Are you on a tight budget but need to market your business? Discover some of the best FREE or low cost marketing techniques to help you get started. Find out which methods work best and how you can use them to maximize your marketing budget. From social media to content marketing, learn all the tips and tricks to grow your business without spending a fortune.
Marketing your business doesn’t have to be super expensive. In fact, thanks to social media, it’s no longer a major issue if you don’t have much of a marketing budget. As long as you know the right strategies and set aside time to do the work, you can market your business on a $0 or shoestring budget. In this post, I’m sharing some free or low cost marketing techniques that will help you in your business.
Customer Generated Content
Generally, user generated content is not only free, but it also showcases your product/services from the customer’s perspective. This form of marketing provides social proof to potential customers who will then be encouraged to purchase from you.
User generated content is content (i.e. videos, social posts, etc) that your customers create either because they want to show off to their friends/followers or because they really enjoyed doing business with you. Whether they realize it or not, they are marketing on your behalf. Every time someone posts a picture of your work or shares a video on their social media that is user generated content that you can then use on your social media to market your business.
If they write a review on Google, Yelp or Wedding Wire, even if they send you a text message, all of this is user generated content. The great part is that this is all free content that can be used to validate your business. I would recommend that you ask that you ask permission to use the content, but once you get the “green light” you should definitely share that content with your followers.
Partner with Bloggers & Social Influencers
It doesn’t matter where you live, there is a blogger or social media influencer near you (i.e. drivable to you) that wants to know about your business. If you focus on celebration cakes, there's a mommy blogger nearby who would love to partner with you. If you focus on wedding cakes, there is an event planner who blogs and probably has a large audience who needs to hear about your business.
Research bloggers/influencers in your area who create quality social media content and connect with them about a collaboration. Consider hosting a giveaway, photo shoot or something unique to both of your brands. We’re moving into the holidays. Maybe host a holiday giveaway where you sponsor a festive cake or holiday treats.
Collaborate with Portfolio Builders.
Again, it doesn’t matter where you live, there's someone in your area with a camera who's ready to build their portfolio. There is an aspiring photographer or photography student who is looking to grow their resume/portfolio. Use that to your advantage!
Announce on your social media pages that you’re looking for a semi-professional photographer who is in need of food & beverage or styled photos to grow their portfolio. If you prefer to create video content, you could change the wording to be geared more towards videographers. Keep in mind that this might be a free opportunity, a low cost option or it might cost you some cupcakes. However, the point is for it to be lower than the cost of hiring a professional photographer for a complete photoshoot.
Collaborate with Industry Affiliates
When it comes to selling a house, one selling strategy is to stage a home so that potential buyers can more easily see themselves living in that home. Similarly, lifestyle shoots that include a couple and your cake can provide a more emotional client response than an image of your cake sitting alone on a stand. I can assure you there are other business owners in your industry who would love to have their products included in a lifestyle shoot that could then be published in a magazine or major online publication.
A photographer, event planner and cake designer might all of the same desire to be published in a Wedding Magazine. However, instead of them individually hosting their own photoshoot where they are responsible for all of the elements, they collaborate with each other and other vendors and spread the workload.
Email Marketing
There’s no way I could talk about free/low cost marketing options without discussing email marketing. It is my go to marketing strategy. In fact, it is one of the most efficient ways to communicate with your customers because you don't have to worry about whether an algorithm is going to work for or against you.
When it comes to social media, there is no guarantee that your followers will see your post because of an algorithm. However, unless your email lands in their spam folder, it is very likely that the receiver will at least see your email come across their inbox.
Conclusion
Cyd N. Mitchell
Business Blogger, Retail Bakers of America
Cydni N. Mitchell (aka Cyd) is a Bakery Consultant and the Sweet Business Coach behind Sweet Fest®. Based in Atlanta, GA, Sweet Fest® is an online company that supports the business needs of the Sweet Community in the areas of professional development, marketing, branding and web design.
By trade, Cyd is an accountant & financial analyst with a Masters from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the Founder of the Sugar Coin Academy, an online business academy for business owners in the baking and sweets industry, and she is also the organizer of The Ultimate Sugar Show, Georgia’s Largest Annual Baking and Sweets Expo in Atlanta. She is also the Business Blogger for the Retail Bakers of America.
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