4 Exclusive Low Budget Marketing Strategies For Startups

Are you wondering how to market your startup without spending heaps of money?

If so, we are here to assure you that marketing strategies don’t necessarily have to be expensive and that, there’s a way for you to adopt low-budget marketing strategies for startups.

However, before figuring out your marketing strategies it is important to prepare a marketing budget for better results and efficient use of resources. An example of the same is presented below:

The above are just archetypes of budgets prepared for marketing strategies by small businesses. They don’t necessarily have to be the same for every other business or startup.

Here are 5 inexpensive marketing strategies for startups to help you gain clarity:

Social Media

We get to live in a time that we get to use social media as a tool.

–Gigi Hadid

Social Media is one of the most cost-effective ways of marketing. We are living in a time when irrespective of someone’s economic or social status, they own a smartphone, have access to the internet, and thus social media. If an active and engaging social media page is created, it brings a lot of audiences to the table.

Although there are a plethora of social media platforms, it is important to calculate which platform will give you the best market and a larger, more suitable audience. Depending on your target audience or market, the choice of the app in which you will invest the most differs. In general, though, Facebook is used the highest, followed by YouTube.

With using Social Media as a marketing strategy, there also come certain conditions. You cannot expect your social media to grow if you do not cater to a particular target audience in the initial stage of your startup. There also has to be quality in your content. Quality over quantity always and therefore, the quality of what you post will always matter more than the quantity of the same. Sometimes, you may have to take the help of paid promotions to help your page grow. The payment is small but the views are huge.

Create A Website

Having a company website will help your business build a strong reputation because it indicates a sense of professionalism. It will give your company an edge over other startups that are merely social media handles.

Moreover, if your company doesn’t have a website, it is missing out on leads, sales, and other valuable benefits. Many startup owners are maybe apprehensive about starting a website thinking that it may require active content from time to time. Although having a website with interesting and active content helps, for starters, any presence on the web is better than no presence at all. However, make sure that your website looks appealing and trustworthy.

Well planned websites can:

• Enhance SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Establish Company Authority
• Bring Traffic to Your Website
• Generate revenue from monetization of the website

Also read: 10 Key Steps To Building A Great Small Business Website

Hire Interns

With immense competition all over the world among everyone to build a successful career, there are many platforms like LinkedIn, Internshala, and Glassdoor that provide internships to students to help them boost their resumes. Be a part of these platforms and bring interns to your door. It is one of the cheapest ways of marketing as most interns work for free because a recommendation letter, relevant experience, and a certificate are enough to enhance their CV. For the ones who do pay work, the money taken is quite less too. Interns are one of the best examples of low-cost labor.

But, with that being said, a question arises.

What kind of interns shall I hire?

For marketing, you should look for people who specialize in social media marketing or management or has relevant SEO skills, or someone who does content management or writing. You can also hire Campus Ambassador interns to endorse the company on their social media handles and spread your company’s name among their network of people.

Related post: What does a campus ambassador do?

Email Marketing

As you read ‘Email Marketing’, you probably thought what an outdated way for marketing.

But hey, email marketing is traditional rather than outdated.

One of the most inexpensive ways of marketing, email marketing is when you send an email message to the ‘email subscribers’ — contacts who have registered with your email and have given permission to receive email communications from you.

Benefits:

• Unchallenging to get started– It doesn’t essentially require a large team or reams of technical nous in order to be successful. It’s certainly possible to embellish an email campaign with fancy templates, videos, images and logos.
• Easy to scrutinize– Most email marketing software will permit you to track open, click-through and conversion rates, making it easier to spot how a campaign can be improved. 
• High returns on investment– According to DMA Marketer Email Tracker, the return on investment for email is £35 for each £1 spent.

Related posts: What is DMA in marketing?

The above were examples of a few of the most exclusive low-budget marketing strategies for startups. Hope this article brought you some transparency.

Also read: 5 Best Project Management Tools For Entrepreneurs

6 Absolutely Vital Roles In A Startup (And Their Importance)