Marketing involves branding products or services, promotions, pricing, trends, advertising research, and social media to promote a business. These marketing strategies are low-cost ideas for a small or medium-scale business. The ideas are also easy to implement for almost instant results.
Knowing that not all businesses can afford huge budgets, every business can use these 30 marketing ideas. Similarly, businesses must define the scope and strategy that yields the best results for their sizes.
In this article, you will discover low-budget marketing ideas to grow your small business. Whether you’re launching a new business or improving an existing one, these low-cost ideas can be helpful.
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Top Marketing Strategies for a Small Business
What is the easiest point for small business marketing? A simple answer is social media marketing because it requires little to no capital. Current data shows that over 73% of consumers are likelier to buy from a trusted brand via social media.
As a result, the following low-capital ideas can help grow a small business venture.
1. Make an organized plan
Before you start anything else, make an organized marketing plan for your business. The first step is clearly defining what you want to achieve for your business. Next is to break this overall plan down into action points.
You will know you are ready when you have an ‘elevator plan.’ An elevator plan refers to what you can tell people you meet in an elevator about your business in 30 seconds. Rehearse this plan severally and make any necessary adjustments.
2. Conduct market research
Proven market research should even precede drafting a marketing plan. Otherwise, your projections may be inaccurate. Therefore, conduct thorough market research to gather helpful information in your business niche.
You need information about the customer’s mindset, behaviors, location, demography, and other related stats.
Market research also projects your expected profit more accurately through the existing trends. As a result, you can pay close attention to what your competitors are doing right or wrong.
3. Have a Buyer persona
Non-targeted marketing can be time-consuming and costly. Don’t fall into that trap of wanting everyone to buy what you sell. Instead, have a buyer persona that specifies who you expect to buy your product or service. A buyer persona is a semi-fictional character of a typical buyer of your product or service.
They must equally be able and willing to pay. The buyer persona shows the characteristics of your typical target audience, such as
- Demography includes gender, age, income, education level, and occupation.
- Lifestyle involves personal values, religion, social class, and personality.
- The behavior concerns attitude, spent time, readiness to buy, loyalty, and usage rates.
4. Develop a Product Brand
A brand perspective is what customers think when they become aware of your business. Branding is beyond a logo, a tagline, and a business name. Also, a business brand connects with the emotions of your potential buyer. Moreover, it involves what you do and how well you can deliver your claims.
Developing a brand is a vital business strategy you must have and nurture. When a business creates a strong brand, other things will follow suit.
5. Have a Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
One way to build a profitable new business is to have a unique selling proposition (USP). A USP refers to what your business offers that is different from others. In other words, why should people choose your product over others?
USPs don’t always have to be entirely new; it could be a better or more efficient way to deliver a service. For instance, you can provide a flexible payment plan if you run a logistics or delivery firm.
6. Set clear goals for your marketing strategies
Setting your business goals is one of the vital business strategies for a small business. Setting clear goals can help everyone with a single vision of what to achieve. The marketing strategies for a small business are not complete until the set goals are SMART. Don’t just set goals, set SMART goals:
- S – Specific
- M – Measurable
- A – Attainable
- R – Relevant
- T – Time-based
7. Create a budget
Without a budget, startups waste a lot of resources with off-target results, if at all. Experts have a general rule not to exceed 5% of your expected returns on marketing. However, a new business may need some extra funds.
Your budget for marketing strategies must have specific components such as:
- Branding and design
- Web development and social media management
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM), including Search engine optimization (SEO) strategies
- Print media, including business cards, flyers, and brochures
- Other advert media
- Donation and sponsorships
- Staff recruitment and remuneration
8. Update your marketing strategy
Your marketing strategies should not be rigid. As you experience some changes, you should also learn to adapt. Simple steps include updating your website and blog, social media posting, online ads, and networking events.
You may want to try a mix of both digital and traditional marketing methods, such as referrals (word of mouth) and cold calling. Depending on your buyer persona, tailor your business marketing strategies to the needs of your target audience.
9. Make an excellent first impression
It would be best if you made a solid first impression when they contacted your business. For instance, you may create an opening day sale, special offers, or sales promos.
If it takes hiring extra hands to make a memorable event, please do. A high-quality product or service can help retain customers and encourage referrals.
10. Seek customer satisfaction
As an entrepreneur, your goal is to satisfy your client or customer. Customer satisfaction is central to all your business activities. Large companies can take certain risks, but a small business cannot afford it.
What does your audience want, or what motivates their decision to buy? What gives them a feeling of satisfaction? Strive to fulfill these needs, and you have a sustainable business.
11. Focus on specific objectives
There are many ways to do a single thing in business marketing. Therefore, small businesses without specific objectives may be lost in the vast marketing world.
Select those that align with your core business objectives instead of executing all your marketing strategies simultaneously. Therefore, strategic marketing is a productive way to achieve your core goals.
Similarly, a single well-targeted strategy yields more than many little efforts. Focus on one key area at a time, with all your tactics and resources towards that goal.
12. Promote your values
You should promote and preserve your business values. As you front your weight to convince your customers, ensure you meet and sustain their needs.
Note also that you must communicate to convince potential customers to choose you over competitors.
13. Trigger customer’s emotion
Research shows that buying is an emotional act. Therefore, people often buy because of how they feel. As a result, whoever controls (or manipulates) how buyers feel can convert them into paying customers.
If you fail to connect with your buyer’s emotions, you may likely not sell. The significant advantage that large companies have is earning customers’ trust through brand identity.
However, brand marketing ideas may take time for a small-scale business to build and sustain. Till then, continue to follow customers’ behavior and meet their needs.
14. Pursue short-term goals
Feel free to dream big and set goals, but pursue them in bits. Therefore, investing in short-term goals is an excellent way to see results sooner.
Achieving short-term goals gives you the momentum to pursue the big ones. Besides, little profit from short-term goals is critical to sponsoring larger plans. Similarly, long-term goals run on models from more minor achievements.
15. Build sustainable marketing models
As we implement marketing ideas, we must set self-sustaining models. Marketing models last longer over time and create a pathway that can be followed to get the expected results. How? Identify the path to success and build a system around it.
At times, you may test the variables and tweak the conditions. Ultimately, you can rank the factors that affect your results and discard others. However, remember to record the journey as you progress.
For instance, running an SEO campaign may not bring instant results. But when it eventually does, it is worth all the input.
16. Double efforts on what works
As you operate your business, pay attention to the data, including your customers’ responses. Over time, you will identify what works and why it works. When you do, intensify your efforts on all of them. As you grow your business, you may sustain and build these factors into working models.
17. Execute marketing strategies for your small business online
Online platforms provide an easy platform for starting and growing a business. Statistics showed that up to 97% of sampled users find local businesses online rather than elsewhere.
Today, you can conveniently run a profitable business without owning a physical store. An online business gives access to a vast world of a ready audience.
Finding specific people interested in what you offer is the best. In other words, make your business available online and engage them to build integrity and loyalty.
18. List your business on Google
I decided to start a new website a few months ago and thought I figured out everything. Except that someone already used the domain name I had for the site. What! I thought it was unique!
That’s why you need to list your business brand identity online. And Google makes that relatively easy. Create a Google My Business Page, create a profile for your business, and verify it with Gmail. This Google listing also allows searchers within your locality to find your business.
19. Optimize your social media
An optimized social media presence is crucial to a successful online business. For example, those who need your product and services are already on Facebook and Instagram. You only need to connect with them.
Social media platforms contribute significantly to your entrepreneurial success. Other social network platforms include LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and Pinterest, which can all serve great purposes.
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20. You need a business website
Part of your business’s online presence is owning a business website. Even when potential customers find your business physically, they still search for your name on Google.
Owning a website builds trust and credibility with potential customers. But not any website, but a website optimized for SEO and mobile use. Data showed that over 60% of searches use mobile devices.
The goal is to rank your site at the top of search results pages on search engines.
21. Add Blogging
In addition to a good business website, add a blog to generate organic traffic from readers. A blog provides ready answers to searchers on Google and other search engines.
Blogging as a marketing strategy enhances a small business as an authority in your niche. Adding a blog brings in other features that can increase your visibility and foster customer interaction.
For instance, you can collect leads through email subscriptions to your blog. However, don’t forget to add a call-to-action to all blog posts to lead readers to your products/services.
22. Use Google Adwords
You may never know what you’re missing unless you try some Google features. Google Adwords helps you target the keywords your potential customers search for online.
You can then tailor your ads towards these keywords already generating traffic. Simultaneously, focusing more on a few critical keywords is easier than biting too many.
Also, Google Adwords allows you to budget your bid on a keyword through a pay-per-click feature of Search Engine Marketing (SEM).
23. Target Local audience
Local awareness can be a critical factor in successful marketing strategies for a small business outfit. In other words, your immediate environment is the first place to create an identity for your brand product or service.
This use is proportional to what the Google My Business page does for you. First, it helps searchers within your locality find your business and check you out.
Starting with your immediate locality, you can spread out to reach your widest audience. Get your name out quickly by meeting the needs of those nearest to you.
24. Grow your network
Sometimes, the magic you need to start a thing is available through your closest friends and associates. I once watched Jack Ma narrate how Ali Baba built trust and credibility.
Many early staff members were selling and buying their things online to keep things going. So, who says you can’t ask your friends and families to try out your product or service for free?
From there, let them give feedback, reviews, and volunteer for your campaigns and advertisement programs. Join local networks, groups, and associations and donate needed items to the community.
25. Advertise your business
One unavoidable strategy for all businesses is advertising. Don’t let anyone deceive you otherwise. Don’t you wonder why large, well-known brands still run ads?
Why should anyone choose you above others if you don’t stand out in front of them? As you understudy your business strategies, you must advertise, too.
In marketing strategies for a small business, there is always room for a small business to thrive. So, if a business starts today with a unique idea and targets the right audience, it will succeed.
26. Use free promotional tools
Take advantage of free online promotional tools to give your business a headstart in marketing. With the widespread use of AI, you can achieve faster results with free AI tools.
While some tools require subscriptions, you can use some features for free. On the other hand, you can learn about social media tools for a small business.
27. Giveaways, promos, coupons, free products, and services
You wonder why many FMCG companies do giveaways. This strategy can work for small businesses as well. Gifts, promos, discounts, and coupons excite customers. It allows a business to reach a new audience and spread into new environments.
As expected, a happy customer will likely return and recommend someone. Besides, the news of free products travels faster and attracts new potential leads.
28. Leverage on existing customers
According to Forbes, getting new customers costs about five times more than maintaining an existing one. That means you should spend more energy on existing customers than getting new ones.
Your marketing strategies should increase sales, cross-selling, and upselling for your small business.
Your previous good results with customers create a ripple effect for your business brand. As long as these loyal customers get what they want, they remain happy, and so will you.
29. Reward loyal customers
Converting leads to paying customers and earning their trust are crucial to business success. Therefore, when you identify loyal customers, nurture them to maximum satisfaction.
Any marketing strategy that ignores a good customer service relationship is not sustainable.
Seven (7) strategies to keep loyal customers happy
- Regular communication
- Listen to your customers’ interests through feedback.
- Keep your promises during delivery.
- If possible, exceed initial expectations.
- Follow up on every successful and unsuccessful sale.
- Update your staff skills through customer service training and sales strategies.
- Resolve every complaint as soon as possible.
30. Monitor and Review your progress
After implementing all the essential marketing plans, it is vital to monitor them. Review your marketing strategies at the end of each cycle to see the effects on your business.
Furthermore, check its place in your overall goals and what you can improve. This monitoring must be regular, such as monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly, with detailed reports.
Also, free analytic tools can help with regular monitoring and analysis and produce reports. You can also connect these tools with your website and social media.
Conclusion on Marketing Strategies for a Small Business
Finally, all your business marketing strategies must lead to achieving your business goals.
At the end of the marketing strategy planning, your small business should boast remarkable results.
Which of the marketing strategies above is entirely new? Would you need more help? Ask in the comments section below.
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