Marketing is often seen as a cost center within most businesses and there's rarely enough budget to do what you really want. Most businesses cannot relate to the marketing success of large brands, so it's time to provide some ideas for the other 99% that have to bootstrap. I've had the experience of having to market three start-ups with little to no budget. The first two were tech start-ups (itracks and zu.com) where I joined on the ground floor and rose up the ranks to lead the Sales & Marketing efforts while the third company has been my own digital marketing start-up, Deep Dish Digital.
I've found the key is to prioritize where your efforts will have the most impact and keep things simple by focussing efforts on key activities instead of throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. One of the biggest mistakes organizations make is switching tactics and trying too many things before having enough data to know whether any of them are working. Below are my top five tips for taking a focussed marketing approach when you have little or no budget:
1. Conduct Training - Pay yourself to market your company. This may not apply to every business but if you are in the knowledge or tech economy there is a good chance that the market needs education before being able to buy your product/service. Start with hosting free seminars and workshops regarding your industry and eventually grow that into paid opportunities. In our local market Deep Dish has become perceived as an "expert" on digital marketing and now get asked to put on training workshops so often that it's become a paid service the agency offers.
2. Blogging & Guest Blogging - Tap the expertise at your organization to write articles on their areas of expertise and ensure the topics you write about have longevity. In addition, use services like HARO to find out if there are other blogs or publications that could benefit from your knowledge. The great thing about blogs is that they are also good for search engine optimization if written well and targeted towards specific keywords you want to be known for.
3. Network, network, network - People do business with people they know, like and trust. The only way this is achieved is getting some face time or having some form of personal communication. Personally, I co-founded an association for the marketing industry in my local market since there was an absence of one and it's been one of the best ways to build our brand. It's been a lot of work but we've met a lot of new people and found new opportunities. You get out what you put in.
4. Have your customers come to you - Rather than spend tons of money traveling to make multiple client visits, pick your top two or three clients and invite them to your office for a retreat or multi-day stay. You'll have a captive audience and they'll get to know everybody in your company so that the relationship strengthens. This tactic can work wonders since most revenue often comes from 20% of your customers - Find those customers and impress them.
5. Quit wondering and start doing - If you don't have budget then you're going to need brawn (assuming you already have brains). I know, I know you're too busy with everything else like getting t-shirts made and arguing about the colour scheme of the logo. Sure, that stuff is *important* but that stuff doesn't bring in new customers like actually talking to some. You'll get more insight from talking to your customers for 15 minutes than attending any marketing conference. Take care of your customers and they'll take care of you.
Those are my tips but I'm sure there are many more ideas out there. If you have some economical marketing tactics that you've found work please leave a comment below. As the saying goes, a rising tide floats all boats. Thank you for reading.
