Often, entrepreneurs and small businesses struggle to manage their finances. Considering their financial constraints, these firms usually have to work around a tight marketing budget and scarce resources. And so, they’re always searching for affordable marketing options. Yet, businesses must also ensure that their marketing is impactful while staying inexpensive. Indeed, it’s not easy for startups to thrive and compete among other brands having an unrestricted flow of funds.

What’s the solution then? Using a bunch of inexpensive yet verified marketing tactics to promote business! Below is a comprehensive guide to affordable marketing strategies that guarantee the highest business performance with the least costs:

Employ Social Media Tools

Millennials can testify to the power of social media such as Facebook and YouTube in promoting business. Let’s illustrate this using an example. Suppose there’s a city-wide power outage in your locality, but a local company, e.g., a café, still has power. They can capitalize on this opportunity by circulating an “open-for-business” message on social media and attract immediate customers within seconds.

Before you set the promotions in order, it’s good to devise a solid social media strategy. For instance, if you have good video editing and design skills, you can create short promotional clips and animations about your offerings. Use these to promote the brand across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms.

Recycle And Revamp Existing Content

Given entrepreneurs’ shoestring budget, providing a consistent flow of fresh content can be difficult. That’s where repurposing comes to the rescue! This tactic allows brands to extract maximum juice out of their already existing content. By repurposing old content, you and your team can direct your creative energies into something else instead of generating new content ideas.

Brands can take many routes to repurpose existing content and create new business assets. And they will be just as valuable for your prospective customers, if not more.

• Provide eBook guides on niche-specific topics by combining multiple blogs on related topics. Online tools and services like this flipbook creator might come in handy in this regard.
• Update website white papers and blog posts to include the most recent statistical data and research. Re-publish them to share the same content as updated pieces.
• Consider making infographics out of the data you’ve already gathered for your written content. Reformatting these numerical data and facts in a visually appealing manner can help garner more user engagement.
• Use previous content pieces and give them a fresh touch using a different medium or channel to conduct live video streams on older blog topics.

Besides refurbishing old content assets into newer ones, businesses can also recycle content. Keep reposting previous blogs and white papers while you work on fresh content.

Tap Into Business Partnerships

Partnering up with similar businesses is always a wise decision. Why? Because it leads to profitable opportunities for mutual business promotions. One way to go about it is to promote other firms using customer email lists. Plus, businesses can also offer customers coupons or discount offerings from other firms.

Indeed, no business wants to partner with a competitor, so start searching for relevant or complementary firms. Firms offering a related product are a good choice. For instance, a tech accessories business might partner with a semiconductor manufacturing company.

Immerse The Audience Using Video

Seasoned marketers have been using video as a marketing tool for a while now. Most websites, blogs, and social media platforms feature them nowadays. And video marketing is rising in popularity as video-based content effectively engages users for far longer than all other types. Still, it isn’t the most inexpensive strategy. So, what should you do? Here are some tips to help you develop compelling video content at affordable costs:

• Use Facebook and Instagram live to your advantage. Use your phone or webcam to share videos. Doing this brings instant traffic to your site as users can like, share, or subscribe to your content right away.
• Start educating through your video content. Conducting webinars will allow users to see you as the industry expert on the topic. You can promote such webinars through email lists or social media platforms. Make sure to save all your live streams and webinars so you can benefit later.

Bring In Promotions Through Blogging

The number one way to promote your business without breaking the bank is to start writing. Besides providing free advertising for your brand, blogs and articles can also foster word-of-mouth marketing. Suppose you’re a home improvement professional. In that scenario, you can write pieces on topics like landscaping and gardening. Alternatively, suppose you’re a software engineer. Then, you can write an article reviewing the different programming languages like C++.

Moreover, try being as precise and specific as possible because vague content is rarely intriguing. Always include a short bio about the author or brand to complement the article. Finally, it’s essential to publish written content on platforms or publications relevant to your target audience.

Capitalize On Customer Referrals

Another low-priced yet effective marketing tactic is to ask your existing customer for reviews and referrals. Out of all other marketing ideas, this one offers the most affordability. Almost all businesses can use it to their benefit, regardless of the specific niche or industry. Capitalize on your customer’s interest and loyalty to your brand. Set up an incentive program for the customers that refer your brand to others and provide positive reviews about your business.

Additionally, customer referrals help to drive better-quality leads to your business. Since your offerings are already interesting to these prospects to some extent, you have a better chance of conversions. Plus, if your current customers are satisfied with the value you provide, they’ve probably already advertised your offerings in their circles, such as friends and co-workers.

Don’t know how to increase customer referrals? It’s simple, set up a referral program. You can pick and choose the particulars of the program according to your business, so as long as it brings quality leads without emptying your pocket. Remember to provide something of additional value, so your audience is excited to participate.

Wrapping Up

As your business progresses further, you can find ways to expand on the ideas mentioned above. There are hundreds of inexpensive marketing ideas out there, and some of them include repurposing content, building partnerships, and blogging.

Conducting market research and brainstorming ideas for online and other forms of marketing should be the starting point of any business. With the correct information, it’ll be easier to figure out effective and less costly marketing strategies.