How to market your business without a budget

As a small business owner, brand awareness is extremely important. You want your brand to be seen and heard by your target audience. However, it can be tricky to get your name out there—especially on a small business marketing budget. Luckily, there are dozens of marketing tools and strategies available that won’t break the bank. 

Take advantage of word of mouth 

Word-of-mouth is one of the most powerful and effective marketing tools. According to Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising report, 92 percent of consumers say they trust recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising. That’s because consumers love personal testimonials—they enjoy hearing first-hand accounts of how a product or service positively affected the life of someone they know. The best part? Personal referrals don’t cost anything. 

Choose printed products with the most value 

When it comes to printed marketing materials, not all collateral should be treated equally. There are some tools that are more effective than others. For instance, business cards are extremely successful. If used in the traditional sense, they contain all of your business’s primary information, such as your name, address, logo and website. Not only are they inexpensive to print in bulk, but they are small and easy to hand out. Business cards can also be used in more non-traditional ways, such as loyalty cards, appointment cards or coupons. 

Another valuable printed product: Postcards. Like business cards, postcards are inexpensive to print and easy to pass out or leave at local shops. Additionally, postcards can be used for direct mail marketing, which still has one of the best response rates out of the current marketing channels available today and is extremely cost effective. 

Mix digital and physical marketing 

One of the best ways to ensure you get the most for your budget is to combine digital and physical marketing tools to create an omni-channel marketing strategy. When it comes to brand awareness, social networking sites are incredibly valuable. They are free to use, easy to track and have a huge amount of users daily. Regardless of what physical marketing material you create, make sure your brand has a strong social media presence on the same channels are your competitors. 

If your business is using direct mail marketing, you should also take advantage of IP targeting. This allows you to serve dynamic display or video banner ads to IP addresses based on your customer databases or subscription lists. When using this in conjunction with direct mail marketing, your customers will be exposed to the same brand message across multiple channels—strengthening your overall marketing plan. 

Want more marketing tools for small businesses? Early Express offers online and offline marketing solutions to compound campaign effectiveness and ensure better results for your business.