Simple Ways To Market Your Startup On A Dime

As a start-up business, it can at times feel like you’re in a catch-22 situation – you don’t have the money to spend on marketing, so aren’t generating new leads, which means you aren’t selling any products, which means you don’t have any money to dedicate to marketing. This cycle can be frustrating but it is one that you can get out of by making the most of free and cheap marketing techniques to get you off the ground. 

Social Media

Social media is perhaps the single best free marketing tools that startups have available to them. It’s in the palm of everyone’s hand, on the forefront of everyone’s mind and it spans across generations, sectors and personas. Whoever your target market is (as long as they aren’t off-grid anti-social media gurus) they will be on social media in some way which means you can get in front of them. 

Create your accounts.

The best place to start with social media is simply to create a set of well branded, informative social media accounts. Ensure your branding is clear in the header images and your profile picture and give a detailed but concise description as to what you do.

Next, simply start posting, keep a consistent brand tone and voice, develop your brand personality and interact with other people to get your brand name out there. By liking, following, sharing, commenting and participating in online discussions you will soon start to gain yourself a following. 

Use hashtags.

Hashtags are like the glossary of social media and they help people to find content that is relevant to them. Use the hashtags that are relevant to your target audience and which reflect the kinds of content you are posting.

To get yourself more exposure try to jump onto some of the most popular trending hashtags such as #MondayMotivation #WednesdayWisdom and #ThrowbackThursday but also use smaller ones that are more relevant to your target audience to ensure you are getting in front of the right people. 

Spend a little, gain a lot.

It’s perfectly possible to use social media as a completely free marketing tool for your business, but if you want to really springboard your following then it can also be a very cheap way to put yourself in front of a very targeted section of the internet. Social media has built itself on data, making it one of the best forms of advertising to use when trying to target a very specific persona or customer.

Age, gender, interests, location and even financial status, are all metrics that you are able to specify within a social media campaign, so you can spend a little and get a lot of return knowing your advert is being put in front of those people who you want to see it most. 

Branded materials.

Another cheap way to market your start-up business which involves you barely lifting a finger is to make use of your current customers, employees and ambassadors by having them market your company for you through their use of branded products.

Why pay thousands to have your company displayed on a billboard, when you can have 100 miniature billboards walking around town in the form of a tote bag? 

Which branded items to choose.

The branded items you choose to use to market your business will depend on a few key factors, firstly the kind of business you are, and secondly who you are trying to get to see your branded materials.

For example, a nutrition company may want to put their company logo on a sports bottle, knowing that it will be used by people who are into health and wellness and therefore may be interested in their products.

Or you may wish to put your logo on custom car fresheners, knowing that it will be displayed in a car and noticed every time your prospect drives it.

If brand awareness is your primary concern then where you choose to put your logo may not matter, instead focus on clear branding and a concise company message so that people recognize and remember what you do.

How do you know if they work?

The only real downside to using branded materials over social media or any other form of marketing which has inbuilt analytics is that it can be hard to track your return on investment. However, it is also tricky to track your ROI from print advertising and other forms of media, so you’ll need to weigh up the importance of ROI vs the cost and effort you need to put in to know whether it’s something you’re prepared to do.

This is a contributed post.