4 Great Marketing Tips for Startups on a Tight Budget

In many ways, small businesses and startups are the heart and soul of our society. Ensuring that your new business hits the ground running is a real challenge. Not surprisingly, every entrepreneur who is just starting out is eager to embrace marketing tips for those on tight budgets.

But the fact is, there were 23,114 companies that went bankrupt in 2020 – which is the latest year for which data is available – and if you don’t spend wisely in the early startup stages, it could really cost you down the line and even limit business growth.

With that in mind, here are some marketing tips to keep in mind when working with a tight budget:

Understand Your Brand

Before you delve into any long-term media projects or marketing initiatives, make sure you understand what makes your brand unique. Why should potential customers choose your brand over a different competitor? Without a solid grasp of this elementary info, any marketing campaign is bound to be a flop.

You must have a solid concept regarding what your business is, what you desire to accomplish. A preliminary first steps concerning the marketing process is to first make sure you know exactly who you are. What can you offer the world in a special and unique way that no one else can? This is the ideal point in time to get some consumer or customer research in.

Strategize on Social Media

While your specific strategy should depend on the products or services your business provides, it makes sense to create a profile on the most widely used platforms, like Facebook, where people share about 730 billion photos per year. Creating a Facebook page for your business and posting regularly won’t cost you a dime, and you can start to construct the virtual building blocks necessary to foster a trusting relationship with your customers and social media following.

Combine Physical and Virtual Branding Efforts

As mentioned, developing a social media presence is important, but that doesn’t mean you should neglect the most basic physical marketing resources like signage. About 35% of customers find out about local businesses from seeing a sign while passing, so make sure your business’s sign is printed in large, easy-to-read font and can be seen from the road. Furthermore, don’t hesitate to combine physical and virtual branding efforts by communicating your business’s social media handles on traditional marketing resources, like with each receipt. These small changes can go a long way when it comes to growing your long-term customer base.

Adjust Budget Based on Market Trends

Finally, it’s important to remember that we’re constantly learning more about the way consumers prefer to consume media. And by extension, how we can more effectively and strategically communicate our business and brand building efforts. Keep up with the most current research analyses that can help you understand consumers’ needs. For example, marketers used to think that content was the main indicator of a high-quality website. But a recent study found that 96% of consumers are more likely to trust a site because of its design. With that in mind, the smart money is focusing its marketing budget in the graphic design department. Understand these evolving needs and consider incorporating them into marketing budget decisions.

When implemented strategically, these tight-budget marketing tips can serve as the necessary building blocks that help your business become the best it can be.

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