Startups are not blessed with huge budgets for their activities like established companies. With so much to do and limited funds to navigate, startups are forced to prioritize certain activities and forgo others for the time being.
In most cases, marketing is one of the activities that gets pushed to the back burner. But what most don’t realize is that it is very difficult to grow a startup without proper marketing.
With 71% of marketers saying they lack sufficient funds to execute their strategy according to Garner, these low-budget marketing ideas would be perfect for startups with limited funds.
1. Content Marketing
Content marketing is the heartbeat of your online presence. It’s also one of the best low-budget marketing ideas that delivers impressive results when applied correctly.
When you create content for your startup, you can:
- Effectively promote your products online
- Respond to customer queries
- Establish your brand as an authority in your industry
- Improve the search ranking of your website.
The current crop of customers conduct online research before making a purchase and you want them to come across your content at this time. This can be a blog post where you compare your products with the competition or an informative article that guides customers to use your products effectively.
But for your content marketing efforts to be successful, you need a way to collect user details for effective lead generation and nurturing.
2. SEO
Beyond creating informative articles, ensure your content is optimized for search engines to increase your brand visibility. Search engine optimization is a reliable strategy you can use to connect with people who are looking for your products.
Customers use search engines for product research and optimizing your content will help you improve your search ranking and drive high-quality traffic to your website.
Google currently leads the search engine market with a share of 83.49%. This makes it the right platform for your search engine optimization efforts.
Image via Statista
To succeed with SEO, follow these best practices to build a robust SEO strategy:
- Do proper keyword research: Find the keywords your target users might be searching online. There are many low-cost SEO tools you can use for this exercise such as Google Keyword Planner, Moz, and Ahrefs.
- Work on your technical SEO: Make sure your website is mobile-friendly and your web pages load quickly. In addition, use a simple website structure to make it easy for search engine bots to crawl and index your pages. You can use a Google index checker tool like IndexCheckr to check if your pages have been indexed by Google or not.
- Develop a backlink strategy: The top positions in SERPs are reserved for websites with high domain authority. Earning backlinks is an effective way to improve your domain authority and rise up the search rankings. Effective strategies for earning backlinks include guest posting, creating linkable assets like infographics, and building free tools.
3. Social Media Marketing
Social media is a powerful platform for growing your brand. It’s also very cheap since it costs nothing to post on social media, making it perfect for startups with small marketing budgets.
Social media platforms also possess robust targeting capabilities and can help with automatic lead generation via platforms like LinkedIn when supported with bots. And for a small fee, you can use them to reach your target audience effectively with targeted ads. You can even partner with companies like Social Cat who offer influencer marketing for better reach.
The image below shows a sponsored post on Instagram by Google Ads targeted at small business owners looking to connect with their target customers.
Image via Instagram
The key to building a successful social media strategy, whether you’re publishing organic posts or running paid ads, is to use visuals. Captivating visuals like images, videos, and infographics grab user attention and convey your message more effectively.
That said, your visuals should not be too heavy as this could mean your social media content takes longer to load. That’s why it’s advisable to use an image resizer to optimize your images and ensure faster loading times.
4. Referral Marketing
Another low-budget marketing idea worth considering is referral marketing. With referral marketing, you get to incentivize customers to promote your products to their friends and family. You can even hire a personal assistant to help you manage leads that come through referral marketing.
The good thing about this strategy is that you only give the incentive for a successful referral. The incentive in this case can be discounts on future purchases, exclusive offers, and store credit, creating a win-win situation for all parties involved.
To run an effective referral marketing program, consider using any of the tools in the best referral programs curated list by Attrock. Carefully examine your needs and choose a platform that best aligns with your business goals.
Conclusion
These low-budget marketing ideas can help you generate visibility for your brand and get customers interested in your products. Most of these strategies are free or cost very little, making them ideal for startups with limited financial resources.
Find the strategies that suit your brand and work on them consistently till you achieve your desired goals.
