Marketing on a Shoe String… No Cash? No Worries?

Seems a bit odd for this is to be coming from a Marketing agency, as they are not really known for giving away something for nothing. But, the fact is we all have to start somewhere – and, more often than not, that means working from home (possibly under the stairs!), with no real cash and a lot of hard work. For example, Facebook was started in a college dorm with no cash to get going… now look at it.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that every start-up Business will become the next Mark Zuckerberg masterpiece, the sad fact is that a majority will disappear into obscurity. But, in saying that does not mean it will be you.

The problem that most start-up’s will face, will be getting noticed in the first place. If you are not in a position to obtain any funding, don’t have any investors, can’t get a bank loan, don’t know anyone famous or you don’t have a rich mum and dad to fund you… then why even bother starting, eh? As we all know – you’ve got to spend money to gain money right? WRONG!

Just because you (excuse the the phrase here, but couldn’t think of anything else that is fitting enough) don’t have a pot to pee in, doesn’t mean your doomed to fail. Always remember that the key to starting a great business isn’t money, it’s a great idea and the determination to make it work. This means that the money comes to you rather than you having to seek it out.

Well that’s just peachy isn’t, I guess you’re thinking that this may be possible only in the land of Narnia? The real truth is that if you have the commitment to succeed there are ways that will get you onto investors radars and under peoples noses that will only cost you time (something that itself is more valuable than money). Here are a few to get you going:

Get Social:

To gain local exposure, approach your local chamber of commerce, whilst joining one can sometimes be costly, they are a great source of information and will (quite freely) point new businesses in the right direction for free resources until membership is a financial possibility for them. Do a search for local business networks, most areas will have a few of them – some even offer free membership. These are 2 great ways of building a face to face personal network with people who to give help as much as receive it. More often than not, you will find that there will be businesses in attendance that will happily trade services with you in exchange for yours. They are also a resource centre of information and help – use them wisely and fairly and you will build up a local presence quickly.

What if you want a wider reach… Say national or international? This is where you will find one of the most powerful FREE marketing tools – Social Media. In my humble opinion, when used in the right way, having a social media presence is fast becoming (if not already) one of the most important tools you need to utilise. For growing your business reach, I advise that you quickly build your audience on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook (Google itself has admitted hinted that Google+ is phasing out, hence no listing here). Get a profile and start connecting with like minded peers and influencers. If you haven’t heard of the phrase ‘social media influencer’ – these are people often not celebrities, that have huge followings and whose posts are read by numbers often exceeding the 100,000 mark (that is a very conservative estimate).

By following and sharing their posts and articles (don’t to forget to appropriately # and @ them) you a can get some attention from their follower base. To manage your own account is simple. Post industry related posts, write articles, share articles and posts, connect with colleagues and people who share common interests and industries. Do not just use social media to spam or solely advertise your services – No-one will give you any attention and if anything it will dramatically harm your business. Also, don’t be put off if you don’t have a web presence, the best use of social media is often from the personal perspective anyway – just make sure you have your business contact details there.

There are plenty of free social media resources on the web that will help you manage your social media accounts like: Buffer, Feedly etc… These are automation and feed finder services that will help you find industry and audience relevant material and then schedule your posts for you. Please don’t solely rely on these though as your audience will want real life posts and articles that make you who you are – remember, irrespective of the platform used, your social media profile is a direct reflection of you and your business. It could be seen by millions of people over its lifespan, think about that.

Sponsorship:

This does not have to involve money. True, often some of the best forms of sponsorship can cost a hefty sum, but if you think about it and research with an open mind you will find many forms of sponsorship deals out there that can be cost effective and in some cases free. Here’s one to consider: Sponsor a competition in a local magazine/paper/business publication competition. This is a great way of getting the right sort of attention as you are creating a sense of trust within the local community by giving back. Again, this doesn’t have to monetary (however with some local paper comps having a top prize of just £150 – if your budget allows, why not?), it can often be a product or service that your business supply’s/offers. A decorator could offer a free room re-paint/paper (customer provides materials) or a web firm could offer a free website.

I accept that this will obviously cost time, but sometimes it can be easier to facilitate this as opposed to a financial outlay. Also consider that when these sorts of competitions are run, your business will feature in the promotions and there is normally a follow up piece done showing the winner with the prize. All of this is free advertising, the average advertising cost for a local paper in our immediate area is approximately £150 for half a page of A5, each publication. When you think that the competition will generally have a run of about 2-3 months before a draw, you can benefit a lot from the initial exposure which – when based on a bi-weekly publication run – would have cost you in excess of £1200 for advertising. The exposure that is possible and the awareness it can raise, in my opinion out weighs the time the prize could take to complete.

Online Directory Listings:

These can be very easily over-looked, as there are that many of them out there it feels almost impossible to decide which ones to get on. I’m not going to make suggestions as to which are best etc… As there many Industry specific ones that could benefit you more than mainstream ones. My advice would be to get as many free directory listings as you can, but ones that are beneficial and relevant to your business. The reason being is that virtually everyone with access to the internet will use it as their first port of call when looking for something. Even if you do not have a website, it is well worthwhile to have these forms of listings as you will at least have some chance of turning up in peoples search results.

If you do have a website, then they serve a duel purpose. Firstly, and as above – you will appear in peoples results and they can contact you direct from the directories if they wish. However, most (if not all) will click on the link to your site to see what you are all about. This is called a backlink and not only helps push traffic through to your site but it also increases your visibility on search engines.

These are just a few tips to help you get your business marketed when you have little or no budget. I’m in no way saying this is the be all and end all of cost effective marketing and I would love to hear if there are any other recommendations. These will just get the ball rolling and help get your business to a self sustaining level. Once you have the budget available, talk with a marketing agency (like Depixion) and consult with them about how they can aide you in pushing further forward.

Look forward to hearing your comments on this and don’t forget to share it.

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