Part 1: 10 Low Budget Marketing Tips for Startups
By Trevor Shorte
If you’ve been in business for any amount of time, you already know that marketing is an important factor in the success of your venture. One thing that I say time and time again to entrepreneurs is “nobody can buy your stuff if they don’t know you exist”.Unfortunately for many businesses, they either lack the knowledge, or the resources, to be able to develop any kind of marketing presence. Which of course isn’t their fault because sometimes, you don’t know what you don’t know.
Then there is the fact that they may not have the funds available to commit to any kind of marketing efforts. So, if your budget for marketing is basically the size of a postage stamp (does anyone actually mail letters anymore?) here are a few low-budget marketing ideas you can easily implement to help you generate some business.
START WITH YOUR CONTENT
UPGRADE THE CONTENT ON YOUR WEBSITE
Your website is one of the first places people will go to when they are looking for information about you and your business. Take a hard look at the content on your site and ask yourself, does it tell the story of what you have to offer and why it would benefit your customers? If it doesn’t, then you should seriously consider revamping some of your content. Your potential customers don’t care about what you’re trying to sell to them. They only care about what it will do for them.
START A BLOG
If you haven’t done so already, you should start a blog on your website. Use this as an opportunity to educate your customers about your product or service, share tips and tricks so people can get more out of your product, or even feature a customer success story. There are hundreds of topics that you can blog about. It is just another way to show potential customers why they should do business with you and not your competitors. Added bonus, having a blog that you regularly contribute to helps with your SEO and website’s Google ranking.
SHOWCASE YOUR EXPERTISE
GIVE A FREE WORKSHOP/SEMINAR
With the current trend of everything being online now, it’s easier than ever to host your own workshop or seminar. You can use it to share your expertise with your potential customers and do things like host a training session on how to best use your products, or even teach them how to evaluate their needs and select the product that would be best suited for them. You could even do a live “Ask Me Anything” session and let them dictate the topic. The idea here is to give your customers an opportunity to connect with you and build a relationship with them.
GET ON THE SPEAKING CIRCUIT
It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, there’s an industry specific trade show happening somewhere for it. (perhaps not in person right now but a lot of them have moved online). Or you could look at events put on by local business organizations (Chamber of Commerce or BIA) and see if you can be a speaker. Being a speaker and sharing your expertise and insight positions you as an expert and helps you build credibility as a knowledgeable resource. Plus, you might even get some free publicity out of it.
THE WORD IS OUT
CREATE A CUSTOMER REFERRAL PROGRAM
Having your customers refer you to their network of family, friends, and business associates is the ultimate proof of customer satisfaction. People don’t refer brands that they don’t like or trust! Consider this, consumers are more likely to buy a product if it has been recommended by someone they trust. You can offer your existing customers a freebie of some kind, or discount, or any kind of reward you see fit for referring you to others. There are some companies like Dropbox and Harry’s who created legendary referral programs that exponentially increased their customer base.
A great marketing strategy at any budget will create more opportunity for you. Next week, I will be sharing 5 more low budget marketing tips if you are looking to make a big impact with a small budget. In the mean time, if you are feeling a little stuck and you aren’t sure how to build a successful marketing strategy, click here to talk to us and see if there’s an area with your marketing that we can help you with.