How to make great marketing moves with little money?

One of the most precarious and overwhelming challenges faced by startups and small businesses is to remain cash positive. After all, you have set up the business with an aim to grow as quickly as possible. But the difficult balancing act between growth needs vs various recurring costs like salaries, infrastructure cost,  operational costs etc builds itself up into a vicious cycle with paucity of cash staring at you on every turn.

•         Breaking the vicious cycle

Most businesses try to break this cycle by cutting down on expenditure on activities and areas that seems wasteful like marketing and advertising. But this course of action leads to even more pain for the companies as cutting down on marketing spend results in business growth getting stifled leading to less revenue and consequently more budget cuts.

This scenario need not be repeated in your business as you can break this vicious cycle by doing a bit of judicious marketing. After all, it is not necessary that marketing should always cost a bomb to be effective.  Use the strategies given here to ensure that your message reaches your target audience at a low cost.

•      Create  a referral program

Create a system whereby your customers are encouraged to refer their friends and relatives to your products and or services.  This can work wonders if you can give even a small discount or money to both the source and the beneficiary of the referral.  And it is no pipe dream. Airbnb and Uber both grew a lot, thanks in no small measure to their referral programs with small incentives. Your customers can become your best marketers. According to a Nielsen Global Trust report, 83% of online respondents in 60 countries say they trust the recommendations of friends and family.  Use this bit of human psychology to aid the growth of your business.

•      Use digital media effectively   

An increase in your activities on the digital media will lead to exponential positive results. Promptly reply to customer queries on Q&A site. Contact bloggers and influencers who are willing to share your content so that its reach widens.  If needed go in for reciprocity with other bloggers. Creating and offering free webinar on subjects that add value to the customer experience can go a long way in establishing your credentials.

•       Personal branding

Use the power of social media to promote yourself.  One of the most effective ways to build up your personal brand is to write a dedicated blog and even guest post articles. Create high value content like ebooks, case studies and short courses. This not only effectively communicates your expertise to a larger audience but also creates a source of traffic and earns you new followers.  Being active on 2-3 top social media channels to distribute content could lead to new leads without you having to spend anything on such lead generation.

•       Hiring  OutSourced CMO

If you want to scale up without spending tons of money or want to know more about such useful and practical marketing strategies and how to implement them get in touch with Vineet Arya at vineet@outsourcedcmo.in or give a ring on 9880216421.  We will work as a part of your startup and or SME whether you have got a sales team or not with the sole objective of fulfilling the pre-agreed marketing role. Engaging with us will not only give you access to tech-savvy and top-notch marketing talent that is ready and raring to kick-start your journey on the path of greater success but will also ensure that you surmount the marketing challenges with ease and flexibility saving both time and money for you