Our creative director spent the first part of her career working at a marketing agency and thus is aware of the multitude of ways to market a business, but being an entrepreneur she’s very cognizant of the reality that we don’t all have huge marketing budget (that is if we have one at all!) So, we decided to take the time to write this blog post for all of YOU! Do you want to elevate your branding market business budget? Are you wanting to be more effectively get your name out there? Or are you staring at your phone or your inbox waiting for leads to pour in…You don’t always have to spend a ton to reach a big audience. Here’s how you can take your branding to the next level: 15 Ways To Market Your Business On a Budget!

Here are our top 15 ways to market your business on a budget.

01 – Use Instagram + Later:

Later’s free Plan lets you plan out 30 days of Instagram posts so that your feed looks curated and carefully crafted. Posting helpful content consistently and strategically is easy, potentially free, and gets your content in your audience’s feed on the daily. Conclusion: They won’t forget you! 

02 – Collaborate with another business:

Do you have a friend or colleague you can work with that services your niche? For instance, you could collaborate on a package offering to help you both reach two audiences at the price of one. For example, maternity photographer + doula.

03 – Offer your products and services as trades to family and friends & post about it:

This is a great way to build up your portfolio. In addition, people will see you are busy and experienced. 

04 – Start an email list:

If you haven’t started an email list— RUN. Get on Mailchimp (it’s free!) to get in your audience’s inbox each week at absolutely no cost to you. This will allow you to reach your following more regularly and therefore, make sure they know about your offerings in their email. PRO TIP: Offer a helpful FREE download on your website in exchange for email addresses.

05 – Tell your friends and family:

Talk it up with everyone you know! They may have a friend or know someone that needs your product or service. 

06 – Join a Facebook group:

Get in a group that supports businesses like yours. Most of all engage! Respond to people’s questions, comment if they are posting even if it’s not related to your product or service, people will build relationships with you and remember you. You’d be surprised how many will respond just because they know there is a real human interacting with them in the group! 

07 – Start a blog with useful content:

The keyword here is USEFUL. Your audience might not care about what you did on Monday morning at your local coffee shop– unless you are a lifestyle blogger! If you’re a designer, get tips out to your potential clients, that they can ACTUALLY use. (You see what we’ve done here (wink wink)

08 – Create a listing on Craigslist:

Okay, you have to be more cautious with this one, but people still use Craigslist so give it a shot! Especially if you’re in a smaller town or serving a niche market.

09– Use your email signature to your advantage:

Serving up consistency across all of your communication is an easy way to rake in new customers or clients— it goes back to branding, know, like, and trust factor. In other words, people are more likely to purchase from you or book you if they can tell you are trustworthy from every piece of communication.

10 – Host a free class or webinar:

People love free classes and educational content. For example, dish out your expertise so people know what you’re about and entice them to come back for more.

11 – Offer free consultations:

One easy way to move clients from on-the-fence to loyal customer is by letting potential customers or clients reach out to you even in the form of a free 30-minute phone call, it gives you the chance to get in front of potential clients who you might not have otherwise had the chance of engaging with. It also builds brand loyalty knowing that you won’t be nickel and dime-ing them for everything. 

12 – Get local + give out your information:

Is your niche local? Get out to farmer’s markets, fairs, parades, message boards, or any other community event and network! Above all, get out there, chat with some people in your neighborhood and bring some business Building community, and chatting with people is the best way to get your name out there. 

13 – Create a referral program:

It’s tough enough to bring in new clients. Let your existing clients do some of the work for you. Similarly, if you offer some sort of incentive for them to bring you more customers, you BOTH benefit from a thriving relationship. 

14 – Utilize SEO:

SEO is a great free tool to help drive traffic to your website. Spend time honing in on your keywords on your site. Usually, that means writing a few blog posts that highlight your keywords, or that means using the built-in SEO tools on your website builder tool. Most importantly, do some research on how you can do this for your site, and then start plugging away! There’s a lot of great resources and tutorials out there.

15 – Have a professional and credible website:

I can’t put enough emphasis on this. People want to hire professionals. Moreover, they know, like, and trust you because your site shows off how credible and experienced you are. Need a site? We can help!

Let’s chat about your branding and market business budget, how can we support you? Let us know in the comments below!