If you are just starting out or find you are low on funds, you may need to find ways to market your business on a tight budget. Just because it’s inexpensive doesn’t mean it’s not effective.
Use the Good Old business card
You can get inexpensive business cards printed online. When you go to any event, be sure to leave your business card. When you have a reason to give your phone number to anyone, give them your business card. You never know when someone will need the services you offer, or when your friends and family will meet someone who needs your services.
Build a website with a blog
It is very important to watch your budget, but don’t be stingy. Using self-hosted WordPress makes having a professional looking blog website really easy. If you are technologically deficient and can’t afford to hire someone, consider using a website builder that offers a blog feature. The next step is to write keyword-rich, informative blog posts that you promote through social media.
Use social media to promote your business
Set up branded social media accounts for your business. But it is not necessary that it be on all social networks. Instead, use the knowledge you have about your audience to choose which social media to be present on. Create good profiles that represent your brand in a cohesive way.
Find a joint venture partner for a project
A joint venture is not a real business partnership. It is a union of forces or collaboration between complementary entrepreneurs who share an audience but are not in direct competition. Finding a project to work on like this can essentially help them double their audience.
Write an e-book
If you are an expert on something, you can write an e-book on the subject. You can easily publish it on Kindle or promote it as a PDF document directly from your website. You can sell it or give it away for free. It’s up to you. However, a book can propel you into the eyes of your audience as a true expert and become a business card.
Get on the speaking circuit
Using your book as a foundation, spread the word that you are ready to speak locally and for the cost of a ticket, room and board, go to other conference events. Sometimes you can even get paid to speak once you are established and in demand. Therefore, talking can not only become a good marketing opportunity, but it can also become a new source of income.
Incentivize referrals
A really great way to increase your customer base is to convince your customers to recommend you to others. Most of the time, satisfied customers will tell others about you, but in some cases they may not because they want to keep it to themselves. This is especially true with service-based businesses. So a great way to overcome this problem is to give your customers a reason to tell others about yourself, such as a discount coupon or extra gifts for every paying customer they send you.
If you sell products, consider starting an affiliate program as a way to get more people to tell others about your products and make more sales without costing you more than a percentage of the sales.
