Marketing Ideas That Cost $0

Occasionally, we get messages asking us how to start marketing for your business when you have no marketing budget. The good news is that even if your budget is tight, there are plenty of ways for you to market yourself without spending money. Here are our top 6 ideas:

1. Create a free Google My Business account

For local businesses especially, a Google Business Profile has become one of the most effective free marketing strategies available. This free listing allows your business to show up on Google Maps, the local section of Google Search, and the right-side Knowledge Panel for branded searches. Click here to download our free guide to optimize your profile.

2. Team Up with Other Local Businesses.

One of the best cheap marketing ideas available to you is to team up with other local businesses. You could do a joint campaign or just work to cross-promote one another.

When considering which businesses to partner with, think about businesses that might complement yours. For instance, a coffee shop might team up with a bakery. Or a local gym might partner with a supplement store.

Partnering with a business that complements your own company’s products and services is a great way to reach a relevant audience that may have not considered your brand in the past.

3. Ask for referrals

Who knows your products and services better than your own customers?

Asking your current satisfied customers for referrals or a review is one of the best cheap marketing ideas. You could even give them some incentive to refer other individuals to your company.

Not only are referrals an inexpensive way to bring in new leads, but there’s a good chance that the leads you get will be of a higher quality.

4. Teach a Class

Give free workshops or classes related to your products and services. People love to learn, so classes can be a great way to form a more meaningful connection with customers. Oftentimes local co-working spaces or small business accelerators in your area are looking for experts to come speak to their organizations. 

5. Networking 

Go to Event Brite and look for networking events in your area. These events involve making connections not only with likely customers or clients, but also with other individuals who might refer business to you, or mention your name in some positive way to people they know.

6. Repurpose and Recycle Your Content.

Don’t have the budget or resources to create a variety of new content on a regular basis?

Repurposing your content is an effective way to get more mileage out of the content that you do have.

Give new life to your blogs by updating the data with new statistics or research. Create eBook guides on niche specific topics. Develop infographics from the data you’ve gathered. Take a piece of content and transform it into a new medium. You get the idea. 

Sometimes all it takes is a little creativity and thinking outside of the box to get more out of your limited marketing budget.