Many cash-strapped startups abandon
the "superfluous" investment of marketing. Big mistake, because
marketing can actually provide that cash.
Startups
face many challenges, but none as precarious or life-threatening as the
struggle to remain cash positive. The Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) estimates the average cost to start a business
to be in the neighborhood of $30,000; and there’s significant variance in this figure, with some
businesses starting out for just a few hundred dollars and others requiring
upwards of millions.
But, remember: These
numbers are only startup costs. In addition, new companies have to
pay thousands a month in team salaries, office-leasing fees, raw
materials and other ongoing operational costs -- all while struggling to
secure enough revenue to stay afloat.
Caught in this dire
financial balancing act, most entrepreneurs end up abandoning investments they
come to view as superfluous, such as marketing and advertising. Yet the cruel
irony is that neglecting marketing altogether stifles a business’s growth,
leaving it less revenue to collect and forcing it into an even more
restrictive budget.
With roughly an
estimated 80 percent of entrepreneurs having no
idea of how to measure a marketing strategy’s effectiveness, it’s no wonder why
marketing is so quick to get the ax.
However, here's the
thing: Effective marketing doesn’t have
to cost a lot of money. Sure, higher-budget marketing strategies might
bring more visibility and consistency in their eventual returns, but there are
plenty of highly effective -- and low-cost -- marketing strategies you can use
to help your startup grow. Here are nine of them:
1. Referrals
One of the best ways to
market is to avoid marketing altogether; instead, create a system that lets
your customers do the marketing for you. Consider the fact that people are four times more likely to buy a product
when it’s referred to them by a friend.
Despite tech publication
reviews, we still trust personal recommendations more than anything else.
What's more, establishing a referral program doesn't cost much, and depending
on how you structure it, might be entirely free. You could offer your current
customers a discount on their subscriptions in exchange for referring a new
customer, or offer a cash reward, if you’re really invested in this strategy.
Just make sure to get word to your customers (possibly using one of the other
methods listed below).
2. Press releases and news
features
People read the news
regularly, and if you have something newsworthy to report, most news outlets
will gladly report it for you. Press releases are an inexpensive way to get
your brand mentioned in major publications, and possibly pick up some inbound
links along the way. If you do all the work yourself, hunting down and emailing
journalists, press releases can actually be a free marketing strategy.
Otherwise, you might pay
a couple of hundred dollars to have a release syndicated through a service like PR Newswire.
If you’re only interested in getting yourself referenced, check out Help a Reporter Out (HARO) to
provide tips to journalists just waiting for them.
3. Content marketing
Content marketing takes
many forms, but none require significant investment. The simplest approach is
to manage an on-site blog, adding new content a few times a week that informs
or entertains your readers in some unique and practical way.
Infographics,
videos and podcasts all belong to the content-marketing category as well.
Reason? All these content mediums have the power to improve your brand
reputation, increase your inbound traffic and complement the multiple
other strategies you draw from this list (as you’ll see).
4. SEO
If you’re spending time
writing articles for your content-marketing campaign, you might as well invest
in improving your search engine optimization (SEO).
New to SEO? It might
seem technically complex, but the reality is, with a bit of reading and
dedication, you can easily understand the basics. You’ll use online tools like Moz’s Keyword Explorer to
identify relevant keywords that could attract high traffic to your site with
low competition; you'll then tweak your site to include those keywords.
You’ll also need to make
structural changes, write consistently high-quality content and attract
backlinks to your domain. It’s a lot of work, but if you do it yourself, your
only cost will be time -- which is worth it, because the long-term
benefits are enormous.
5. Social media marketing
Social media marketing
isn’t something you can do casually, but it is freely available, and it’s
something you can master if you invest the time. Start by establishing profiles
for your business on major platforms like Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram. Flesh out your profiles; and start syndicating content that
your target market would like.
Reach out to
individuals, and make sure to stay connected. In time, you could grow an
audience of thousands, representing an anchor stream of traffic to your site.
6. Email marketing
Email marketing remains
one of the most cost-efficient marketing strategies around, with some sources
claiming a return on investment (ROI) of 400 percent or more. As long as you have a
good list (organically curated, rather than bought), and a steady but
non-invasive stream of outgoing email blasts, you should be able to see a
significant return on any time or money you put into it.
7. PPC ads
Pay-per-click ads can
get expensive if you’re targeting high-traffic head keywords, but there are
niches and platforms that are friendly even to the most budget-conscious
startup entrepreneur. For example, on Facebook, you can pay as
little as $1 a day for certain ads (though you’ll probably want
to invest a little more than that if you want to see significant results).
8. Personal branding
Personal branding works
much like corporate branding, except it’s going to apply to you as an
individual. You’ll promote yourself and your expertise across social media, and
possibly on a dedicated blog, earning new followers and a separate source
of traffic and interest.
The value here is that
people tend to trust other people more than corporations, so eventually, you’ll
have a separate, powerful outlet you can use to syndicate your content or
attract new leads -- all without paying a dime.
9. Forums and groups
Don’t underestimate the
power of lurking on public forums and social media groups. You might see
someone asking a question that you can answer (with your expertise), or catch
wind of a local event you can use to promote your business. The more involved
you are with your respective communities, including your local neighborhood as
well as your broader industry, the more you stand to gain.
Best of all, it usually
doesn’t cost anything to become a member of these communities, so you can reap
the benefits with nothing more than a few hours of your time.
The takeaway here? If
you find yourself struggling with your business’s budget, don’t resort to
cutting marketing out of the equation. Instead, find creative ways to build recognition for your brand and
products that don’t require significant up-front investment.
Once you establish a
stronger stream of consistent revenue, you’ll have more freedom to invest in
bigger, more expensive strategies; or you can pour more resources into the top
performers from your earlier experiments.