They always tell you that marketing is an ongoing process and you have to take it seriously. You must have a big budget for marketing and some solid strategy too. However, there is no way you can meet all of those requirements when you are a small business. You understand the importance of marketing but you can’t have a “big” budget for marketing when your cash flow is already suffocated. How can you market your small businesses when you are on a budget? Here are some perfect ways to do that.
10 Affordable Marketing Methods That Suit Small Businesses
1.Content Marketing Through Freelancers
You have a sea of freelancers on the internet willing to create content for you. You can ask them to create whatever type of content you want without breaking the bank. A few things you have to be careful about are proper use of English and depth of the content you get from the freelancers. Content remains the king of digital marketing but creating valuable content frequently is not that easy. You can’t assume the role of a content creator because it is a full-time job that requires a lot of time.
2.Guest Blogging
Again, you can make use of the content from freelancers or you can write your own. You can then ask other blogs to post this content and include a link to your blog or website within the content. The most important thing about guest blogging is that you have to write valuable content that’s not just informative but interesting as well. Bloggers are willing to share valuable knowledge with their readers. Low-quality content is your enemy when you are looking for some guest blogging benefits.
3.Social Media Marketing
Of course, there is no marketing method more affordable and effective than social media marketing. All you have to do is to create your business’ page on the big social networking websites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The most important thing to know here is what works for businesses on social media. You can’t go on social media with the mind of a seller. The idea is to provide people with valuable, engaging, and interesting content that will compel them to follow you on social media.
4.Blogging
You do not necessarily have to give all the valuable, interesting, and engaging write-ups to the famous blogs. If you have some readers coming to your blog every day, you can reserve a few for them as well. You can grow your blog’s readership through consistent, frequently, and high-quality content. It is best to stick to a niche, so you can attract people who will follow you. Do not limit your posts about your business, products, and services. Talk about the industry as a whole, the latest trends, and anything that you find worthwhile for readers.
5.Marketing through YouTubers
It has proven to be an amazing way for businesses to market their products to a huge target audience. What you do is you benefit from the viewers of a big YouTuber. You ask them to review your product or give you a shout out for a small exchange. The exchange can be of a sample of your product. If you pitch your business and its size in an appropriate way, the YouTuber is not going to ask much from you.
Also Read: Youtube.com/activate
6.Ask Bloggers to Review Your Products/services
This method is more like asking YouTubers to review your product or service. However, YouTubers are usually very limited with the niches and target markets they serve. On the other hand, people who blog can cover a variety of topics and subjects as well. At the same time, you have to know that not all the bloggers have YouTube channels. Blogs that are related to business and corporate culture do not do very well on YouTube on most occasions. Again, you can ask the blogger to review your products for a small sample or an affiliate link for them to share profits with you.
7.Take Advantage of Social Media Influencers
Again, this particular category might sound similar to the two mentioned above, but it is different. Social media influencers are completely different people. They might not even have any presence on YouTube. At the same time, they might not have any blog. However, these people are quite popular on social networking websites. They can have millions of followers or only a few thousand. Those with millions of followers have a big outreach. On the other hand, those with small number of followers have great penetration into their followers i.e. they get a response from most of their followers. Using micro-influencers can prove to be greatly cost-effective for your small business.
8.Buy Likes and Views
Sometimes, it all comes down to buying likes and views on your social media posts or YouTube videos. You can find several companies that provide these services. Their packages are usually quite affordable but can prove to be a great help for small businesses to get an initial marketing boost.
Also Read: How to Display the Live Twitter Feed in Events
9.Create an Intelligent Affiliate Program
This type of marketing does not work for every business. You will first have to see if affiliate marketing really suits your business type. Usually products and services that are easy to sell do well with this type of marketing. Let people market for you as you pay them a return for their efforts. Yes, you will be sharing your profits in this setup but you will also get some new customers.
10.Run Giveaway Campaigns
If you are a small business but you have some presence on the social media, you can do great with giveaway campaigns. You spend very little on these campaigns but accumulate a lot of potential leads. A giveaway involves you giving away a sample of your product or an early access to the winner. There are only a handful of winners, so you don’t have to spend a lot. However, it get people excited about your brand, products, and services if you manage the campaign properly.
Bottom Line
Marketing on the internet is not as difficult as it might seem. You already have a way to access your potential customers all around the world. Some of the methods stated above are beyond affordable i.e. completely free. The most important thing you have to keep in mind as you try any of the marketing methods above is consistency and patience. You have to be consistent with marketing while observing patience to see the results. Sometimes you have to wait for years before you get the desired response from your target audience.
