Frighteningly Affordable Marketing Ideas For Small Businesses

For small or newly launched eCommerce businesses, budgets are often limited. Even well-established companies are constantly searching for ways to cut costs while continuing to promote their products, attract new customers, and maintain profitability. Marketing plays a vital role in every company’s success, but it’s easy to get swept up in spending on targeted ads and various paid programs to boost brand growth. While those strategies can be valuable, there are also effective ways to market your brand with little to no cost!

Utilize User Generated Content:

User-generated content (UGC) is one of the most powerful and cost-effective ways to create content for your brand. Best of all, it can come to you completely free. Depending on your products or services, there are many ways to encourage customers to contribute. Invite users to tag your brand in photos featuring your products, and share your favorite submissions. This not only gives you a steady stream of authentic, engaging content but also makes customers feel appreciated and excited to be featured.

Re-posting user photos helps build a sense of community among your audience and motivates others to join in for a chance to be spotlighted. You can also take engagement a step further by running interactive campaigns. For example, you could ask your audience to send in a product idea, a new color of a current product, or a new service they’d like to see offered. Select a few of your favorites and let your audience vote on the winner. It’s a fun, free, and exciting way to involve your customers.

Focus On Social Media:

Social media has become one of the most effective tools for promoting your products. Most platforms are completely free to use (unless you decide to invest in paid ads), and they allow your content to appear organically in users’ feeds, increasing the chances of engagement. When deciding which platforms to focus on, consider your target audience’s age group and research where they spend most of their time online. Studies show that certain demographics discover most of their favorite products through social media. With the popularity of Instagram and TikTok and the ability to shop directly on the apps, it is no surprise that users share, review, and discover new products daily. Beyond promotion, social media is also a great way to connect with your customers on a personal level, express your brand’s personality, and showcase your creativity.

Start A Blog Or Newsletter:

Creating a blog or newsletter (or both!) is a free resource for you to share information with your customers. Decide how frequently you want to post and let your audience know so that they know when they can find new content. There is no tried-and-true timeline for blogs or newsletters, so take into consideration how much valuable information you have to share and how often you can commit to putting it together. For example, BMT Micro posts on our blog weekly, while our newsletter goes out once a quarter. The best thing about blogs and newsletters is the variety of content that you can share- company updates, how-to guides, industry news, or anything else that would be of interest to your audience.

Ask For Reviews:

If customers are satisfied with your product or services, they will likely be happy to leave a review for you. While many customers will not go out of their way to do this on their own, they will leave a review or rating if you ask them to. Even a quick star rating on Google can help boost your SEO and make your business more visible to potential customers.

Having a marketing budget can be beneficial, but it’s not always essential. With a bit of creativity and the right tools, you can still attract traffic and reach new customers. What free resources do you rely on most? Share them in the comments!