5 Powerful ways to market your business on a limited budget
It is a noisy world out there for the average consumer. Most markets are saturated and each business is trying to capture their markets attention daily. In 1974 on average a person seen 2000 ads, today that figure is over 5000.
As a small business with a limited budget, it may seem impossible to compete with competitors with big pockets. They may have bigger budgets and more money to spend on their marketing but as a small business owner, there are many cost-effective ways you can market your business. Here is 5 of them.
1. Guerrilla Marketing
Guerrilla marketing looks at thinking outside of the box and being more creative. Use your imagination, be the purple cow. STAND OUT. DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY. THINK BIG. If you always doing the same things, you’ll get the same results and remain uncompetitive. Clever small business and start-ups with small budgets often utilise guerrilla marketing to compete with bigger competitors.
Of course, there are no shortage of creative marketing ideas. Here are a few examples:
If you have a brick and mortar store, pay someone, maybe a graffiti artist to create an eye-catching piece of art on the front. Turn heads, create eye-catching material, not only will by passers want to take photos with it (promoting your business for free on social media) it will also enable them to stop and take note of your business. Create something so striking people won’t be able to help but stop. Even a bright colour would work wonders.
Create a Flash Mob – No matter where you are get a group of people together make sure the message is clear on what you are promoting and head to a town centre.
Social Bomb – Create noise around your product or service, hire undercover agents to go to high population density and talk loudly about how good your product is.
2. Engage on Social Media (be sociable on Social Media)
There are now 2 billion people on Facebook worldwide. At the beginning of 2017, the total number of social media users in the UK had reached over 39 million users, with estimates going up to 42 million users. There is a huge market just waiting to be engaged by you.
The most popular social media channels are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Reddit and LinkedIn. Each one of these channels are unique in their own right and require unique ways of approaching each. E.g. LinkedIn is for targeting businesses (B2B), Facebook for targeting media and Instagram for promoting products via influencers.
We recommend finding a similar business page to yours, group or community and giving valuable answers to questions to these users. By giving valuable information this will attract your market to your page, do you following:
1. Search for keyword hashtags & view posts.
2. Select the most popular post and leave a valuable comment.
3. Repeat this technique 10 times per day every day to gain new followers and grow.
3. Create valuable content.
Not only do potential customers love great content, but so does Google and it can go towards helping with your SEO and give you content to share on social platforms to drive traffic to your website. There are many forms of content to share information – Blogs, videos, infographics, articles, visual images and much more. Not only does creating your own content enable you to be seen as an expert in your field, by giving valuable information it also allows you to get free traffic from searches and social media shares. A great way to get your name out there is do a guest blog or guest podcast on a relevant website of platform.
Not the best writer or designer? You don’t always have to produce the content yourself you can hire freelance writers, graphic designers and much more through websites such as @Upwork or better yet outsource to a business capable like ourselves #THINKBIG :)
4. Contest and Giveaway
One way to get a quick win and grow your social media accounts and gather data with a competition and free giveaway. Who doesn’t love a free gift? Giveaway free desirable or fun items to gain goodwill and build brand awareness and connect with potential customers. It doesn’t have to be something expensive depending on your target market and product/service, it could be a gift card, spa day, online eBooks, white papers, a voucher, whatever it may be just make sure it is relevant to your market, as too not attract the wrong clientele.
You could even giveaway branded physical gifts such as pens, balloons, smartphone cases, fridge magnet, notebooks, sunglasses on a hot day, umbrella on a rainy day (be creative and inventive). You could approach people to try your product at a discounted price in exchange for an honest review.
You could even create a viral marketing campaign (easier said than done) one of the best to date that went viral was ALS ice Bucket challenge which raised 15 Million dollars and the challenge was a global phenomenon and undertaken by celebrities. The campaign involved people calling out their family or friends to pour ice cold water on themselves within the 24hours of being called out, those who failed to do so would have to donate. Very clever campaigning that set off a chain of copycat campaigns that were nowhere near as effective.
5. Utilise free media – Press and PR
If you can utilise your local press and be featured in an article, this is essentially free advertising. Try to create something to capture the attention of the media and get them to come down and cover it. The beauty of the press is they need a constant flow of content to fill their papers, so if you have something worth talking about it also helps them with their own content needs.
Create a publicity stunt – Richard Branson – VIRGIN FOUNDER – is king of marketing stunts. Think of something unheard off, something new and innovative, something crazy enough to get your exposer while not breaking the law or jeopardising anyone's health.
Do something for the community and send a press release out prior to the event, e.g. free haircuts for the homeless if you’re a hair dresser, sleeping bags in the winter etc....
Sponsor a local event e.g. local charity, football team etc...
You could even go as far to contact the radio and get interviewed. To get weekly tips and tricks onto how to market your business on a budget, grow your business and find customers easier sign up to our email list Questions of a Small Business Owner.
6. (We said 5 but here’s a bonus one just because)... Utilise yourself to market.
Wear your brand, get hats, t-shirts even go as far as getting your car wrapped in your business detail. You think it is a coincidence that Warren Buffet is always seen drinking Coca Cola at Press conferences and events.... Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet’s company) at the end of the third quarter owned about 252.5 million shares of the company, giving it a 9.5% stake (2018). FREE MARKETING. #THINKBIG
Sign up to our mailing list for weekly tips and tricks to build your business.
SIGN UP
