How to Market Your Business on a Tight Budget

Marketing is vital to a business s growth. Unless consumers know about a product, they will never buy it. Often this fact is overlooked, as a lot of people wrongly assume that marketing involves huge financial expense. Not all marketing techniques require astronomical spending.


Step1
Define your target audience. You wouldn t want to waste your marketing efforts selling to the wrong person. Be as specific as possible.


Step2
There is no substitute for good research. Find out about other players in your sector through databases and classifieds sections of local newspapers.


Step3
Create a value proposition for your business. How does your business score over your competitors?


Step4
Create a marketing plan and follow it. Consult expert marketing consultants to help you with it. Many of them come cheaper than you think and can help you allocate your budget more effectively.


Step5
Get creative and use unconventional but effective channels of marketing. Let your keyword be networking. Attend local business association meetings. Volunteer to speak at business conventions. Create a news angle for local radio stations or TV channels, which is not only useful for customers but also revolves around your business interest.


Step6
Retain your existing customers. Initiate loyalty programs. It will cost you much less to keep a regular stream of customers than win new ones.