Though it's a fact that you have to spend money to make money, especially in marketing. However, the rise of social media and digital marketing has made it easier and quite inexpensive to market a business. However, today, even a small business startup entrepreneur can be creative with their marketing ideas and reach the targeted customers with effective and low budget marketing strategies. Here we've listed a few low cost marketing ideas for startups.
A creative marketing strategy is very essential to any business, be it large corporate or a local business. And advertising is the core of marketing, so it becomes important for the decision-maker to form such a marketing mix that leads to maximum profits and a large volume of sales. Advertising is often considered to be an expensive approach in reaching wide customer base. Yet, there are some inexpensive marketing ideas for small business that help you promote your brand and services.
Low Budget Marketing Strategies for Startups
Social Media Marketing
When it comes to low-budget marketing ideas, one cannot ignore social media marketing. Social media is a huge platform that provides you with a potential of accessing a customer base that can reach to even millions, for free. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Reddit has allowed you to find out your target audience and build your community.
The cost of setting up an account/page on these platforms is zero. All you need is to put up content that is relevant, interesting, creative and engages audiences. It is the cheapest form of advertising that exists out there and if you tap into it with the right advertising strategies then the sky is the limit.
People spend a lot of time on social media and so when they see an attractive ad about a shoe or trousers, they are instantly captivated and interest is aroused at that very moment. If the deal is offered at a tempting rate/quality/design then there is a high rate of a sale taking place. You can link the ad to your website or your app which we will discuss in the next point.
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Build Your App
When you have your app, that results in giving your brand an image and builds up the trust of the customer in your business. People will resistless in making the final purchase. It requires a very little expense to set up a software application, and today there are tremendous amounts of apps that people use. You can infuse it with your creativity and make it unique. But make sure to optimise it for your audience.
So when you have your app in addition to a website, the traffic on your online website can have prior experience and knowledge about your startup and then resorts to downloading your app, which results in many benefits. Like you have now access to some information of your customer, i.e. their email address or contact number, and can notify them about your offers or discounts and such things.
It also leads to a direct relationship with the customer and now you can monitor their purchasing patterns and they can scroll through your attractive offers now and then. It will also build trust with your customer because the online method in an app is safe.
Building an app is expensive if you hire a professional for it. But if your friend have app building knowledge, you can partner with them by offering shares of your startup.
YouTube
Now that we are exploring our way through ecommerce, let’s discuss this appealing option as well that is YouTube, the second-largest search engine after Google.
Many businesses engage in advertising on YouTube. They get in contact with other YouTubers and enter a contract where the influencer will talk about its product/service and the number of viewers is the potential customers.
Usually, the investment is high, but not always. For a comparatively smaller startup, you can reach out to regional YouTubers that have a considerable amount of subscribers, not necessarily in millions, and make them promote your business.
YouTubers upload creative content on the platform and there are creative ways to sneak in product placement in a very interesting manner. Even a small influencer can lead to a lot of benefits to your business. It is an unarguably cheaper way of advertising than paying high profile actors to do an ad campaign that airs on TVs.
You can even create your own YouTube channel where you talk about your product/services, its benefits and usage, etc. and make the audience aware about your business.
Be a Sponsor
Depending upon your target market, you can choose the type of event you want to sponsor. It is highly effective and allows your business to shine.
For instance, college fests are an appealing measure to promote your venture. You are allowed to set up stalls in a space that guarantees you a young crowd. The stall can be of food, jewellery, clothing, games or even contests that pertain to your business. The departmental fest also uses sponsors where you are featured on its posters, online campaigns and even sample distribution at their campus.
A cultural event happens often in auditoriums that facilitate a huge audience. You can use that event’s sponsorship. It is a considerably low-cost idea of advertising that yields a lot of engagements and promotion.
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Content Marketing
Content marketing is one of the least inexpensive marketing strategies that is focused on creating, publishing, and distributing content for a targeted audience on the internet. And it is often used by businesses to attract and generate leads, expand their customer base and increase their online sales.
It does not require a large chunk of investment. There are many approaches you can use, such as setting up a blog for your business where you add new and interesting content every few days that keeps your readers informed and entertains them as well.
Infographics, videos, podcasts, ads in newspapers, posters, and many more such ideas pertain to content marketing when they are uniquely and interestingly used to grab the attention of the customers.
E.g., Amul uses clever ways to bring up social topics in their promotional posters. The use of social commentary is a very engaging tactic as people have opinions about them. They react more and that leads to increasing engagements. Which is very beneficial for a business, even if the reaction is controversial.
SEO
SEO, one of the cost effective marketing strategies, comprises of a lot of use of the internet. There is a huge audience. It is easier to access and a revolutionary change in the cost to access it as well.
What is SEO? Basically in simple terms, it is the smarter use of the resources and the strategies are aligned with the improvement in the content. It is a bit technically complex, but once you get a hand on it you can easily understand its basics and how it works.
You have to identify keywords that could attract high traffic to your website. You can avail online consultancy for the same. The reason it is smart advertising is that instead of cash investments it requires effort and time. To understand, comprehend and formulate strategies that are unique compared to your competitors. And also understanding the latest trends and updates regarding the search engine algorithm updates.
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Business Cards
Your business card speaks about your professionalism to your prospective customers. A creative business card is necessary to make you stand out in comparison with others. A smart businessperson always carries a reasonable amount of business cards with them and hand them out liberally.
You can distribute business cards in the hands of anyone who can help you in your search for new leads/clients. This increases the rate of recommendations and resulting thereby in an increase in customer engagements.
Referrals
A spread of “word of mouth” is possibly the best form of promoting your business can get. A satisfied customer is bound to think well about your brand and will often be glad to refer it to his friends, family and other acquaintances. You can invest in referrals by doing follow-ups of your existing customer base. Ask them for feedback and if they liked it then to suggest it to others as well.
It increases the good reputation of the business and the customer feels important. It is a long term advertising strategy as a satisfied customer will most probably make another purchase in future also.
Participate in Social Events
Actively volunteering for social events can make your brand look better and people can get to know you better. If you have a big warehouse or office, giving it out for these social events once In a while can make you popular in no time.
Google my Business Account
Creating a Google my business account can make your business show up in Google searches and people can easily find you. Your business will also be visible on Google maps which is a plus. Moreover, it will help you make authority among your audience.
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So there you have it, our list of top low-cost marketing ideas for startups – be it small or large. These are just a few marketing tips and tricks to catalyze your marketing strategies. You can infuse other techniques as well, like organizing a contest, addressing a crowd by the presentation of your business product/service, or even selling it door to door to the customer itself. Now you can identify which one suits your firm the best and is the most effective tactic to be used for success in future.
Author: Niku Mandal
Source : https://startuptalky.com/low-cost-marketing/
Date : 2020-08-28T05:00:00.000Z