20 Low Cost Marketing and Advertising Ideas for Frugal Entrepreneurs
Just because you don’t have a million dollar budget to spend on promoting your business doesn’t mean you can’t still be effective in advertising. Creating an effective marketing and advertising plan for your business should be on top of your to-do list if you want this endeavor to progress. Marketing is essential in every business because this allows you to promote your products and services, engage with customers, and stand out from the competition.
There are many low-cost marketing options available that you can implement and use in your business. The number of options you can choose from will make it very easy for you to come up with an effective marketing plan based on hard data regardless of how limited your budget is. What’s even better is that is that a lot of these marketing strategies can be implemented for free. But if you ever do need financial help with your entrepreneurial business, consider Washington title loans for fast emergency cash.
Low Cost Marketing and Advertising Ideas
Here is a list of 20 low cost marketing and promotional ideas that you can use to kick off your marketing campaigns for the New Year:
1. Canvassing
This method involves printing out some inexpensive flyers and handing them out at local business parks or stores. Canvassing works very well for service-related businesses.
For you to gain the best results from canvassing, hire individuals who are naturally extroverts and place them in areas that are usually crowded. Encourage these individuals to politely approach passersby, and engage in conversations with them. It’ll be easier for your business to convince the general public to buy from you if your business is represented by individuals who know how to make any person feel comfortable.
2. Content Marketing
I am sure by now that you have heard all of the hype surrounding content marketing. Well, I am here to tell you that content marketing is not hype and that it does in fact work. According to a SEO Agency in the UK content marketing involves writing valuable content and then marketing that information via different platforms such as social media platforms, your website and etc.
Content marketing is common today, so expect to find several businesses that offer this service. Outsourcing a marketing agency for your business is actually cost-effective as this will give you access to the most effective marketing tools and strategies without wasting any resources during the process. These agencies have years of experience in content marketing, and hiring them will save you from the stress of trying out several marketing strategies that you’re unsure will work or not.
You can come to USPP for more information. US Promotional Products is a leader in promotional solutions. They are focused on providing unparalleled reliability and unique solutions for every client, and for every project.
Event marketing
Event marketing is one of strategy that marketers use to promote their cause, service, product or organization and stand out from the crowd. Marketers create events that represent their brand, sell tickets online, prepare marketing content and set all the needed communication tactics to effectively inform people about their event.
3. Advertising LED screen
For local business and brand promotion, find a well located LED screen, show the advantages of your products through dynamic advertising is the most cost-effective choice. If you’re leaning towards this direction, make sure to pay for LED screens that are located in crowded or busy streets in your area. Your goal here is to make sure that the LED screen is visible to as many people as possible.4. Invest in a Professional Website
You can create a professional-looking website by using any number of free website builders online. WordPress is a great platform to use for building a professional website. When creating a website, make sure that the platform loads fast, and that it’s responsive and clean. Avoid putting too many design elements in one page as this will only create confusion and can become the reason why online users leave your website.
5. Create and Offer Free Coupon Cards
Free services or consultations, you’ll encourage customers to give your business a try. Here is an additional tip: consider using the back of your business card as an area to offer freebies.
6. Start a Blog
Blogging is an excellent way to market and promote your business on the cheap. Make sure to write frequently and keep your customers in the loop about what’s new with your business. If you can’t write by yourself or keep full-time workers, consider the ones who do freelance ghostwriting jobs to do it for you. Check out my step by step guide for starting a business blog.
7. Get Active on Social Media
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are free and excellent platforms that you can use for promoting your business. Not convinced that social media is a right fit for your business, check out these statistics courtesy of Convince and Convert.
8. Create a Free Facebook Fan Page for your Business
Facebook averages more than 1.23 billion monthly active users and counting. Creating a Facebook Fan page is a great way build your brand, stay engaged with your loyal customers, gain new visibility to potential clients and improve your Facebook metrics.
9. Start a LinkedIn Group
LinkedIn Groups allow you to connect with others in the same industry, and also allows those with similar interests to share with one another, post and see jobs, make new contacts, and otherwise get established.
10. Create an Email Newsletter
Email newsletters are an excellent way to fill in your current customers on the happenings of your business. Aweber is a great resource that you can use to start an email newsletter.
11. Write a Press Release for your small business
A press release is basically an announcement where you can give details about your business and the services you offer.
12. Start participating in Network Events
This is an easy way to get to know and interact with others who are in your community and possibly even in the same industry. Meetup.com allows you to search by location and find different events and groups to participate in. You may also consider getting brand ambassadors to personify your company and act as representatives by educating and generating awareness on your behalf.
13. Guest Post and Submit Articles to other Blogs in Your Industry
Connect with influencers in your industry and offer to submit informative articles to their blogs. Guest posting for them will give you another avenue of gaining exposure in your industry.
14. Offer Incentives and Rewards Programs to your current customers in exchange for referrals
Current customers will be happy (and more motivated) to refer you to a friend if there is some sort of incentive involved. Get their insights along the way, and ask for customer feedback while providing them a way to benefit from referring your business. Check out this blog post to get some ideas for incentives and rewards that you can offer clients in exchange for referrals.
15. Setup Joint Ventures with other Companies in your business niche
Joining forces with another business in your industry will give you more exposure and allow you to get more visibility to potential customers in your niche. Consider participating in a joint event with another company similar to yours.
16. Conduct Free Webinars or Seminars on hot topics in your industry
People will log on to listen to a webinar, especially if they believe you are an expert on a topic in which they are not. f you want to take it a step further, at the end of the webinar add a call to action to give them a free online course. If you’d like to see a list of platforms to create these online courses, check out this post.
17. Get Endorsements on LinkedIn
LinkedIn allows others to “endorse” you – use these endorsements on your website as credibility building boosting testimonials.
18. Give away free trials of your products or a Free Consultation
People love freebies! Whether it be a product or a service, you can offer a deal for first-time customers for a free consultation. Jean from AlignMat did exactly this when she gave away a free posture corrector with every acupressure mat sold!
19. Comment on Blogs in your Industry
Leave comments for other business blogs in your industry. This helps you get more traffic to your website, which can lead to more business leads.
20. Brand Your Email Signature
Your email signature is one of the most overlooked places that you can use to market and promote your business each time that you send emails. Wisestamp (aff link) is an excellent resource that you can use to create a branded email signature.
