20+ Essential low-cost marketing strategies for your business

Marketing is one of the most important, if not the most important, elements of a business to promote your brand effectively. Businesses often use myriad types of marketing strategies, and these can be easily cost-effective. Although low-cost marketing tactics are usually the primary choice of small businesses, startups, or local organizations, big brands also tend to go for these marketing efforts.

In this article, we have compiled over 20 low-cost marketing strategies to help you promote your business at almost no cost. We explain how each of these strategies works, along with providing some expert tips to optimize your potential in the fast-paced market.

20+ Amazing low-cost marketing strategies to use

With the popularity of digital and social media platforms, the world is now in the palm of your hand. Using online platforms proactively by following the trends and other competitors in the market can influence your marketing and also evoke new ideas to promote your own brand. Below, we have gathered 20+ low-cost marketing strategies. Let’s have a look:

1. Use online surveys

Online surveys are one of the most effective marketing tools. Online surveys are great to dip your toe in the market and reach out to potential customers. forms.app is a versatile online survey builder with countless creative options and tools to help you build the best survey for your target audience and market. With forms.app you can:

2. Post on social media

Social media posts are one of the best low-cost marketing strategies for startups. There are a number of popular social media platforms that are commonly used for business, such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and many more, where you can create video content or photo content for visual appeal. It is a favorable opportunity to extend your community, express your brand’s personality, and build trust. These tools help you with:

3. Use Google or Facebook Ads

Google Ads or Facebook Ads can be one of the low-cost digital marketing strategies that can be used when you want to expose your business. In this way, your brand can stand out and reach a much wider audience. Although, you might want to be careful with the budget you plan to spare on these ads, as they might be costly.

4. Use hashtags

When posting on social media accounts, perhaps one of the most important things to consider is to be clever with using hashtags. Hashtags improve user experience when used consistently. It is a good strategy to organize your social media content and reach a wider audience globally. When Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are popular platforms for hashtag use, people also use them on other business-related platforms, such as LinkedIn.

5. Optimise SEO elements

SEO is the best way to leverage your business online. If you have a business that operates in a particular region, you can prioritize local SEO when generating content. If your business is on Google My Business listing, make sure you have accurate details of your business title, address, phone numbers, and opening hours. Encouraging customers to leave positive reviews would also have an impact on local search rankings. To maximize their visibility and build trust, you can also embed Google reviews on website pages, making social proof easily accessible to potential customers.

6. Offer discounts or giveaways

Free or discounted items create interest in your product or service. Even though you do not get to sell anything through giveaways, it is still one of the best low-budget marketing campaigns. In this way, people get to know your business brand. If you want people to win something from you, they might also have to share your brand with others to be in a competition. Make sure to give away low-cost items in order not to lose money.

7. Form partnerships

Once you have set up your business, you can create partnerships with other businesses for a joint event. When partnering with other businesses, make sure that you have clear expectations and goals. Ensure that you can work together and have a common understanding before commencing anything in practice. This is a great way of getting to know the marketing trends and customer profiles, as well as attracting more audience to your business.

8. Create videos

Making videos is an effective marketing tactic for brand awareness without breaking the bank. Either on Instagram or YouTube, you can reach out to a new audience by introducing your products or services more entertainingly. This is also a popular marketing strategy amongst influencers and startups. You can also encourage your audience to like and share your video by motivating them with a challenge or a fun task, which would also increase attention.

9. Write a blog post

You can provide detailed information about your brand by creating content on a blog. This is an informative way of promoting your brand digitally. People reading your blog posts can gain insight into your brand and learn more about your products or services. Blogs are also easy to rank on Google, making getting people’s attention easier. Remember to follow surround sound marketing techniques to reach a wider audience!

10. Use email marketing

Email marketing is an effective, low-cost way to reach out to new customers and keep in touch with your loyal customers. It is one of the most popular ways of maintaining business and client relationships, and it is also helpful to remind people of your services. You can create email lists for your customers with their email addresses and send them encouraging offers regularly. Make sure that your email subject and content are creative enough to get their attention!

11. Host workshops and events

You can host occasional events and workshops related to your business in your local area and print out flyers to post on boards in your community libraries, cafes, or local shops. People who see these posts can also spread the word through word-of-mouth marketing, which is another effective way of getting to know a business. It is also critical to join other business events for networking purposes and to exchange business cards to meet your potential customers or partners.

12. Know your audience

To create the best marketing strategy, it is important to conduct some research about your potential or even existing customers. Understanding your customers’ motives when purchasing a product will help you know what they consider and how they make their choices when buying a product or service. For instance, if a person tends to read feedback before buying a product, you should consider having customer reviews on hand.

13. Set up a customer referral program

People love free stuff. Think about offering free products or services to your existing customers to promote your brand. Customers who already know about your business would be spreading the word to their friends and loved ones. This would increase customer satisfaction and loyalty and bring you new customers. Customers who are referred by a friend are more likely to purchase products. Remember - happy customers, happy business.

14. Host webinars

Webinars are a free way to promote your brand online. You can inform your online audience and potential customers about your business by running regular webinars on Webex, GoToMeeting, and Zoho. Webinars are also a useful way to connect with people, especially when you cannot meet your customers in person. Remember to announce your webinars on social media so people will not miss them!

15. Use pay-per-click advertising

You can run pay-per-click ads (PPC) on platforms like Google Ads or Microsoft Ads as a form of online marketing. Advertisers pay each time someone clicks on their ad through this method. Pay-per-click campaigns are great as they offer a variety of targeting options. Depending on how much you want to spend on PPC, you can target specific audience features, such as demographics, interests, habits, etc.

16. Turn your employees into your brand ambassadors

This is one of the best marketing strategies you can apply to promote your business. Use your customers as your brand advocates. If your customers like your products or services, they will likely recommend them to their friends and family, which would eventually increase your sales.

17. Use list building

Whether you are a startup company or a small business, you can build a form or a signup box on your website to collect new customer emails. This allows you to reach new customers for free. You can also ask your existing customers to leave testimonials or refer to a friend, which is another way to grow your list. Once you have collected the emails, you can start sending out newsletters and offers to let people know what’s new. 

18. Use influencers to promote your business

The Internet is full of influencers with thousands of followers. Influencers are an effective way of promoting your business as they create videos to introduce the products they use for their audience, and also have already built trust among their followers. You can collaborate or create partnerships with influencers by giving them free items to test and demonstrate to their audience, potentially increasing your sales.

19. Be creative with offline marketing

Not all the marketing ideas are made for online business. Using traditional offline marketing strategies, you can also promote your brand and reach more audiences. These can include business cards, t-shirts, banners, mugs, newspapers, magazines, billboards, flyers, radio, or even car stickers. They are still as effective as online advertising methods and even more noticeable as people can be exposed to them unintentionally. 

20. Try guerilla marketing

Regarding innovative marketing ideas, guerrilla marketing is one of the most effective, low-cost ways of promoting your business. Being creative and budget-friendly, guerilla marketing often draws attention for being quite unusual. You can use cardboard street walls or recycle any material to re-create it by adapting it to your business.

21. Use infographics

Being creative in marketing has no limits. Infographics are powerful tools to inform people about your business using visuals. Use illustrations to create your infographics on platforms such as Canva or Visme. If you can pay a little more for your budget, you can hire a designer to create the best design that suits your brand and products. If not, you can always go with the free options and get creative.

5 Expert tips

For any business, choosing the right marketing strategy can be challenging. When using the marketing strategies we highlighted above is highly effective and profitable to your business, there are some tips to keep in mind at all times to make the best of these strategies. Let’s have a look at five expert tips to boost your business:

Pro tips for low-cost marketing strategies

🎯Leverage the influence of social media: Create engaging profiles on social media using Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Pinterest to connect with your audience on a personal level.

🎯Create high-quality content: Develop valuable and informative content that is on point and relevant to your business using blog posts, articles, infographics, videos, and podcasts, considering the needs and interests of your audience.

🎯Enhance your website for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): SEO is essential for optimizing the visibility of your website. Search for the particular keywords to identify relevant search terms, and update regularly to improve your website’s content.

🎯Connect with your audience: Engage with your audience through social media platforms and build meaningful relationships to foster customer loyalty and trust. Encourage them to give feedback, respond to comments, and share their experiences with your brand. 

🎯Leverage email marketing: Build an email list by offering exclusive discounts, free items, and newsletters based on your customers’ profiles, interests, and behavior. Create personalized email campaigns that encourage your audience to take action.

Key points to take away

When it comes to business marketing, strategies you can use have no limit. There is a wide range of marketing ideas and methods, both online and offline, which you can use to elevate your business, and let people know about your brand. 

In this article, we have talked about 20+ tips to give you some ideas to use when you start a new business. Whether you are a startup or a local business owner, these effective marketing strategies will always come handy.