8 Crazy and Low Cost Marketing Ideas for Small Business

Marketing your products does not always have to be a huge costly affair. Of course, we are denying the fact that aggressive marketing on different advertising channels yield better outcome but aggressive marketing should not always be equated with spending money lavishly.

For big corporate giants investing heavily on different marketing may or may not be a ‘big’ issue but for small business organizations, it is a stumbling block that they cannot overcome no matter how hard they may try. Most small business organizations irrespective of their geographical locations suffer from extreme lack of funding that thwart all their chances of making it big.

shop owner
photo credit: Frank Kovalchek

But there are some innovative marketers who have come up with some unusual, crazy and ‘out-of-the-box’ marketing concepts that small business owners can give a try without burning a hole in their pocket. Wanna take a look? Here they go:

1. Networking

There is no alternative of getting business from networking. In fact, in most cases, majority of small business owners drive new customers by harnessing the power of networking. And the good thing about networking is that, it is not that costly. Just push yourself out of your comfort zone, meet new people, attend a seminar, shake some hands and drink some wine and you will just fine. Word of caution: networking is a slow business and that being said, you should not expect that leads will start pouring in from all direction as soon as you start meeting new people. Nope, this is not the case at all. Slow and steady is the way to go.

2. Referrals

Hopefully, you have already served some people and they are happy with the quality of service that you have offered to them. In that case, you are in luck. It is never too late to ask for referral. There is no shame in asking for referral but in fact, researches show that people are not generally adverse to the idea of referring their friends or relatives if they are really pleased with the quality service. So, if you do not wish to miss out on opportunities, do ask them.

3. Establish relationship

You are certainly not making any progress if you are consistently losing customers. In fact, the secret of success lies in retaining existing customers and getting new customers on board. So, rather than treating customers as a source of income, you should try to establish a strong relationship with them. You can send occasional emails, get them involved in social media circles and do other cool things that please them.

4. Offer Some Coupon

Offering discount coupons is a great to get new customers. This method, time and again, has proved to be extremely successful in encouraging people to try new products or service. Moreover, coupon seems to be extremely effective in case you want to generate return visitors. It has been observed that customers are mostly to make a return purchase if they receive a discount coupon.

keynote speaker
photo credit: Official GDC

5. Be a Keynote Speaker

As I have said earlier, to get new clients, you need to get out of your closet. You need to join some communities and be active. It would be great if you can give one or two keynote speech as this will increase awareness about your company and service. People will feel more inclined to know about your company and service only if you can show your authority on the subject that you spoke. So, do research on the subject before you decide to deliver a keynote on that.

6. Affiliate Marketing

You can increase profit from your business greatly by hiring affiliate marketer. Affiliate marketers are those people who will drive sales to your business and in return, they will get a percentage of profit from that sale. This is a fair deal. You would not have to hire these people. They will work independently and you will pay them for their hard work. This is a win-win situation for both.

7. Do SEO

I am not asking you to do the usual mumbo-jumbo thing here. Real SEO is very cost effective and is not complicated at all. All you have to do is to invest some money on making your website Search Engine friendly and publishing great content that will encourage people to build links to those posts naturally. Maybe, if you have some extra budget, you can invest some in Adwords.

8. Try Grassroots Marketing

It is always good idea to distribute flyers or spending a little bit on billboard. Maybe you can invest some on local yellow pages. These are some traditional marketing channels that are highly effective. All you have to do is to explore them and hopefully you will be just fine.

About the Author: Michael Evans is a blogger and he is currently associated with a leading copy writing company – GetACopywriter.com.