Inexpensive marketing ideas

Sometimes, expensive marketing ideas may not work for a business, and a budget may not allow a business to take advantage of some creative marketing ideas. Resources should be used to their maximum potential with strategic planning to save money. A limited marketing budget can also be optimized to make a big impact. Given below are marketing ideas that would help a business with a restricted budget.

Partnerships

A partnership can be a mutually beneficial marketing strategy depending on the goals and the businesses involved. When a business teams up with a local business that sells a related product, it helps to drive awareness. A partner can ask another partner a favor as small as a retweet. Each party that is involved has to find out what is best for each party. They can develop a live event together where they can target the same prospects. Ideally a partner should not be a competitor and should work ideally with each competitor. During a partnership, there should be no confusion about what services or products a firm provides. For instance, a home furnishing store can partner with a paint company. Partnerships are also a great way to reach a relevant audience that may not have considered a business in the past.

Ask customers for referrals

Asking customers for referrals is an inexpensive marketing idea. A customer should also be offered incentives for sending in referrals. The incentive could be a discount or a gift card and it should be mentioned that the first person to send a referral would get a gift card. Social media recommendations also work well. Sending personalized emails that focus on the customer will also make it simple. It is better to have a formal process ready for referrals. Asking for a referral requires no spending. Asking for referrals over the phone is also a pretty straightforward way of doing so and referral programs help to increase conversion rates. Offering customers a limited-edition product is also a great idea.

Use unconventional strategies to promote your business

A business can always apply for business awards. This would help a business to receive recognition. There should be clarity about the category of award that a business applies for. For most awards, there is no cost to enter. As a result of some awards, some businesses can get networking opportunities.

Run competitions

Competitions and contests are relatively inexpensive ways to reach new customers. People love winning things and running a competition so that people can win what they really want is a great way to drive awareness. Customers can also choose a prize in the manner of ‘pick a prize’. The entrants should be excited about the prize that they are getting. If people can be encouraged to do something in return for a prize, such as subscribing to a newsletter, running a contest can be a very effective idea. One has to be careful while choosing a contest type, the audience should be considered. The contest can be a photo caption contest or a quiz.