Running a business is a tough job already. However, this becomes even more difficult in the current scenario when everyone is struggling to make ends meet. People have lost their jobs and world economies are going through a dire time. In times like these, effective marketing can help stabilize a business and garner sales but the fact of the matter is that marketing itself is an expensive task to undertake. Fortunately, the advancement of technology and the invention of the internet have given a new life to traditional marketing tactics by introducing the world of digital marketing.
Digital marketing means channeling digital avenues to effectively market your products and services. Nowadays, most people have access to the internet thanks to how cost-effective it has become, something which can be observed in Cox internet prices. This has allowed digital marketing to become a viable marketing tool since most of the population has access to the internet, which is the main component of digital marketing.
Marketing Techniques for Businesses for Low Budget
Cost-Effective Marketing Tips
Marketing is already an expensive and time-taking endeavor that many small businesses ignore due to budget constraints. However, it is to be noted that marketing is one of the most important activities of a business as it helps introduce products or services to the public, thus, not only boosting sales but also creating a brand value and loyal consumer base along the way. Despite being an important aspect of the business operation, it’s often ignored or put on the back burner by many small businesses, and this trend has only increased in frequency in the past year. The reason behind this is that since the COVID pandemic shook the world, the economies fell into a recession and many small businesses were shut down or are still struggling to make ends meet and are barely floating, let alone being profitable.
In this scenario, it has become quite difficult for businesses to take out a major chunk of revenue and spend it on marketing. However, since technology has helped us overcome so many hurdles, the same is the case with this one. The internet and various other technological means have created techniques that allow small businesses to create effective marketing strategies that not only work but are very convenient in terms of cost. Here we are going to discuss a few of these techniques that any small business can adopt to boost their marketing and revenue while spending the bare minimum.
Email Marketing
One of the cheapest and effective marketing techniques is email marketing. An email practically costs nothing and requires nothing apart from an internet connection, and businesses have the ability to send countless emails to different consumers making them aware of their new products or services. However, it takes effort to make a contact list of potential buyers, which can also be achieved by various means like giving discounts for signing up with your business through email, floating pop-up messages that tell users to provide an email address in order to sign up for newsletters or discounts, or offering freebies like an E-book that ask the user to provide their email in order to receive it.
Since we are cutting the cost, the amount of effort does increase, but once you have a list of potential buyers and loyal customers’ email addresses, then this email marketing tactic can do wonders for any business while spending practically nothing. This becomes easier for businesses that have maintained a record of their loyal buyers.
Local SEO
Those who are familiar with digital marketing know what SEO is. Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a technique to rank your business’s website on top of major search engines like Google. SEO can be a time taking and sometimes an expensive means of marketing since it requires technical knowledge of algorithms on which these platforms work. However, if you can’t afford SEO, then there is another thing called local SEO, which is typically free. In local SEO, certain keywords which specify a particular geographic location are added to your website, which allows users who are native to your area to quickly find your business, since they are the ones using those keywords. For example, “Portland Bakery” or “Seattle Hair Saloon.”
This is a long-term marketing tactic but once the algorithm picks these keywords and your website starts getting ranked, then from there, it’s easy marketing, bringing a flock of customers with little to no effort and practically no cost as well.
Guerilla Marketing
The whole concept of guerilla marketing is to get your products and services across to customers with spending as little as possible. But in order to implement guerilla marketing effectively, you have to think creatively and out of the box. Guerilla marketing doesn’t utilize any specialized tools or practices. In fact, it shifts focus on regular day-to-day objects in order to market the products and services.
That’s why being creative is the key in making this technique work, and you have to be careful as well because sometimes, the methods used in guerilla marketing can backfire as well. Guerilla marketing can be writing the name of your product, website, contact info or Twitter handle on sidewalks, or as graffiti on walls or maybe sticking posters around the place or being creative through street art. You can also use it on digital means by linking your business in comments under social media posts on different platforms.
Since there is no hard and fast rule to implement guerilla marketing, the sky is the limit, and the more creative idea you can implement to promote your product, the more chances it has of being noticed. Plus this technique costs a bare minimum in comparison to other sophisticated and expensive marketing techniques. Although, more often than not, it’s a hit-or-miss technique. Since it doesn’t cost that much, this makes it worth a shot.
Summing Up
Marketing is a crucial component of operating a business and can do wonders if done the right way, as it is the most effective way to boost sales and gather a loyal customer base by creating brand value and awareness regarding your products and services. However, all these benefits aside, this is also a fact that it can be an expensive task, which many small businesses have a hard time affording, keeping in view the current scenario in which most businesses are already struggling with finances post-pandemic. But there are some efficient and cost-effective marketing techniques like the ones mentioned above, which if applied correctly, can do wonders for any business at a very nominal cost.
