Budget Friendly Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

When starting a new business, it can sometimes be hard to find the funds for marketing. However, this is one of the most important factors to get your brand out there and known to the public, thus increasing revenue in the long run.

The first thing you need to know about marketing for your company is that you will need a Facebook page. As we know, these days everyone has Facebook, including my grandmother. If you can get your business known on Facebook this will help you greatly, and some of the following marketing ideas will also use this tool which is at your disposal free of charge. All you need to do is invest a little time in making it good, making it stand out.

Budget friendly marketing techniques can be useful not only for startup businesses, but also for artists, musicians and authors who want to get known by a wider audience.

Give Free Stuff

In conjunction to promoting your Facebook page, giving away free stuff will also be a way to bring business to your company. Available on Facebook are free applications which allow you to set up contests for your company, so basically the work is done for you. You can request that fans share and like your page, and when your page reaches a certain amount of likes, someone will win a gift certificate or a prize of some sort depending on what you are promoting.

Highlight Previous Customers

Although you may just be starting, you most likely have previous customers that have used your product and would be willing to write something promoting it. When possible, they could also posts pictures with these products. If these customers are other businesses, this also increases the chances that they will return to you in the future as it promotes them at the same time. If the customer is not a business, everyone likes to see their name out there so they will most likely share this on their Facebook which would increase traffic to your Facebook page or website.

Participate in Community Events

Get out there and talk to people. Tell people about your new business. You can find out about local events and show up. You never know who you will run into and the more you can get your name out there the better. If this is an option, you can also participate in local farmers’ markets.

Participating in local business events and social gatherings is also important. This will give you the opportunity to network with other local businesses. When going out in the community always have business cards on hand with your contact information including e-mail address, Facebook page and website.

Partner with Local Businesses

If you can find other local businesses from which both of you can benefit from partnerships contact them and set a meeting to discuss this. Helping each other promotes community involvement in addition to providing extra advertisement for your company. This can include bartering which means that in exchange for what they can offer, you will also give them a product or service. Another great place to network with other businesses is by joining your local chamber of commerce.

Have a Good Website

The most important part of the website is the ease of navigation. You need to be able to identify what your customer will be looking for and make sure they will be able to find it. If you are somewhat technologically inclined, there is software out there that will help you build a website with ease. If you don’t think this is something you are comfortable with, hire some students to get it done for you. If at all possible, you will want to give your customers the option of buying your product online. In this moment in time, ease of purchase is very important.

Keep Up A Blog

Having a blog can help get your name out there. When done correctly it will come up when people search your product on Google. In order for this to work, you need to have good content on your Blog. This means that it should be fresh, new, and interesting things that your customers would want to read about. You don’t want your blog articles to come across as a sales pitch, but rather a place for people to get useful information and facts.

If writing your own blog is not an option, you can also contact other blogs that you believe have reputable content to get your company or product featured. When done well, these blogs will incorporate what you want to sell to their blogs along with a link to your website without making it sound like an advertisement.

Get listed on Google Maps/Local

If you are on the Google Maps this will ensure that when customers search for something relevant to your company in your town, you will show up in the list of Google Maps location which will be at the top of the Google search page. The best thing about it is that it’s free, and easy to do. All you have to do is create a Google+ business profile which will be similar to your Facebook page.

In the end, although a new business can be an expensive endeavour, a lot of these marketing ideas can be done yourself free of charge. Time will need to be invested, but this is an important part of making your business a success.