5 Low Cost Marketing Ideas for Your Small Business

Have you heard the saying that marketing is expensive?
You must have also heard that Coca-Cola spends about 4 billion US Dollars annually on marketing alone. Have you thought about these and how you would market your business without breaking the bank or losing your mind?

Marketing is an essential part of every business because acquiring new customers and retaining existing customers is the lifeline of every business. Today, I will be sharing with you 5 low cost marketing ideas to gain more visibility and consequently acquire new customers and increase sales for your small business.

Let’s cut the chase and dive right in.

1. Make Your Existing Customers Happy
   It is cheaper to get an existing customer to buy more or buy a new product than to acquire a new customer. Making an existing customer happy won’t cost you a dime but can bring you new sales and new customers. No doubt, you have the best marketing team in the world when your marketers are your customers. Excellent customer service and experience is a way to make your customers happy even at zero cost.
   
2. Tell a Friend to Tell a Friend
   Referral is a no/low cost marketing tactic that can both drive awareness and conversion for your small business. Having an army of referrals can boost your sales, brand recognition and authority because people trust or easily buy from a brand that was based on recommendation rather than generalized marketing efforts.
   
3. Leverage Social Media
   I know you will be hearing this for the umpteept time, nevertheless, social media is a low cost way to drive consideration for your products or service and also build a community around your brand.
   
4. Profitable Promos
   Yeah, you read that right in case you were wondering if promos can be profitable. You are the business owner, you know the cost of your product, running a calculated promo that will still put you in profit will drive the volume of sales and consequently more profit in turn-over.
   
5. Networking
   As a business owner, you are in the business of meeting people. The more deliberate and strategic you are with networking, the easier it becomes to drive collaborations and partnerships that will help drive business growth.

No doubt, marketing can be very expensive. However, with creativity and innovative thinking, a business can achieve great results without breaking the bank deploying some no or low cost marketing strategies.