A number of small businesses still aren’t spending enough advertising cash to get good results although they know they should. One of the reasons is a limited budget, but did you know that there are some solid cheap advertising ideas out there that are more effective than you’d think?
Cheap Advertising Ideas
Here are 10 cheap advertising ideas to get the word out about your business for under $50.
Service Apps
Ben Taylor is the founder of the HomeWorking Club. He points to several apps as cheap ways to advertise.
“If your business provides services, apps like TaskRabbit and Thumbtack help you to get into contact with customers who need them,” he writes.
TaskRabbit charges a $25 registration fee.
Notice Boards
He also suggests going old school by taking advantage of noticeboards in places like supermarkets. A package of markers and speech cards are cheap.
Business Cards
More old school suggestions that work and come in under budget. Vistaprint can supply 100 business cards for well under $50.
As far as the design goes, you can use a template or create your own. If you’re designing your own business card remember to keep it simple. Remember to include taglines and contact info.
You can also pay a small fee to local restaurants/businesses to leave your cards at the counter. Business cards fit nicely in the corners of bulletin boards at public locations.
Determining the ROI on these can be a little tricky because you’re handing them out in physical spaces . Ask new customers how they found your business. You’ll get some indication of how effective these are.
Facebook Groups
“There are lots of options for advertising on Facebook,” Taylor writes. “At a basic level you may even be able to promote your business on local groups. With a budget of $50 and some good targeting, you could reach plenty of target customers.”
You can also make your own Facebook group. As a small business you have the option of putting one in a buy and sell category.
Another quick tip to make your advertising dollars go further. Having theme days for your Facebook group will attract people. One good example revolves around asking people to share their gripes on a Monday.
HARO
Sign up as a source . Reporters and writers look for experts at HARO to comment on pieces they write. There’s a standard subscription that’s under a $50 monthly budget. You’ll get lots of good exposure through links and position yourself as an expert.
Email Marketing
Jared Weitz CEO/Founder United Capital Source Inc thinks emails work.
“Conduct an email marketing campaign,” he writes. “There are many great low-cost tools, like MailChimp, that will allow you to send professionally crafted emails. You can even track open rates, clicks on links and visibility to those who unsubscribe.”
Email marketing works best when it’s regular and consistent. If you’ve got first names on your list, those are great to add to personalize the emails you send.
Infographics
Visual like infographics are effective ways to advertise. There are a variety of options here. Lots of free choices and paid ones that come in under $50 a month.
Small businesses should really give these a close look. Consider almost all of the info our brains receive is visual according to HubSpot. It’s a good idea to start by introducing your message with a brief summary.
Social Media Ads
For $30, you can reach thousands of prospects. However, you need to outline a goal before you start. Facebook and Instagram are two of the best places to get going.
You’ll find that each social media platform has a metric you can use to gauge its effectiveness. Google AdWords uses a Quality Score. Facebook uses a Relevance Score. The Facebook version is pretty simple to use. A score of one tells you your ad isn’t doing well. The higher numbers tell you the opposite.
There are a few ways to make these more effective. First is narrowing down your target audience to get more engagement. Making sure your ads have an attention grabbing image is good no matter what social media you’re using.
Webinars
These are effective but not always cheap. If you can handle the monthly subscription, there’s a few possibilities to look through here. ClickMeeting is a good one.
Here’s a few good tips to make these work. Visuals are important. Even though you can do these on the cheap digitally, you want to have some nice slides to capture attention. Having a handout is another good idea. A screenshot of all your slides gives prospects something to look at after.
Affiliate Marketing
You should be able to find a good service here that comes in under budget monthly. GoAffpro offers a connection to Instagram influencers for $19 a month.
There are a few things that a small business needs to look for to get the most from any service. First, it’s important to look for an option that has some kind of real-time tracking.
You want to be able to have real-time data on things like clicks and impressions. It’s a good way to make sure your marketing efforts are on the right track.
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