Going Creative With Your Business –Tips for a Tiny Marketing Budget
When your relatively small business is just starting out, you are strapped for cash, and just about anything you need to do to grow your business requires a lot of money, right?
Well, a little bit of ‘Yes,’ and a whole lot of ‘No’. Almost all growth channels can be heavily invested in, but you can get the most out of them while spending only a fraction of that high-budget advertising and marketing campaign you have in mind. Marketing is not just the problem of the big business, but something almost any business or brand has to deal with.
Marketing Needs Creativity Over Capital
Yes, marketing can be expensive, but it does not always have to be, especially when marketing can benefit so much from creativity instead. Here, some of the marketing experts at LogoCorps pool their knowledge to tell you about a few creative ways in which you can market your business on a tiny marketing budget.
Interact on Social Media and Other Online Platforms
The world has moved towards online interactivity above all else, and being active on social media, blog posts, and forums is the way to go. Not only do you show that you are part of the community, but you create a way for potential and existing consumers to interact, and others can look at it and even choose to conduct business with you based on that. It can create some excellent marketing, especially if you are only blogs relevant to your business.
For example, if you have a tech-focused business, being active on TechCrunch is viable for your business to gain some free marketing simply by being active on the internet and interacting with users.
Be Insightful and Helpful with Your Interactivity
Another key method to have some great shadow marketing is to make sure that your interactivity is not just for interactivity’s sake. Spamming your users with links or constantly giving calls to action is not a good thing. Instead, create organic interactivity by simply being helpful, and engaging with your audience in a relevant manner rather than being promotional.
That means your business should exist without you ever having to explicitly mention it. You are creating interactivity, not promoting your brand. A large part of marketing is to never make the product or service a central part of the ad, but rather, a background focus.
The Obvious, Expected Choice is Not Always the Best
Yes, having everything where it is supposed to be is good and all, but it never creates that feeling of intrigue or impulse that something creates where it is somewhere it was not supposed to be. That does not mean putting something in the wrong section, but rather, finding an offbeat sales channel to sell your product or service.
At the end, you want to truly stand out from your competitors, so why not take it a little bit literally? You want to sell biscuits? Sure, you can be right next to all the other biscuits, or you could place yourself right next to the milk cartons and the chocolate syrup trays. Go with what works for you and your business, even if it means breaking convention.
Compete with Nobody Else Is Conducting Business
Another tip for how to market on a budget, It essentially helps you get in touch with a market that other competitors might not even be considering. Think like a customer, not like a business. You *should* have your products neatly put in next to all the other products of your kind, but why not put them right next to the counter, where your product will be seen by every single person entering the store?
Of course, the placement is not arbitrary. You cannot put your grocery product right next to the medicine cabinet unless the two items are relevant. Your product needs to be relevant to be successfully placed, too.
Network Your Way Towards Awareness
You might only have a small marketing budget, but that does not mean you cannot make some connections or even promote your business by putting yourself out there, quite literally so. Going on this personal, face-to-face endeavor creates a sense of authenticity that other online-only brands might not have. You are willing to go the extra mile and put in that extra effort. People might see that as a good thing. You can even get some sign ups on the spot!
Events are a Great Way to Network
The great thing about networking events is that they are free. At times, you will only need to spend the gas money or the amount you need to Uber there. At times, a mere $30-$50 spent can recoup that cost and net well over a few thousands beyond. The events also are a great way to show your business off to some entrepreneurs and people that might be looking to attach themselves to a growing business with a small budget.
At events, you can even get a table or a booth for your business, and allow people to engage with your business where you can have everything your business needs to be promoted. Unlike online interactions, here, you can openly promote and sell, because that is what this event is for!
Go Mobile with that Billboard
Yes, online advertising and more online advertising, it has been iterated and reiterated enough. Your physical, offline advertising matters as well. However, as a small business with a small marketing budget, you cannot exactly afford a large billboard, especially one that will just stay in one place.
That is where you can get a simple, yet effective way of marketing your business if you or even a family member or friend owns a car. Simply put that marketing advert on your car.
Go Full-Throttle with that Mobile Advertising
In understanding how to market on a budget, you can also go one step further and completely swag-out your vehicle as a marketing or branding vehicle. This can be especially great if you have a company vehicle already. That way, it won’t merely be a car that shows a logo and maybe a number and website to call or visit. Instead, it can be like a true, mobile billboard for your business, and without any of the cost.
Discounts Can Be A Great Way To Get Customers
Discounts almost always sound like the exact opposite of a good way to conduct business. However, there is a creative twist. Yes, you are using discounts to get customers, but you are not attracting customers per se. Instead, you are attracting partners and volunteers that can serve as channels for consumers to get discounts.
Do business with us? Get a discount coupon over there! It can be a great way for businesses to work together as a community and invite new customers into the fold. It is a mutually beneficial partnership as both businesses can do the same for each other, all while benefiting the customer with a nice discount as well!
Use Online Tools to Create Content that Converts
A brilliant budget marketing tip is to first understand that your customers do not have to be only customers. They can also be another channel for you and your business to gain more customers as well. You can do that by first using the power of the internet to use as many free tools as you can at your disposal.
There are tools that even enable growing businesses to get a head start at online business by creating social media posts for them. You can also use some easy to learn free tools, such as WordPress and Canva, to create social media posts and start creating your online presence.
However, the key here is to create content that inspires your consumers to act as a channel to bring more. That means that the content and your business have to be front and center of those posts, ensuring that anyone who shares that post sends out a call to action to anyone it is shared to, creating free guerrilla marketing for your business.
Your Marketing Strategy Can Be to Just Be Everywhere
One last budget marketing tip is to gather a punch of paints, an empty canvas, and just plaster whatever color you wish wherever you wish. You can still create something intriguing and exciting from that.
That is the general idea behind this type of marketing. Armed with maybe a few business cards, pen and paper, some tape, and just about anything you might need to write your business details anywhere, go out and about and plaster your name, URL, or website anywhere you can. Of course, make sure you aren’t vandalizing anything.
There was even a marketing strategy done by Cheek’d CEO Lori Cheek who chalked the website URL on sidewalks, creating a sort of shadow marketing that ended up not only benefiting the business, but the stunt also made her and her business famous on social media and on the New York Times.
Conclusion
When it comes to creative marketing, there is really no limit. However, if you do have that budget limit that most marketers will dread, you will be able to truly unleash your creative spirit and come across some ideas that may sound a bit far fetched, but have proven to work wonders.
Here, you have found just a few creative tips and ideas on how to market with a tiny marketing budget, and how you can benefit from it greatly.
