13 Cheap Advertising Tactics to Market Your Business
Being on a tight budget is tough.
Having to sink hundreds and thousands of $$ into your business just to keep it afloat or letting people actually know you exist—all sucks.
When I started AutoGrow, I was driving zero traffic to my site and had zero budget.
Not to mention that no one really knew me.
But when I started marketing the business, I was able to scale our 3 lead gen funnel services in 2010, 2015, and 2017 to 6 figures in revenue.
The secret?
I used cheap advertising tactics.
And the truth is, everyone can afford to market their business. So there’s no excuse to not do it!
You just need easy and smart budget-friendly tactics to take your business from anonymity to the spotlight.
And today, I’m going to tell you:
- The 13 inexpensive ways you can market your business so you can get your company name out to the consumer market.
- How these cheap advertising tactics can be applied to small businesses working on a small budget.
- And data-driven answers to why these tactics are effective.
I rounded up these 13 cheap advertising tactics for you—so you can start taking advantage, even if you do have a big advertising budget!
Ready? Ok, this first tactic is a must...
Cheap Advertising Tactic #1: Invest in Content Marketing—Content Simply Works!
According to a survey from the Content Marketing Institute, 64% of all respondents say they’re more successful with content marketing compared with one year ago.
And 46% of agency marketers report their organization as moderately successful thanks to content marketing.
Content Marketing works.
And it works so well that if it wasn’t for it, I wouldn’t have been able to scale our 3 lead gen funnel services in 2010, 2015, and 2017 to 6-figures in revenue.
This is thanks in large part to our rising organic traffic (we just broke 41k!).
So if you’re looking for inexpensive ways to market your business, then investing in content marketing is an effective cheap advertising tactic to try.
And in fact, I bootstrapped AutoGrow.co from zero and continue to use content marketing today to drive almost all our traffic.
Cheap Advertising Tactic #2: Publish Highly Valuable Content on a Regular Basis
Blogging is simply an inexpensive, and most importantly, effective way to advertise your business.
Writing articles for your blog is an excellent way to inform your audience and educate them about whatever you want to.
You can, for example, educate your readers on your products or services (without being too salesy).
Or perhaps you can educate them on the industry your business is in.
For example, when our service was focused on creating sales funnels for our clients, we used to write topics about sales funnel.
We wrote about how to create a coaching sales funnel, how to create an email sales funnel, how to create a sales funnel for eCommerce, and other topics related to our service.
And for blogging, you don’t really need to have a budget. It’s cheap advertising.
You only need the knowledge on the topic and a blog post template that’ll help you drive traffic to your site.
BUT if you’re looking to market your business, you need to promote your content and publish it on a regular basis.
Because your content quantity can drive more traffic.
Cheap Advertising Tactic #3: Post Comments on Blogs & Articles—Start a Discussion!
Another easy and inexpensive way to market your business is by actually commenting on other thought leaders, entrepreneurs, or businesses’ blogs.
Look for blog posts and articles related to what it is you’re selling and post interesting comments that can actually start a discussion or a debate.
But of course, avoid posting on direct competitors’ articles because you don’t want to be too pushy. And avoid being spammy.
You’re not looking to sell your products or service. You’re just looking to market your business and create brand awareness.
Cheap Advertising Tactic #4: Create Instructional Videos That Educate Your Audience
Video content is really valuable and effective.
In fact, according to HubSpot, most people pay close attention to videos. And 45% of the people surveyed watch 1 hour or more a week of video content on different platforms like Facebook and YouTube.
And most importantly, people tend to thoroughly consume more and skim less with video content compared to text-based content.
And the same way you don’t need to have a budget for blogging, you don’t need to spend a dime for video content either.
It’s a super cheap advertising tactic!
All you have to do is hit record and provide valuable information to your audience.
What we always do at AutoGrow is, for every article we publish, we record a video walking the reader through the blog post.
This is because a lot of people prefer consuming the content via video.
So if you don’t want to spend big bucks to get professional YouTube videos produced, just get familiar with the camera and start recording valuable content.
And in the video, just plug your services without being too salesy to start marketing your business.
Cheap Advertising Tactic #5: Create Demo Videos for Your Products, Service, or Lead Magnet
Don’t know how to create a demo video?
Don’t worry.
Similar to the cheap advertising tactic #4, you don’t need to hire a professional video editor to produce your demo videos.
Hit the record button and talk about how your products or service work.
It’s what we do on our website.
We have a CTA button to watch the demo video of how AutoGrow’s service works.
Because demo videos are in a way like an interactive FAQ section from your website.
They guide your site’s visitors and answer all of their questions.
And after watching your demo video, your prospect should have zero questions and should be ready to buy from you, book a call, or be ready for whatever step comes next in your funnel.
So no matter if you’re recording a demo video for how your products or service work, or if you’re offering a lead magnet, recording a demo video is a cheap advertising tactic that can help you market your business.
Cheap Advertising Tactic #6: Post on Social Media
Basically everyone is on social media today.
Our parents, customers, colleagues—pretty much everyone.
- Facebook, the largest social media platform in the world, has 2.4 billion users. (Our World in Data)
- YouTube has more than one billion users. (Our World in Data)
- More than 1 billion Instagram accounts worldwide are active every single month.
- Whatsapp has more than 1.6 billion users. (Statista)
- There’s a total of 275 million accounts on Twitter. (Statista)
- Over 200 million Instagrammers visit at least one business profile daily. (Instagram)
- ⅓ of the most viewed stories are from businesses. (Instagram)
So if you’re looking to market your business but only have little budget for it, then social media and/or social media campaigns are the perfect solution.
As soon as you see people becoming “stuck” right at the top of your funnel (meaning they’re not ever visiting your website or converting into email subscribers) then social could be your problem.
Today’s consumers want to see you posting quality content, they want to see others commenting on your posts, and they want to be able to ask questions and interact with you.
If you’re not doing that and your competitors are, then your prospects might just be moving on to the next best thing.
Not to mention that social media is where you drive part of your audience or fans from your social media profiles (e.g. Facebook Page) to your website.
It’s one of the main sources of traffic to fuel your sales funnel.
Some of the advantages of marketing your business through social media are:
- Free(ish)!: Similar to organic search, organic social media is all about cost-effectiveness. And since posting on Facebook or sending out a tweet is free, the costs of organic social media are low.
- Showcases your unique personality: When brands aren’t authentic, people notice it. And that can really hurt your brand. But when you are authentic, people notice that too. That’s why a lot of businesses use organic social media posts (zero selling) to help show their followers what their brand stands for. It builds loyalty.
So the more you engage with your audience through social media, the more likely they are to do business with you.
Just choose the social media platforms that can help drive more traffic to your site and beware of the social media marketing pitfalls you must avoid.
Cheap Advertising Tactic #7: Offer to Guest Blog
Look for opportunities to contribute to a guest post on sites or blogs related to your industry.
This cheap advertising tactic can help you drive traffic to your website and build your name as a thought leader in your niche.
Because when people read your article on someone else’s blog, if your content is valuable, they’re going to want to come back for more.
So give guest blogging a try and offer top-notch, quality content that your readers won’t be able to resist reading.
Cheap Advertising Tactic #8: Repurpose Your Content & Promote It Again
Repurposing existing articles is an inexpensive way to get more mileage out of content you already have.
No matter if you’re polishing up an outdated article or turning an existing guide into an ebook, repurposing content gives you more opportunities for exposure to whole new audiences and to advertise your business.
This cheap advertising tactic is super simple.
Just take one of your best quality articles, make it more relevant to the reader, and update the statistics and the sources cited.
Or transform a collection of articles into a training.
Never be afraid to mash up your old content because it’ll later become a 100% new content piece that your audience will love.
Cheap Advertising Tactic #9: Host a Webinar
Automated webinars are pre-recorded, live simulated online webinars that you can host anytime with minimal resources.
The “automated” part means that the webinars are not live.
Adding automated webinars to your sales funnel is a great way to add an additional revenue stream and drive more traffic. But, in my opinion, you can achieve significantly better results with a live webinar.
The bottom line is webinars can help you talk directly to your existing and new audiences. And getting people to watch your webinar presentation can go a long way towards building brand awareness.
Because by providing a useful educational webinar that helps your ideal customer solve their problems, you’re building trust. And you’re also ensuring your audience thinks of you next time they’re looking for a product or service like yours.
And best of all, you don’t need to spend a dime on hosting your webinar!
Cheap Advertising Tactic #10: Collect Email Addresses & Send Newsletters
I’ve already shown you how to create a newsletter and how it works for bringing in leads, sales, and traffic.
Newsletters are a great vehicle for promoting your blog’s content. Because it gives people a seamless path from your newsletter right to your article.
But newsletters are also a great vehicle to market and advertise your business.
See how in the example below we sent a newsletter to advertise our new quarterly and annual pricing packages?
It helped us market our service and we actually made some sales through that email.
Because once people read your newsletter, click on the link, and land on your blog (or wherever you want to take them), they’ll engage with your brand. They’ll get to know you and your products or service better.
And to build an audience for your newsletter, you simply need to set up an opt-in form, a pop-up, or anything that will let you collect your audience’s email addresses.
After that, you only need to draft the email and click “send.”
So whether you send a newsletter with products’ updates, educational resources like articles, or anything in between, you can grow customers by 40X more than Facebook or Twitter.
And you can grow sales by 333% just by sending your newsletters on a regular basis according to McKinsey.
And of course, you can nurture the relationship with your audience until turning them into paying customers.
Cheap Advertising Tactic #11: Tap Into the Power of Email Marketing
Email marketing, one of the oldest digital marketing channels, can do way more than just getting your messages into someone’s inbox.
A lot more than that!
In fact, it’s the most effective digital marketing channel according to Smart Insights.
Email marketing is a great way to get new visitors engaged with your business, as well as nurturing the relationship with your existing customers.
And if you want to advertise your business, you need to leverage email to speak directly to your audience, build trust, and show them why your product or service is the perfect solution to their problem.
So slowly nurture your subscribers via email until they are ready to become paying customers.
And if you need help crafting an engaging email sequence, you can order it from our Marketplace.
Cheap Advertising Tactic #12: Create a Website (or Landing Pages)
Hopefully you’ve already followed this cheap advertising tactic, but if not, it’s time!
In order to market your business or your products and service in general, you need to build at least one landing page.
Why?
Because here’s where people will learn more about your business. About your products or services. About you.
So if you’re looking to advertise your products or services and drive more traffic to your site, then you need a landing page (or a full website) to do that.
To start, you should build a landing page to start driving traffic to it. And then, you can create the full website.
And if you need help along the way, AutoGrow can do all the work for you.
You can delegate the creation of any landing page, redesigning your full website, and more right through our web app.
Cheap Advertising Tactic #13: Make Guest Appearances on Podcasts— or Host Your Own!
Podcasts are an excellent way to reach a new audience.
And so are they for marketing your business. Especially when you’re on a tight budget.
You see, some people don’t have time or simply don’t want to read a full article, but like to listen to podcasts.
So reach out to that audience. Let them know who you are and what you have to offer them.
You can either host your own podcast or contact the hosts of other relevant podcasts and offer to be a guest.
And even if you have your own podcast, appearing as a guest on others’ helps to expand your reach and advertise your biz to that podcast’s audience too.
Conclusion
See how cheap advertising your business can be?
Even if you try to market your business during the coronavirus or at any other time, you can follow all of these cheap, and in some cases, free advertising tactics.
They’ll let you advertise your business, your brand, and your products or services without breaking your budget.
Here are some of the inexpensive ways to market your business:
- Do guest posts so other audiences can get to know you.
- Write valuable content and plug your services, and post the articles on a regular basis.
- Collect email addresses and send newsletters to your email subscribers.
- Tap into the power of email marketing to build rapport and nurture the relationship with prospects.
- Make guest appearances on podcasts or host your own and tell the world about your business.
- Create a landing page (or website) to start driving traffic and to get people to learn more about your business.
- Get on camera and host webinars and demo videos.
Now tell me something, what are your tactics for advertising and marketing your business? Do you have any suggestions?
Let me know in the comments below.
Keep AutoGrowin’, stay focused.
