98: Low Budget Marketing Ideas Whether You Are Starting A Business, Self-Employed, A Solopreneur
98: Low Budget Marketing Ideas Whether You Are Starting A Business, Self-Employed, A Solopreneur, Entrepreneur, Mompreneur, Business Owner, Side Hustler, Freelancer, Bookkeeper, Virtual Assistant, Or VA
When you don’t have a big budget for marketing, like when you are just getting your business started or you’re not bringing in the sales you originally expected, it’s important to take advantage of low-cost marketing options and marketing you can do on your own. The good news is that as a business owner or solopreneur, you know everything about your business. You know all the ins and outs, you have the vision of where you want your business to go, and you are the voice and the brand of your business. By focusing your time and efforts on a few very specific areas, you can market your business effectively, even on a low budget. In today’s podcast episode, I cover some of the best ways you can market your business even if you don’t have a considerable amount of money to spend. You need to market your business to generate new sales, and you need sales to grow your business. Whether you are a self-employed individual, a solopreneur, entrepreneur, mompreneur, freelancer, small business owner, a remote, virtual, online, or in-house bookkeeper, or a virtual assistant or VA, you can easily make a difference in your marketing by taking advantage of at least one or two of the marketing opportunities I cover today. These tips are essential whether you are using a computerized software system like QuickBooks, Xero, Wave, or FreshBooks for your business finances; or doing your bookkeeping manually with an Excel spreadsheet or even a Google Document…
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Show Notes:
When you don’t have a big budget for marketing, like when you are just getting your business started or you’re not bringing in the sales you originally expected, it’s important to take advantage of low-cost marketing options and marketing you can do on your own. The good news is that as a business owner or solopreneur, you know everything about your business. You know all the ins and outs, you have the vision of where you want your business to go, and you are the voice and the brand of your business. By focusing your time and efforts on a few very specific areas, you can market your business effectively, even on a low budget. In today’s podcast episode, I cover some of the best ways you can market your business even if you don’t have a considerable amount of money to spend. You need to market your business to generate new sales, and you need sales to grow your business. Whether you are a self-employed individual, a solopreneur, entrepreneur, mompreneur, freelancer, small business owner, a remote, virtual, online, or in-house bookkeeper, or a virtual assistant or VA, you can easily make a difference in your marketing by taking advantage of at least one or two of the marketing opportunities I cover today. These tips are essential whether you are using a computerized software system like QuickBooks, Xero, Wave, or FreshBooks for your business finances; or doing your bookkeeping manually with an Excel spreadsheet or even a Google Document…
Welcome Back…When it comes to marketing your business, there is no question that you need to do it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to spend a great deal of money to generate results. When you spend time focusing your marketing efforts in the right places, you will see a difference.
The first place I recommend you start is to really narrow down the scope of your target market. Don’t market to everyone; find out who your ideal customer is and focus your marketing efforts directly on them. Take a look at who your current customers are. These are the ones you are already naturally attracting to your business. Try to double down on more of this type of customer. Find out their wants and needs as well as their pain points and let potential customers know how you can help them as well. Ask questions and get feedback from customers to find out what they really want and let them know how your product or service solves their problems. Make a connection with your customers and encourage them to leave reviews, and help promote word-of-mouth marketing. Word of mouth can help generate referrals from your customer’s friends, family, and colleagues, and it can drive higher trust and generate more sales. By learning more about your current customers, you’ll be able to drill down and know your target market better. The more you get to know and understand your customers, the easier it will be to communicate with them, market to them, and sell them what they want. Try to have your marketing and messaging so dialed in for your customers that they feel like you are talking directly to them. Make it personal by sending handwritten thank you notes whenever your customers help you learn more about them or help promote your business.
Once you know who your target market is, you can use incentives with your current or past customers to promote additional sales or generate recurring revenues. Ask for referrals from these customers or offer them a frequent buyer rewards program to generate additional sales. Capture their birthdates and send promotions to them for their special day or even on holidays. Make sure you are getting testimonials from your current customers to use in your marketing.
Understand how your competition is marketing their products and services. Find a way to differentiate yourself and your product or service from your competition. Is there a way you can take a different approach and stand out from the crowd or market to a group of people that are being missed? Learn what your competition is doing for their marketing, and then do it better for your business.
Take advantage of having a free social media presence. List your business on Google places, create a Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube channel, or other social media account. Customers expect to be able to find you on social media. This option is perfect for you if you have more time than money right now in your business. Please don’t get overwhelmed with all the platforms; I would strongly recommend choosing one platform that you feel most comfortable with and go all in on that platform. Once you have mastered this one platform, then you can add others if and when you are ready. Create a plan and what your goals are before jumping into social media marketing. Make sure that your plan is obtainable and be consistent with whatever you decide. Make sure once you are established on your social media platform, you ask others to share your information. Even if you have a small following, you can expand your reach with the help of your followers. Create a contest or offer a prize for their help in sharing your information. Take some time to claim all of your social media handles, even if you are not ready to start with those platforms yet. You want to be able to keep a consistent brand overall, and by claiming your handles early, you should be able to do this.
If you are a local business, be active in your community. Attend local events and network with others whenever you can. You can join your local Chamber of Commerce or other networking groups. Before attending these events, make sure that you have fine-tuned your elevator pitch, have business cards, and be consistent with your brand whenever sharing about your business. Offer to speak at an event or you could even host an event or class yourself to promote your business.
Start to collect email addresses and build your email list as soon as possible and send start sending out emails on a consistent basis. Email marketing is an inexpensive way to stay in touch with your current and potential customers. You can promote your product or service and share value with them. You own your email list, unlike social media, Facebook, or Instagram, which could be shut down without any notice. When you have an email list, you always have control of how you manage your list and how often you want to reach out to them. Once you have an email provider selected and set up, start to encourage your customers to sign up. Offer a free download, special offer, or exclusive tips or advice when they subscribe.
Giveaways are another great way to get the word out about your business, product, or services. You could give away samples of your product or free services. Coupons or contests are an additional way to give your products or services away. You could also hold a free workshop or webinar to help people learn more about your business. Make sure whatever you are offering for free aligns with your brand and is high quality and relevant so that your customers see the value in it.
Create a presence online with a website. Most customers will search online before making a purchase so your customers will need a place to go to research your product or service before buying. Make sure your website has been search engine optimized so that your customers can find you easily. Your website should clearly describe what it is that you are offering as well as the benefits they will achieve and how it will impact their lives. Remember the phrase if you confuse, you lose…keep your website simple and easy to understand.
Create content you can share with your audience. Make sure that this content is valuable, relevant, and informational content that your audience can use. This content can be shared with a blog, podcast, or even as a video on YouTube. Don’t feel like you need to hire an expensive team to do video, create a blog, or even a podcast; you can do this on your own while being authentic. Once you have your content created, you can repurpose this content in many ways, including utilizing it on your social media platforms. Break down your content into high-value, bite-sized pieces that get results for your customers. You can even collaborate with other businesses that complement what you offer in your business. Offer to be a guest on other platforms and ensure all your content is consistent with your brand. You can take this collaboration one step further and have a cross-promotion with other businesses that have the same target audience as yours but are not in direct competition with each other and create a way to promote each other.
Overall, I don’t want you to be afraid to get out there and tell everyone you know about your business. If you don’t market, it’s hard to bring in new business, revenues & sales. You can actually do a lot of marketing on a low budget. Enlist your friends & family to help you spread the word about your business by providing them with materials they can share. Each of these options discussed today can help you market your business inexpensively and can really make an impact.
If you feel like you need to up your marketing game, but something is holding you back from taking the steps to get started, or if you are already marketing your business, but you know you could be doing a better job, I’d love to help you move forward and start seeing faster results. Many of the solopreneurs I work with lack the confidence they need to just get the word out about their business, market, and start making more money. If you are interested, you can sign up for one of my free consultation sessions, and we’ll take a look at where you currently are in your business and where you’d like to see yourself in the future. Sometimes you just need someone from outside your business to look inside and help you see where you could take steps to improve. I’m excited to announce that my 100th podcast episode is coming up in the next few weeks. To celebrate, I am giving away a four-week business strategy and coaching package to one of my lucky podcast listeners. My one-on-one business strategy and coaching sessions really help clients get specific about what they need to work on to reach the next level in their business. In each session, we work together to make plans specific to your business and create a plan to follow through on your intentions. As a CPA, Business Strategist, and Coach, I help business owners just like you to push through and stop limiting yourself with the success you could be achieving in your business. Whether you need help with the next steps you need to make, you want to get more sales but are unsure how to do it, or you need to gain a deeper understanding of your business finances so that you can be more profitable, I can help. Clients come to me because they know that I am knowledgeable in both the financial aspect of business as well as how important it is to have a strategy and work through your mindset and whatever is holding you back from reaching the highest vision you have for yourself and your business. By helping you make the right decisions and holding you accountable so that you follow through with your plans, you get to see your results much faster. You could be seeing success like this in your business. If you’d like to be entered in the drawing for the four-week one-on-one coaching package I am giving away; you need to sign up for one of my free consultation sessions by September 3rd, 2022. I always offer these free consultation sessions, but when you sign up for one of my free consultation sessions from now through September 3rd, 2022, you could also be the winner of the four-week business strategy and coaching package I’m giving away. You can go to www.FinancialAdventure.com/Contact-Us to schedule your session. During this consultation, we’ll spend up to one hour together going over where you currently are in your business, where you’d like to see yourself and your business in the future, and take action to get you started on the path to success. You’ll walk away with action steps so that you can start moving forward in your business right away. If you are already a one-on-one client of mine, that’s not a problem. Just let me know that you’d like to be entered into the drawing on our next call, and you’ll also have a chance to win. I’ve been helping business owners and bookkeepers achieve their goals for over 25 years, and it’s the best feeling when I see the joy it brings my clients when they follow through with their aspirations. I am looking forward to meeting you in a consultation session soon. I’ll post links to this and other valuable resources for business owners and bookkeepers where you are listening to this podcast and in the show notes.
And, you know I’m going to ask…what’s at least one thing you will take away from this episode that will help your business succeed and grow your bottom line? If you need some accountability, join our PRIVATE Facebook community and post your action item, we’d love to support you.
