How To Grow Your Small Business With A Lean Marketing Budget

Key Summary

• Define foundations first: Before executing any strategy, small businesses must clearly identify their target audience, establish specific marketing goals, and select the most relevant marketing channels to avoid wasting time and money.
• Leverage low-cost and free tactics: Businesses can effectively build brand awareness and attract customers on a tight budget through digital strategies (like social media, Google Business Profiles, SEO blogging, and micro-influencers) and local initiatives (like workshops, referrals, and business collaborations).
• Maximize efficiency with AI: Small businesses can use artificial intelligence as a supportive tool to brainstorm ideas, draft copy, and streamline marketing tasks, provided the output is carefully edited for accuracy and brand voice.

Every business needs marketing, no matter whether you run a small business you started with only $5k or a large company. In fact, 68% of SMBs anticipate to increase their marketing spend despite economic uncertainty, according to a Constant Contact Small Business Report. It’s essential for helping your business build awareness of your products or services and attract new customers.

But when you’re competing with businesses with much larger marketing budgets, it can be hard to cut through the noise. The good news is that you don’t need a huge budget to market your business effectively. There are low-cost marketing ideas small businesses can use to reach new customers.

How to Market a Small Business on a Limited Budget

There’s no one-size-fits-all figure for how much you should spend on marketing. It will vary from business to business. There are many free and low-cost marketing strategies to choose from, so in many cases, it will be less about the budget and more about the time and resources you have available to actually execute them.

No matter what your budget is, though, there are a couple of important things to consider before you execute:

• Your target audience: The first place you should start. Define who your ideal customers are, their demographics, and the challenges or pain points your products or services solve. Without a clear idea of who your customer is, you’ll end up shouting into the void and wasting your money trying to talk to everyone but attracting no one.
• Your business goals: Define your marketing goals. Are you looking to increase brand awareness, grow your email list, generate leads, or get more sales? Your goals will help you determine where to spend your time and budget most effectively.
• Your chosen marketing channels: Don’t just use every type of marketing channel available. Instead, focus on the channels that align with your target audience and goals. For example, a business with a largely Gen Z audience may find that TikTok content is an effective way to reach new customers.

Low-Cost Marketing Ideas For Small Businesses

The following low-cost marketing ideas are a great place to start for small businesses or those just getting off the ground. Each of them ranges from zero to only a few hundred dollars. As your business grows, you may find that it needs a larger investment. But for now, focusing on these free or low-cost digital marketing strategies and local community-based initiatives can be a highly effective way to reach new customers.

1. Build a Social Media Presence

Don’t sleep on social media marketing; QuickBooks found that 75% of business owners say social media is the most effective advertising channel. For those with a small marketing budget or limited time, the key is to be intentional about how you’re using social media. Choose one or two platforms that make the most sense for your business and audience, and then post relevant content. Aim to make the content educational, entertaining, or engaging, rather than only being promotional.

2. Run a Social Media Giveaway

Running a giveaway can increase your visibility online and encourage your followers to introduce potential new customers to your business. Just ensure you follow the giveaway rules of the social media platform you’re using, and don’t solely rely on giveaways for marketing. Doing so may come across as a gimmick and erode trust in your brand.

3. Set Up A Google Business Profile

BrightLocal found that only 35% of SMBs have Google Business Profiles. But they’re a powerful way to advertise your business, and are free to set up. A complete profile helps your business appear in Google search results when customers are searching businesses like yours. Just make sure it’s updated with your correct contact details, photos, and business hours. Encourage your customers to leave Google reviews too, as these will be displayed on your Google Business Profile.

4. Display Your Reviews

Don’t just stop at Google reviews. A survey from ConsumerAffairs found that 77% of Americans say reviews are important, and 1 in 3 won’t go through with a purchase without reading them first. This is because positive reviews build trust in your brand, which can lead to more purchases. So display customer reviews and testimonials on your website, in your social media content, and your email marketing. Don’t have many reviews yet? Remember that it’s okay to ask for them.

5. Produce Useful Blog Content

Blogging is much more than just writing words. It can be a highly effective way to market your business. According to HubSpot, blog posts are among the top five highest-ROI content formats. Writing useful, high-quality blogs centered around your industry can help you appear in Google search results and attract new customers. For example, if you sell dog gear, you could create blogs around topics like “The Sturdiest Harnesses For Large Dogs” or “How To Introduce Your Dog To A New Harness.”

Blogs will cost you next to nothing if you write them yourself. But if you don’t fancy yourself a writer, you could hire a freelancer to ghostwrite them.

Blogs also make great content to share on your social media channels and email newsletters. Think about how you could repurpose them and turn snippets from the blogs into individual posts.

6. Collaborate With Other Businesses

Another low-cost marketing idea is to partner with other businesses that share a similar target audience to you. This is an effective way to cross-pollinate your customer base and introduce your business to new, highly relevant potential customers.

For example, the dog gear business could partner with a local doggy daycare and offer each other’s customers an exclusive discount code or referral offer. You could also collaborate on a social media giveaway or a bundled package.

7. Partner With Micro-Influencers

Influencers are not out of reach for small businesses with limited marketing budgets. They just need to be “micro-influencers,” or people with a small yet niche following. They’re typically much more affordable to work with.

Reach out to micro-influencers with 1,000 to 10,000 followers and whose audience matches your own target market. If you ran the dog gear business, you might choose to reach out to a local pet creator who could showcase your products to their audience (who of course already have an interest in dogs). Depending on the creator, they may collaborate in exchange for free products or a small fee.

8. Pitch Yourself To Podcasts

If you offer professional services or are a freelancer, appearing as a guest on podcasts can be a great way to showcase your expertise, build trust, and reach new potential customers. Firstly, identify podcasts that align with your target audience. Then pitch yourself as a potential guest. For example, a mortgage broker may pitch themself to a local finance podcast to share their expertise and connect with aspiring first-home buyers.

9. Host A Free Workshop

Sometimes the best marketing strategies involve giving away valuable information for free. One way to do this is to host a free workshop in your local community. This allows you to reach new people and build trust before you ask for a purchase. For example, the mortgage broker could host a free workshop on budgeting for a first-home deposit, while a florist could host one on creating simple seasonal floral arrangements.

10. Create A Referral Program

A survey by LocaliQ found that 65% of small businesses say customer referrals are among their best sources of new customers. A referral program rewards your existing customers for recommending your business to their family and friends and can cost almost nothing to run, aside from the rewards you give away. You could reward successful referrals with a free product, an exclusive discount, or some store credit.

How AI Can Help Stretch A Small Marketing Budget Further

AI can be a helpful tool for making your budget go further and improving efficiency. Thirty-eight percent of small businesses are actively using AI across multiple business functions, including marketing and customer service, according to Verizon. You can use AI to brainstorm marketing ideas, help with copywriting, create social media content, and develop briefs for blogs.

Let’s take the free workshop as an example. You could use AI to create a plan for hosting the workshop, draft a presentation slide deck, suggest venues and leads for me to invite, and write outreach emails to the invitees.

Bear in mind that AI should be used as a tool, not a complete replacement for your marketing efforts. Anything generated by AI should always be fact-checked and edited, and aligned to your business’s brand and tone of voice. You don’t want to become generic or distribute marketing assets that have mistakes — this could impact your credibility.

Which Marketing Strategies Are Worth The Money?

Marketing strategies that will be worth your money and time if you understand your industry and what channels your potential customers actually use.

Don’t try to be everywhere at once. Choose the strategies and platforms that are most likely to reach and attract your target audience. For example, if you’re advertising elderly care services, TikTok content may not be the most effective channel; you may be better off focusing on SEO content to help your business show up in Google search results, and participating in local community events so you can get in front of potential customers and their families.

You don’t need a large marketing budget to grow your small business. Low-cost marketing strategies can help you increase visibility and attract new customers, whether online through social media and blog content or in person through workshops and collaborations with other businesses. Track which strategies deliver consistent results and grow from there.

Connect with an Old National Small Business Banker for more insights to help your business grow.

This article was written by Chelsea Tobin from Forbes and was legally licensed through the DiveMarketplace by Industry Dive. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.