We were motivated to research and write about the best marketing strategies for small businesses with low to zero budgets as we got the following questions/inquiries from some of our esteem readers;
- How Can I Market My Small Business without a Budget?
- How Do I Advertise My Small Business Locally?
- How Can I Promote My Business For Free In Lagos?
- How Can I Promote My Business with No Money?
- How Can I Advertise My Small Business For Free?
- How Do I Market My Business On A Shoestring Budget?
Just like some of our readers, a lot of small business startups have a lot of work on their plate that they usually neglect to work on something very vital – publicity. Getting your business out there and in front of your customers is really critical for the overall well-being of your business brand, and revenue, so, it’s something you really want to take very seriously.
Sadly, a lot of small businesses are really tight looking at their expenses/income margin, that it may turn out too expensive if they were to pay their way to getting their business in front of their customers.
Heyyy!! I have good news, and I will be showing you great ways to generate publicity for your small business even on a zero budget a.k.a zero budget marketing.
Let’s get down to business!
1. Know your target
How do you know who you want to reach when you don’t have a target? So, I want you to take a great look at your business and ask yourself the very vital question, “who is it serving?”
Come up with an age range, sex, nationality, topic of interests, and narrow down your searches to your typical customer and you have completed the first and most important step.
2. Where would they typically be?
With the information you’ve gathered concerning your target audience, you’d want to find out where exactly you’d find people that match the criteria of your target audience, and then reach out to them telling them your business, purpose and what problem you’re solving.
3. Use social media
Social media is a great place you’d find your target customers. Don’t joke with this! Once you have identified your target, go to other pages or groups that you’d find them, and reach out.
If you never put your brand out there, it will remain where it is. Be intentional in your approaches, and try to always put your best foot forward.
4. Engage them
Now you have gotten them in, you have to actively engage the ones that you have, and that can increase your reach when your followers just start to share your content based on its value.
That’s a big reason you do not want to be unserious and unintentional about your posts, and whatever content you put out there. With each post, and each content, think like a master chess strategist. Thinking moves ahead, while thinking long-term.
5. Partner with Influencers
Influencers are just people who affect buying decisions – either paid or not but since you’re going to be working on a zero budget, a great suggestion would be to figure out a way that you’ll be able to provide value while also enjoying the benefits that they will bring in promoting your business brand.
Generating publicity for your business takes a whole lot of patience. A word of advice though, track each method you’ll want to employ when it comes to getting word out about your business, and quantify it. You want to be able to test out if a particular business promotion approach yielded significant results compared to other approaches you’d want to apply later on. That makes it easier to replicate your results time and time again, with a greater prediction of success.