Magic-Free Ways of Marketing a Business on a Budget
How to market a project without breaking the bank
You need to promote a business so it can make money. But you’d need money to do so. Fortunately, there are low-cost ways to tell about your project. Unfortunately, there is no magic. You’ll have to get involved with things you would’ve otherwise paid for.
The gist of it is to DIY where possible, put your bets on quality, and exploit your expertise. Here are some of the things to consider.
Refine Your Website Copy
Way too many corporate websites hit potential customers with yet another top-notch solution made by enthusiastic and passionate professionals, probably depicted on the stock photos nearby. If this is the case, revising the whole thing will definitely help.
A website for your business should clearly tell visitors what you do. Whether it’s a SaaS solution or a bookshop, a nice explanation will grant you extra credibility points. For better results show a few cases where your product or service fits best.
Get a Blog
A blog can help you communicate with your audience, gain credibility, draw extra search traffic, and present the company and the team as experts. It will also cost you next to nothing, given that there are people with at least some writing skills on your team. If not, you can still outsource content or form an in-house team. Incidentally, there’s a post about the pros and cons of these options.
Use Social Media
Create corporate profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and such. These are free to use in their basic form, but you won’t need premium features to share posts and get followers.
The least time-consuming way of using social media is to share links to your new blog posts and announcements, sporadically talking to people in the comment section. The better way is to share your blog posts and talk to people, but also produce content specifically for social media: digests, polls, short posts on relevant topics, etc.
With some spare funds you can also use paid promotional features of said platforms, but make sure that the messages you promote are properly targeted.
Create Newsworthy Stories
You will probably have to pay a lot to have a boring press-release published somewhere decent. However, if there’s something cool and interesting to tell about, news outlets will be happy to write about you for free. However, the line between good and bad publicity may be vague, so think twice about the things you may read in the news.
Gain Presence in the Community
Join relevant discussion groups and forums, discuss things you know about, and don’t try to advertise your incredible products or service right in people’s faces. Being helpful, sensible, and competent in public is free and good for your brand.
Visit offline events: conferences, workshops, meetups and such. Pick those you can afford and go do some networking. You will inevitably meet useful specialists, spread the word about your project, and see what others are doing.
Share Your Expertise Vigorously
If you prove that your team are professionals, people will be more likely to choose you over competitors. Blog posts, social media, offline events, and all the other communication channels mentioned earlier are great for sharing professional expertise. Show people that you are competent in whatever you do and be the expert who answers their questions.
Cross-Promote With Other Businesses
Some things are better with friends. Marketing can be one of them. Look for friends among projects that work in similar niches, but are not your direct competitors. This will allow you to cross-promote each other’s content and messages, host live webinars and discussions, co-organize events, and do all sorts of great things for smaller individual costs.
