5 ways to promote your business on a budget
When launching your own business, there are so many essential key factors to consider. Things like having a website, having a social media presence and having a solid strategy that will drive traffic to your website are all key factors to consider when launching your own business.
However, promoting your business can come at a cost - it’s no secret that advertising can be a costly investment!
When I first started my business, I had basically a $0 budget. Now that I’ve been in business a few years, my budget for promoting my business is bigger, but truthfully, I still use most of the same (free and low cost) techniques that got me to where I am now!
Starting a business is risky, and I really don’t believe you should be putting yourself into debt promoting your business. Start small and work your way up from there. And thanks to the internet, there are a ton of free and low-cost ways you can promote your business these days.
So I created this post with 5 tips for promoting your business on a budget. These are all strategies I used when growing Big Cat Creative, so I know they all work!
PS: This is by no means a definitive list of free marketing techniques, there are so many different ways to promo your biz on a budget! But this is a good place to start.
1. Build a website on a budget
You might think being on a budget means that you can skip creating a website. Please don’t! Building yourself a website is one of the first and most important things that you should consider when starting your very own business.
Creating an epic biz and having nowhere to direct your audience to is one of the quickest ways to lose the interest and curiosity of potential clients and customers. Your website is like your business home. It’s where you can promote your services and get customer inquiries.
I could go on all day about why you need a website (just take a quick look at our blog and you’ll see I talk about it ALL of the time!) but you might be thinking that building a website sounds hard and expensive.
Luckily, it doesn’t have to be either of those things. I have a free training all about how to DIY your website, which breaks it down into simple, actionable steps, so if you don’t have a website yet, I highly recommend starting there!
Gone are the days of needing to invest thousands of dollars into a web developer to build you a kick-ass website. Thanks to drag and drop website platforms such as Squarespace we are now able to build our very own beautiful websites for as little as $22 USD per month.
For an entire website — aka the most important marketing tool of your business — $22 a month is totally budget-friendly!
2. Collaborate with similar businesses and cross-promote your services
This has to be one of my favourite ways to reach a new audience without breaking the bank on paid advertising. Connecting with someone similar in your industry and combining forces is a great way to help build your audience!
Have you ever been on social media and have seen two brands jump on an IGTV and answer a few Q&As from their audiences? Or maybe you’ve seen a giveaway that involves multiple businesses? These are perfect examples of finding a similar business within your niche, and combining skills and messages to create something unique and to reach a fresh audience.
When looking for people to collaborate with, try to think about businesses that have complimentary services. Eg, if you’re a website designer, maybe you could collaborate with a copywriter or brand designer.
Also think about their audience. The aim of collaboration is to promote your businesses, so you want to collaborate with a business that has the same or a similar target audience/dream client as you. Eg, if you want to target female small business owners, don’t collaborate a business that is targeting large, male owned businesses. Make sense?
Then, once you have an idea of who you wan’t to collaborate with, make sure you have a good collaboration idea. Like:
A podcast episode
A guest blog post
A joint giveaway
An IGTV episode
An instagram-story takeover
A service trade for promotion on their social media
And send them a professional email with details on the idea you have and how it can help both of you. If you approach this professionally (rather than a casual insta DM) with info that shows you have really thought about the details and how it will be beneficial for you both, you’ll be more likely to secure the collab!
3. Word of mouth marketing
Word of mouth marketing is one of the most effective ways to promote your biz — and also one of the scariest!
When you are first starting out and are relatively fresh and unknown within your industry, one of the quickest ways to build your reputation and to grow your industry contacts list is to get your butt out of those super cute pyjamas, and into your nearest co-working space! Or even just post on your Facebook status about your new venture.
I know that networking can seem super daunting - but gone are the days where networking involves putting on your ‘corporate’ clothes and standing around chatting to middle aged business-men at stuffy events. Nowadays, networking is as simple as finding a cool networking place or local cafe, and striking up conversation with the person sitting next to you! Networking at a co-working space is also a great place to meet like-minded people, as everyone in there is doing the same thing that you are!
And if you’re a homebody (like myself), even telling your friends and fam all about your biz via DM is a great way to get the word out there — no leaving the house necessary!
Word of mouth marketing can be as simple as casually dropping what you do in conversation with the person you are chatting to. Be confident and tell people what you do when they ask, even if your business isn’t fully-fledged yet. Getting into the habit and mindset of being a “business owner” is scary and challenging, but when you own it and actually start telling people all about it, you will notice how willing people are to embrace and support you (aka help you find clients + promote your biz for you!)
Truthfully, it took me a while to fully embrace this, but I decided that my business success depended on it — and I really wanted my business to work! As soon as I started openly telling people about my business, it worked! Referrals for clients started rolling in and people started to really take my business seriously.
Totally free and super effective!
4. Get involved in Facebook Groups
Okay so before you go “Ummm Erica, I thought Facebook went out the window, like, 3 years ago”, let me explain!
While Facebook itself may have turned into a predominantly ads-driven platform, Facebook groups have been growing into a hugely successful place to connect and engage with like minded individuals.
Facebook groups are (mostly) closed groups that are specific to a certain category or industry. Each group serves a different purpose, but the groups that I am in are related to web design, graphic design, business development and marketing (for example).
These groups were really helpful to me when I first started building and promoting Big Cat Creative, as I was able to connect with individuals in the same industry as me and ask all kinds of questions (I still ask a lot of questions in Facebook groups, actually!)
Facebook groups are a great way to engage with others in your industry and to connect with your ideal audience, but it is important that you do not come across as salesy and spammy. Being a part of these groups is much more about connecting with likeminded business owners and helping people. Most of the groups don’t actually allow for self-promotion, so it’s more about building genuine relationships — I guess you could say it’s another way of networking.
I don’t actively participate in these groups now that my business has grown a lot, but I definitely used to in the beginning of my business and I know it’s where a few of my first clients found me.
It’s definitely a more time consuming way of promoting your business, but I know it works well for a lot of people!
Even if you don’t have the time to actively participate in these groups, they’re totally worth joining because they are full of amazing people, and great questions + answers about business.
A few of my favourite Facebook groups to join are:
5. Start a Blog
Starting a Blog has been one of the biggest needle movers in my business.
I harp on about this a lot, and I tell every new business owner to start a blog, and almost 3 years into my business I still stand my ground on this one!
I’ve written many posts about why having a blog is so beneficial, but this one will give you all of the best reasons why having a blog is a promo-machine for you business.
It can be hard to start a blog. I remember putting it off for a while because I didn’t know what the heck to write about, and even if I had an idea, I knew someone else had already written about it, so why should I?
Well, there are a ton of reasons:
Firstly, it builds trust with your potential customers and positions you as an expert in your field.
It boosts your SEO, meaning that the more posts you write, the more likely you are to get found by potential customers on Google!
It keeps people coming back, you build a relationship with your readers and they feel loyal to you and your biz
It’s a great gateway to selling your products, without having to be too salesy..
And more!
I can truthfully tell you that having a blog has been the most beneficial marketing technique in my business. It’s a bit of work up-front, but it can pay off ten-fold!
All in all, promoting your business on a budget is 100% doable and can be very effective. Although paid advertising has its benefits, there are many perks of doing it yourself!
I built my business using free techniques like these, so I know they totally work!
My recommendation is to try them all, see what you enjoy doing and see what is working with your audience. Then, drop the things that aren’t really working and stick to the few things that are (otherwise, you’ll be just doing way too many things!).
And as your business grows, you can start out outsource these things (particularly the ones you enjoy the least) to professionals!
Loved this post? Check out more marketing tips below!
8 Tips for Social Media Marketing
Social Media Metrics: The Basics! What is the bare minimum you should be tracking and why
How & Why You Should Repurpose Your Blog Content
How to Create an Organic Pinterest Marketing Strategy for your biz
How to make your Instagram Reels go viral
Our go-to tools & techniques for scheduling content
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