No budget for marketing? Or perhaps your once sizeable spending has been slashed? While it can be tough to not have any money at your business’ disposal for ad campaigns, being frugal with marketing doesn’t necessarily have to translate to being boring or having your efforts fade altogether.
There are plenty of ways for your business to stay creative and engage its audience without having to spend a dollar.
Get active on social media
This one doesn’t cost a cent! Make sure that your social platforms are up to date with relevant logos, imagery and descriptions and then create a content calendar of regularly scheduled posts. Aim to publish something to your channels at least 2-3 times a week and remember that quality always comes before quantity.
To create imagery to accompany your posts, you can use Canva for free. It’s easy to figure out and you won’t need to be a graphic design whiz to produce aesthetically pleasing pictures or graphics. You can also use features like Instagram Stories to give your followers a behind the scene look at your business.
Start a blog
If you have a business, chances are you consider yourself an expert or at least somewhat seasoned in your field. Share your knowledge with your audience by creating a blog where you can create how-to guides, answer FAQs or write about the latest news and developments at your company. The key with blogging is to remain authentic and not seem like you’re hard selling your services or products.
Run contests
This is the quickest and most effective way to engage your followers, gain new ones and increase your brand or business’ awareness. Do a giveaway on your social media platforms and encourage your audience to like, comment and share the post for a chance to win.
Acquaint yourself with e-mail marketing
E-mail campaigns are also a highly effective and yes, completely free way to connect with your customers! Make sure that your website has a call to action button on it (subscribe to our newsletter here, sign up for deals) so that you can easily collect e-mail addresses. Once you’ve built up a sizeable list, send out newsletters, promotional campaigns and more directly to your clients’ inboxes.
Don’t let a lack of budget hold back your creativity or resourcefulness! There’s plenty you can accomplish for free. Happy marketing ?