When you own a business, you think of some ways to improve your business marketing strategies to boost conversion rates, increase sales, and build brand awareness. Especially, when you start your business for the first time and take the first steps in your competitive industry, you search for marketing ideas that can help to grow your business. But what if your current budget is not high enough?
You may wonder how you can achieve some of your business goals on a low budget, but be relieved to know that it’s fully possible! We’ve compiled 5 essential low-budget marketing ideas to help you hit a home run.
1. Build Partnerships
When you collaborate with an industry partner, it’s a win-win situation for both you and the firm or individual you’re partnering with. Collaboration is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your business. Try to brainstorm ideas with your partner to help you both sell more services. The one with whom you partner up should not be a direct competitor. You can do the partnership locally, offline, online, or through a special event.
Industry partnerships are significant marketing strategies as they let small business owners promote their services and products, access technology, and reach new customers in a way that they couldn’t do on their own.
2. Open Your Google My Business Profile
Through a free tool like Google My Business (GMB) you can share essential information about your company — your address, contact information, hours of working, etc.
A Google My Business profile is one of the most efficient free marketing tactics accessible, especially for local businesses. This free listing helps your company to appear on Google search’s local section, Google Maps, and the right-hand Knowledge Panel for branded queries. To begin, you must first create a GMB profile and confirm your company details. This is a basic but crucial step in ensuring that clients can find your business or service online. Update your listing whenever you change your address, hours of operation, or website URL.
3. Use Social Media
Increase your social presence to reach new leads, turn them into clients, boost brand visibility, and drive traffic. Social media platforms are great places to bring new followers and answer their questions by publishing relevant content materials.
Consider where your target audience spends most of their time to make the most out of your efforts. Research your audience demographics, such as age, interests, education, employment, to understand which social media platforms fit best for your business. After that, you’ll understand what kind of material to post, how to communicate with your customers online, and build a social media calendar to help you plan your strategy.
Here are some essential tips for you:
- Write and promote SEO-friendly blogs on your social media channels.
- Create polls and ask your customers for feedback.
- Directly communicate with your audience to express your brand’s voice and increase engagement.
- Create social media accounts on platforms that are famous now — Pinterest, Instagram, Linkedin, etc.
- Tag brands, loyal customers, neighboring companies, vendors on social media which can help you reach potential audiences, and increase conversion rates.
- Promote your followers to tag your social media handle in their posts.
- Always use hashtags — custom hashtags, long-tail hashtags when you provide advice, and location-based hashtags if your business is local, and a mix of various types of hashtags.
- Shoot videos with Instagram and Facebook, especially how-tos and instructional, behind-the-scenes videos, interviews with your employees, etc.
- Share data-rich infographics.
- Write guest posts.
- Host podcasts or webinars.
These can help you build brand visibility and establish trust.
4. Host a Contest
Choose a social media platform to organize a contest where you’ll give something to the winner as a prize. For example, it could be discounts, your product for free, etc. When you choose what you’re going to give the winner as a prize, come up with the terms of your contest. For instance:
- Create a post where you’ll explain in detail the rules of the contest.
- Ask them to follow you.
- Ask them to tag 3 friends.
- Ask them to share your post on their stories.
In this way, you’ll generate more leads and reach new audiences.
Also, you can think of offering a customer referral program. In this way, you can provide current customers with free services, products, or discounts for referring their friends, family members, etc. When they do so, they bring new clients to your business and can increase conversion rates.
5. Ask Your Family To Promote Your Business
Word-of-mouth is a strong way to promote your business. People who may be always there to help you are your friends and family members. They’ll help you build your brand awareness.
Give them flyers, a T-shirt with your brand, or maybe a custom pen and notebook with your brand on it to help them promote your company. Also, they can share your account on their stories or personal pages and tell people about your business. This is an inexpensive way to reach new people and boost your brand visibility.
These were some of the low-budget marketing ideas for you, apply them in your marketing strategy, opt for digital marketing services provided by professionals, and be on the crest of a wave.