Marketing is essential to letting people find out about your new business. If spending thousands of dollars seems like a luxury only the big brands can afford, check out our list of cost-effective advertising that can help you market your start-up.
1 - Swap Your Wardrobe for Custom Apparel
Getting brand visibility begins with you! Put your new company's logo on a custom t-shirt, personalized jacket and embroidered cap and parade yourself around town. The more people who see your logo, the more opportunities you will have to talk about your business. Read these tips on how to create an eye-catching logo.
2 - Email Marketing
Email lists are like gold for a start-up! During the early days of your business, you'll want to get as many customers as possible to opt in to receive your news. Email marketing can deliver a significant ROI. According to the Digital Marketing Association and Demand Metric, email marketing has a median ROI of 122% - that's over four times higher than other marketing channels including social media and direct mail.
For a very small amount of money, you can use an email service like Mailchimp or Constant Contact and stay in touch with your audience. You can use the templates for free, or hire a freelance designer to create a branded template for you. Just beware sending too many emails.
Hubspot reports 78% of consumers unsubscribe from emails because brands send too many!
3 - Social Media
Wait a minute. Isn't social media free? Yes, it is. But to get the most out of your social media marketing and increase your ability to reach your target audience, you'll need to open up your wallet. Just a couple hundred dollars a month can do wonders for growing your startup's reach. Promote your best content with paid ads and narrow your target audience to ensure your dollars are reaching the right people.
4 - Low Cost Promotional Giveaways
Whether you're attending a trade show, or hosting a customer appreciation event, custom promotional products are a great low-cost way to market your business and increase your brand visibility.
Custom promotional pens, for example, can cost less than $1 each and are a great giveaway that keeps your company name front and center in people's minds every time they use the product.
Read our tips on finding the perfect custom promotional item for your business: https://www.entripy.com/blog/promotional-products-that-boost-brand-recognition
5 - Establish a Referral Program
Your happy customers are your greatest sources for new leads. Happy customers tell their friends and colleagues about your business. Word of mouth is the fastest, and most economical, way to grow your business.
While you should certainly invest in creating a remarkable customer experience, especially in the early days of your business, you may also want to think about starting a referral program to encourage your happy customers to spread the good word to their network about your company.
6 - Content Marketing
An economical way to boost your startup's visibility is to write content for your website's blog. If you're not a writer, you may want to hire a freelancer, or offer your product or service free to a writer in exchange for them writing a blog post for your brand.
Create a minimum of one post per week and use a platform like Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule your content across your social media channels. Content marketing allows you to tell your story and connect with a wider audience. By making your content searchable, you will continue to generate traffic to your site for as long as your content is online.
