While marketing emails are opened 20 percent of the time, SMS messages are opened and read 90 percent of the time. That’s just within the first three minutes of receiving the text. The return on investment (ROI) is high even with expensive services, but most SMS marketing tools are affordable, for example, TXT180 (recommended for new small business owners), Textedly, and Avochato, etc.
Also, Read 7 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ONLINE MARKETING FOR CALGARY SMALL BUSINESSES
4. Direct Email Marketing:
Direct emails are one of the evergreen marketing ideas for small businesses for a reason. The average email marketing return on investment (ROI) is up to 122 percent, and you can get started without spending a lot of cash.
Email marketing services allow you to automate emails. You can set up an email sales funnel, where you send several emails spaced out over time. These services typically offer templates and other features to help create professional emails. They also include helpful reporting on stats such as click-through rates (CTRs). Some of the affordable emailing tolls are Mailchimp (Free with some limitations), AWeber, and Constant Contact, etc.
5. Cold Calling:
Cold calling is an effective method of reaching customers, particularly in the B2B world. In a survey of B2B sales found that phone calls had the second-best results of any method, after referrals.
Cold calls are virtually free, aside from pay and benefits for the person or team making the calls. They are also less time-consuming. You’ll often know right away if you’ve made a sale, rather than waiting for results.
These days clients are annoyed by pushy, aggressive calls. To succeed at cold calling, focus on building relationships. A friendly human voice can help the customer feel a connection with your company that they wouldn’t through email. To faster this connection, treat the call as a conversation, not just a pitch.
Conclusion:
There are a variety of cheap marketing ideas available to help you reach potential customers. With the right tools and techniques, you can market effectively without spending too much.
Trying out several of these options will likely give you the best results. You can see what works and what doesn’t for your unique business.
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