Spending on marketing can be a real challenge for small businesses or at the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey. Most people think you have to have a huge budget for marketing to make it work, but this is fortunately not true. That's why we've put together 10 tips on how you can do effective marketing in a budget friendly way or even for free.

1. Social media all the way

It’s free and fast but you have to put some effort to reach its potential. Other than making relevant content, engaging with your audience and creating beautiful images, educational videos or useful infographics, you can elevate your performance with hashtags, tagging people, other businesses or brands. Starting to post on professional groups and forums, sharing your own blog are all very creative and great opportunities to have a closer connection with your target audience.

Among the frequently used platforms are Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok and LinkedIn. One of the most underutilized platforms is LinkedIn. Try to engage more in conversations, not just connect with anybody who you met during work. You can even use it as an extra platform for sharing your blogpost, events and more!

2. Industry partnership / cross promotion

One of the best things you can do is to help other small businesses for entrepreneurs. Thriving together is always better. Merging your target group, resources and creative mind can be a huge boost for your marketing. Just make sure you are connected in a way, therefore the other product or service will be relevant to your audience.

3. Email marketing

Not new, but one of the most reliable tools you can have. Make sure to make it relevant, and include some offer or call-to-action that is encouraging your audience to go further (clink on your website, use your discount etc.).

4. Guerilla marketing (just make sure it's not illegal in your country)

Flyers, stickers, washable paint or sidewalk chalk, you can use whatever you can and want. The only limit here is your creativity and the legal laws.

5. Step up your SEO

It can be paid or free. We love Google’s algorithm, because it is designed to serve up the most accurate, high-quality, and relevant content for any given search. We suggest that you create a “Google my Business” account, so it will come up if somebody is searching for that kind of product or service in your area. What is important to your SEO:

- Add relevant and long-tail keywords to the titles, headings, and body content of your main website pages.

- Get listed in online directories, making sure your information is identical across platforms.

- Publish pages or blog posts specific to your area.

- Create a blog, share regularly with usage of keywords and work on link building.

6. Recycle old content

Do you have an educational video that got really good feedback? Make a short version (e.g reels) of it for a different platform. You wrote several popular blog posts? Create a post on Pinterest with the link for the blogs. Recycling is good for the environment and your business too.

7. Attend or plan industry/networking events

For a small business, networking and word of mouth is extremely important and you never know where you will find your next customer or business partner. If you plan an event, do it for free or for a small fee, but only if you can give relevant knowledge and good times to the ones who are interested.

8. Workshop/ classes, business awards, local events

They are good for similar reasons as industry/networking events. Moreover there is a big chance you would learn something new and helpful during those seminars! Applying for business awards does not even get you some extra exposure, but as a prize they are usually providing marketing options, partnerships or some money… what you can use to expand your marketing budget.

9. Facebook campaign

If you only have a little budget for ads, Facebook is your place! The average cost per click is different for every industry but it can be as small as 0.45$ per click. Check it out on your Meta Business Manager.

10. Educate yourself

So you won’t make crucial marketing mistakes. We live in an age where we are constantly surrounded by unlimited information. Use them! Try to get as deep as possible in the topics of your business interest, whether it is content creation, SEO, benchmarking or budgeting. Of course there is no “one-fits-all” answer for all of your problems, but you can avoid some unnecessary misery on your way.

10 tips for budget-friendly marketing