The hard truth is that many advertising methods recommended by marketers and thought leaders are more expensive than you can easily afford. However, everyone has to market, and advertisements can be incredibly effective in getting the word out that your company, services, or products exist. What do you do, then, when you know you must advertise, but every avenue you’ve explored is beyond your budget?
If you’ve been struggling with advertising ideas you can implement today, we’ve got you covered. There are still low-cost advertising solutions available to you, which we’ll discuss below. Getting started might sound a bit intimidating, but “effective advertising” doesn’t always equate to “expensive advertising.”
Without further ado, let’s talk about some cheap advertisement ideas that could work for you.
Start a business blog
First of all, you should have a business website. In today’s world, it acts as your business card. Everyone and their neighbor will look you up online, often before choosing to do business with you. Having a business blog is one of the best things you can do to start bringing customers to you.
However, it’s not as simple as saying, “Build it, and they will come.” You need to be a little savvy and invest in hiring a dedicated writer (ideally who understands keyword research) and another person dedicated to link building. You can have all the best content in the world, but if no one is linking to it, you won’t rank on Google.
However, if you have someone generating high-quality content on a consistent basis and someone else building links consistently, then over time, you’re building an owned media fortress that you won’t lose due to the fickle gods of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and the other big tech companies. (You should still have a business profile that links back to your blog on the major social media platforms.)
Content marketing is a great way to increase conversions, engage your customers in a conversation, and inform and educate them. At the end of the day, people end up purchasing from those whom they know, like, and trust. A business blog, done the right way, is an asset that will help bring in customers and perform for you long-term.
Start Video Marketing
Did you know that people watch over a billion hours watching YouTube per day? It’s true. The lesson you can glean from this fact is that consumers are spending a substantial portion of their time on the video-sharing platform. Another fact this trend betrays is that people like to consume information by watching videos more than they do through other mediums.
The relevant thing for you is that creating a YouTube channel and uploading your own videos is free. You don’t need a lot of video equipment to get started either. There have been plenty of business owners who have gotten down and dirty, guerilla-style, and shot informational or educational videos with their cellphone cameras. To begin with, you do not need fancy lights, mics, or cameras.
If you don’t like being on camera, consider using a screen-sharing bit of software. Create a slide show or PowerPoint presentation. Turn it into a video. Write a script for it and record a voice-over, again using your cellphone. When you’re done, upload it to YouTube.
Now, over time you’ll want to potentially invest in a course on YouTube video marketing. However, that’s not necessary to start. Just commit to starting. You can bet it’s more than many local competitors will be doing.
Go ahead and get on social media
If you’re not already on the major social media platforms, get on them right now. Scratch that; get on one. If you’ve done any market research (and you did do market research before launching your business, didn’t you?), then you should have an idea of where your target audience is hanging out online.
You don’t have to be everywhere and on every social media platform. You need to be on the one that has a majority of the people to whom you wish to market your stuff. If you need a refresher, if you’re mainly selling business to business (B2B), LinkedIn may be your best choice.
If your audience is men and women in their mid-30s to 60s, then Facebook is probably a good bet. If you’re a restaurant or fashion business (or one that relies on people seeing your products), then Instagram could be for you. If your audience is primarily women, then you may wish to focus on Pinterest.
The point is that it’s hard to be everywhere unless you have a social media marketing team and someone whose sole job is to ensure a professional business presence on all the major platforms. However, if you’re looking for cheap advertisement ideas, that’s probably not you.
Whichever platform you choose, take the time to build a professional business presence and engage with other users.
Finally, remember that there are literally a ton of innovative ways to market effectively for very little investment. We recommend checking out a classic on the subject by Jay Conrad Levinson and Jeanie Levinson. It’s called Guerilla Marketing. You’ll love it.
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